Romsdal is a traditional district in the Norwegian county

Møre og Romsdal Møre og Romsdal (; en, Møre and Romsdal) is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the town of Molde, while Ålesund is the ...

, located between Nordmøre and

Sunnmøre Sunnmøre (, en, South- Møre) is the southernmost traditional district of the western Norwegian county of Møre og Romsdal. Its main city is Ålesund. The region comprises the municipalities ( no, kommuner) of Giske, Hareid, Herøy, Norddal ...

. The district of Romsdal comprises Aukra, Fræna, Midsund,

Molde Molde () is a town and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Romsdal. It is located on the Romsdal Peninsula, surrounding the Fannefjord and Moldefjord. The administrative centre of the m ...

, Nesset, Rauma, Sandøy, and Vestnes. It is named after the valley of Romsdalen, which covers part of Rauma. The largest town is

, which is also the seat of

Møre og Romsdal County Municipality Møre og Romsdal County Municipality ( no, Møre og Romsdal fylkeskommune) is the democratically elected regional governing administration of Møre og Romsdal county in western Norway. The main responsibilities of the county municipality includes ...

. Åndalsnes is a town located near the mouth of the river Rauma in the municipality of Rauma. The Rauma Line comes from Dombås and terminates at Åndalsnes.

Naming

The Old Norse form of the name was ''Raumsdalr''. The first element is the genitive case of a name ''*Raumr'', probably the old (uncompounded) name of

Romsdal Fjord Romsdalsfjord or Romsdal Fjord ( no, Romsdalsfjorden) is the ninth-longest fjord in Norway. It is long and located in the Romsdal district of Møre og Romsdal county. It flows through the municipalities of Molde, Ålesund, Vestnes, and Rauma. T ...

, again derived from the name of the river Rauma, i.e. "The Dale of Rauma". The name ''Rauma'' is itself a mystery, but a tantalizing clue may be found in the works of the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

historian Jordanes. He mentions a tribe called "Raumii", which might be the origin of both the landscape Romerike (o.no ''raumariki'') and the river Rauma. The Norwegian comedy group KLM (named after the surnames of the three comedians

Trond Kirkvaag Trond Georg Kirkvaag (21 June 1946 – 16 November 2007) was a Norwegian comedian, actor, impressionist, screenwriter, author, director and television host. During his 39 years at the Norwegian TV network, NRK, he produced numerous comedy ...

Knut Lystad Knut Ove Lystad (born 31 January 1946) is a Norwegian actor, singer, translator, screenwriter, comedian and occasional director, best known from the comedy trio KLM, alongside Trond Kirkvaag and Lars Mjøen. Career Lystad and Mjøen began their ...

and

Lars Mjøen Lars Lennart Heiberg Mjøen (born 13 November 1945) is a Norwegian comedian, actor, singer, screenwriter, director, editor and author. He is best known as a member of the comedy trio KLM, alongside Trond Kirkvaag and Knut Lystad. Career Mjøen ...

), in thei
feuilleton
series ''

Brødrene Dal ''Brødrene Dal'' ('The Brothers Dal') is a Norwegian television series by Norwegian comedy trio KLM ( Kirkvaag, Lystad, Mjøen), that originally aired as four series in 1979, 1982, 1994 and 2005. A fifth adventure, originally performed on sta ...

'' (''The Brothers Dale'' – as in ‘valley’), named their three protagonists after the valleys Gausdal, Romsdal and

Brumunddal Brumunddal is a town in Ringsaker Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The town is the administrative centre of the municipality. It is located on the shores of the lake Mjøsa, about north of the town of Hamar. The town is a small, densely ...

Geography

The valley of Romsdalen, through which the Rauma river passes to the

Romsdalfjord Romsdalsfjord or Romsdal Fjord ( no, Romsdalsfjorden) is the ninth-longest fjord in Norway. It is long and located in the Romsdal district of Møre og Romsdal county. It flows through the municipalities of Molde, Ålesund, Vestnes, and Rauma. T ...

