Skiptvet is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Viken Viken may refer to: *Viken, Scandinavia, a historical region *Viken (county), a Norwegian county established in 2020 *Viken, Sweden, a bimunicipal locality in Skåne County, Sweden *Viken (lake), a lake in Sweden, part of the part of the Göta cana ...

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of

Meieribyen Meieribyen is the administrative center of Skiptvet, Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost port ...

. Skiptvet was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see '' formannskapsdistrikt'').

General information

Name

The municipality (originally the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

) is named after the old Skiptvet farm (

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

: ''Skipþveit'' and/or ''Skygþveit'') because the first church was built here. The meaning of the first element(s) is not known, and the last element is ''þveit'' 'clearing in the woods'. Prior to 1889, the name was written ''Skibtvet''.

Coat-of-arms

The

coat-of-arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its w ...

is from modern times. They were granted on 27 November 1981. The arms show a silver dragon on a red background. The dragon is derived from a local

legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...

, in which a dragon went to sleep in the local churchyard every morning. In the evening the dragon went back to the forest, where it had its lair. A tarn near the church is still called ''Dragehullet'' meaning "the dragon's pit".

Notable people

Jens Christian Spidberg Jens Christian Spidberg was a Norwegian theologian and priest. He served as a bishop of the Diocese of Christianssand from 1759 until 1762. He was also a noted cartographer and student of the natural sciences. He wrote a dissertation that trie ...

(1684 in Skiptvet - 1762) cartographer, theologian, priest and Bishop of the

Diocese of Agder og Telemark The Diocese of Agder og Telemark ( no, Agder og Telemark bispedømme) is a diocese of the Church of Norway, covering all of Agder county and most of Vestfold og Telemark county in Norway. The cathedral city is Kristiansand, Norway's fifth larges ...

References

External links

* * *
Municipal fact sheet
from Statistics Norway {{authority control Municipalities of Østfold Municipalities of Viken (county) Villages in Østfold