. It is surrounded by the Romsdalsalpene mountain range. The 1,550 meter tall

Romsdalhorn Romsdalshornet is a mountain in the municipality of Rauma in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The mountain is located southeast of the town of Åndalsnes, along the Rauma River in the Romsdalen valley. The Rauma railway line and the European ...

has been compared to the Matterhorn. Trolltindane peaks stands opposite across the Rauma. The North Face of Trollryggen peak (1,740 m),

Trollveggen The or is part of the mountain massif Trolltindene (Troll Peaks) in the Romsdalen valley in Rauma Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located to the south of the towns of Åndalsnes and Molde inside the Reinheimen Nationa ...

(

Troll Wall The or is part of the mountain massif Trolltindene (Troll Peaks) in the Romsdalen valley in Rauma Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located to the south of the towns of Åndalsnes and Molde inside the Reinheimen Nationa ...

), is the tallest vertical cliff in Europe. Norway's most famous hair-pin road is

Trollstigen Trollstigen (or trollstigvegen; en, The troll path) is a serpentine mountain road and pass in Rauma Municipality, Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of Norwegian County Road 63 that connects the town of Åndalsnes in Rauma and the ...

, or "Troll's Trail", which leads to the south out of Åndalsnes to the

Geirangerfjord The Geiranger Fjord ( no, Geirangerfjorden) is a fjord in the Sunnmøre region of Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located entirely in the Stranda Municipality. It is a branch off the Sunnylvsfjorden, which is a branch off the Storfjorden ...

. The Rauma river originates in Lesjaskogsvatnet, a lake with outlets at both ends, in the adjacent mountain municipality of Lesja. A dam was constructed by the

Lesja Iron Works Lesjaverk is a village in Lesja Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It lies in the upper Gudbrandsdal valley approximately northwest of Dombås and about east of the village of Lesjaskog. The village lies along the European route E136 hig ...

in the 1660s to improve transportation obstructed the Rauma and caused the water to flow both west to the Rauma and eastward into the river Lågen.

History

Legendary history

According to legend, Romsdal is an eponym after Raum the Old, son of the equally eponymous Nór who appears in '' Hversu Noregr byggðist'' as the legendary founder of Norway. Jøtunbjørn the Old was the son of Raum the Old and Bergdis, a giant's daughter. He inherited Raumsdal (modern: Romsdal) from his father, and was himself the father of King Raum, who was the father of Hrossbjörn, who was the father of Orm Broken-shell, who was the father of Knatti, who had two sons: Thórolf and Ketill Raum (in one version, Thórolf and Ketill Raum are sons of Orm). According to legend, among Thórolf's descendants came some of the first settlers of Iceland. The Laxdæla saga says that Raumsdal was the home of Ketill Flatnose, a descendant of Ketill Raum. In the 850s, Ketil was a prominent chieftain. He conquered the Hebrides and the Isle of Man. Some sources refer to him as "King of the Sudreys" (Hebrides), but there is little evidence that he himself claimed that title. Harald Fairhair appointed him the ruler of these islands, but he failed to pay tribute to the Norwegian king and was outlawed. He and his family left Norway and fled westwards across the sea, to Scotland, then Ireland, where he married off his daughter,

Aud the Deep-Minded The Australian dollar ( sign: $; code: AUD) is the currency of Australia, including its external territories: Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Norfolk Island. It is officially used as currency by three independent Pacific Isla ...

, to Olaf the White, king of Dublin. Aud went eventually to Iceland where she began that country's shift to Christianity.

9th century

Before Harald Fairhair, Romsdal was a petty kingdom. Ragnvald Eysteinsson (''Ragnvald Mørejarl'') was

jarl Jarl is a rank of the nobility in Scandinavia. In Old Norse, it meant "chieftain", particularly a chieftain set to rule a territory in a king's stead. ''Jarl'' could also mean a sovereign prince. For example, the rulers of several of the petty k ...

of Møre, which was roughly equivalent to today's

. He died at the

Orkney Islands Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

. He was son of King Eystein "Glumra (the Noisy)" Ivarsson of Oppland, and a contemporary of Harald Fairhair who he supported in the unification process and from whom he received his fiefdom. He is likely to have resided on or nearby the important township of

Veøya Veøya (or Veøy) is an island in Molde Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located at a junction of the three main branches of Romsdal Fjord between the island of Sekken and the mainland near the village of Nesjestranda. T ...

, Romsdal's Viking Era hub for commerce and communication. The legend says Ragnvald was the one to cut the hair of Harald Fairhair after he became king over all of Norway. Ragnvald Eysteinsson was the father of several sons. With Ragnhild Rolfsdatter, he had the sons: Tore (''Thorir Ragnvaldsson'') who inherited the earldom after his father's death and Hrolf Ganger (''Hrólfr Ragnvaldsson''). Although historians are quite divided its accuracy in this regard, the '' Orkneyinga saga'' claims Hrolf Ganger is identical to Rollo of Normandy ancestor of William I of England.

Turf-Einar Einarr Rognvaldarson ( early 890s–c. 910), often referred to by his byname Torf-Einarr (sometimes anglicised as Turf-Einar), was one of the Norse earls of Orkney. The son of the Norse ''jarl'' Rognvald Eysteinsson and a concubine, his rise t ...

(''Einarr Ragnvaldsson''), a son by a concubine, was an ancestor of the Norse Earls of Orkney.

12th century

In 1122, while staying as a guest at the village of Hustad in Romsdal, King

Eystein I Eystein Magnusson (Old Norse: ''Eysteinn Magnússon'', Norwegian: ''Øystein Magnusson''; c. 1088 – 29 August 1123) was King of Norway (as Eystein I) from 1103 to 1123 together with his brothers Sigurd the Crusader and Olaf Magnusson, althoug ...

was taken ill and died. His body was taken in impressive funeral procession to burial at

Nidaros Nidaros, Niðarós or Niðaróss () was the medieval name of Trondheim when it was the capital of Norway's first Christian kings. It was named for its position at the mouth (Old Norse: ''óss'') of the River Nid (the present-day Nidelva). Althou ...

. At

Veøy Veøy is a former municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1964. It initially consisted of all of the present-day Vestnes Municipality, as well as the southern part of Molde M ...

, an island in the middle of the Romsdalfjord, there had been in time immemorial a religious site. At the close of the 12th century, Veøy gamle kirke, a church dedicated to

St. Peter ) (Simeon, Simon) , birth_date = , birth_place = Bethsaida, Gaulanitis, Syria, Roman Empire , death_date = Between AD 64–68 , death_place = probably Vatican Hill, Rome, Italia, Roman Empire , parents = John (or Jonah; Jona) , occupation ...

, was constructed over an ancient site of pagan worship.

17th century

During the 1600s, Romsdal market (''Romsdalsmarkedet'') was opened as a trading center at Devold on the Rauma river upstream from Åndalsnes. This was an important outlet for the ironworks at Lesja, providing an outlet for their products as well as a source of supplies. Molde later inherited the role as the principal market town for the region. A

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

mercenary force landed in Romsdal at Isfjorden on its way to Sweden. The incursion was stopped at the

Battle of Kringen Battle of Kringen ( no, Slaget ved Kringen) involved an ambush by Norwegian peasant militia of Scottish mercenary soldiers who were on their way to enlist in the Swedish army for the Kalmar War. The battle has since become a part of folklore ...

. In the 1658 Treaty of Roskilde, the Trondheim region of Norway was ceded to Sweden, down to the north bank of the Romsdalfjord. The Romsdal farmers defied the Swedish taxes and military conscription, and the Swedish governor was forced to send a full company of soldiers, and 50 cavalry besides, to collect taxes. Following the attack on Copenhagen and the city's successful defence, and the reconquest by Norwegian forces of Trondheim, the Treaty of Copenhagen in 1660 restored that province to Norway. The few months of experience with Swedish taxation and conscription left such a bitter taste that it strengthened Norwegian unity and patriotism, making resistance to Swedish invasions of Norway stronger over the next 80 years.

20th century

After the World War II German Military invasion of Norway in April 1940, British troops landed in Åndalsnes as a part of a pincer movement to retake the key mid-Norwegian city of Trondheim.David Brown (2013) ''Naval Operations of the Campaign in Norway, April–June 1940'' (London: Routledge)