Svelvik is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

Drammen Drammen () is a city and municipality in Viken (county), Viken, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and village ...

municipality,

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. It is also a former municipality, which was a part of former

Vestfold Vestfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in Eastern Norway. In 2020 the county became part of the much larger county of Vestfold og Telemark. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it bordered th ...

county. The town of Svelvik was separated from the rural municipality of

Strømm Strømm is a former municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. Separation The parish of Hurum was divided into two formannskapsdistrikt on January 1, 1838. The main part of the parish belonged to the county of Buskerud, while the annex ''Strømmen'' ...

to become a municipality of its own in 1845. The two municipalities were merged back together on 1 January 1964.

General information

Name

The

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

form of the name was ''Sverðvík''. The first element is ''sverð'' n '

sword A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed ti ...

', the last element is ''vík'' f '

cove A cove is a small type of bay or coastal inlet. Coves usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creeks, or recesses in a coast are o ...

, wick'. A neighbouring farm has the name Sverstad (Norse ''Sverðstaðir''). The word ''sverð'' probably refers to the promontory ridge ''Ryggen'' ('the back') in

Hurum Hurum was a municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. As of 1 January 2020 Hurum has merged with the municipalities of Røyken and Asker to form the new Asker Municipality located in the newly formed Viken county. The administrative centre of the ...

: This ridge lies right opposite Svelvik and Sverstad, and is almost (like a sword) cutting the

Drammensfjord Drammensfjord ( en, Drammen Fjord) is a fjord in Norway that connects to Ytre Oslofjord on the west side. It stretches to the north and northeast. The Drammenselva river discharges into the head of the fjord. The municipality and city of Drammen ...

in two parts.

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 4 September 1964. The arms show a gold-colored

trident A trident is a three- pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and historically as a polearm. The trident is the weapon of Poseidon, or Neptune, the God of the Sea in classical mythology. The trident may occasionally be held by other marine ...

on a red background, as a symbol for the sea.

Geography

The narrow Svelvikstrømmen

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...

separates Svelvik from the municipality of

Asker Asker ( no, Asker), properly called Askerbygda in Norwegian, is a district and former Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus, Norway. From 2020 it is part of the larger administrative municipality Asker, Viken (also known as Greate ...

, and the county of

. This sound is served by a

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

, which has the shortest line in Norway. The village is quite characteristic, with small winding streets and traditional, white-painted houses. Svelvik has many venues for swimming and sunbathing.

Media

The newspaper ''

Svelviksposten ''Svelviksposten'' (The Svelvik Gazette) is a local Norwegian newspaper published once a week in the municipality of Svelvik in Vestfold county. Circulation According to the Norwegian Audit Bureau of Circulations and National Association of Loca ...

'' is published in Svelvik.''Store norske leksikon'': ''Svelviksposten''.
/ref>

Notable residents

Gallery of Svelvik

File:Svelvik.jpg, The built up area and town of Svelvik lies beside , a narrow sound in the

, which connects to

Oslofjorden The Oslofjord (, ; en, Oslo Fjord) is an inlet in the south-east of Norway, stretching from an imaginary line between the and lighthouses and down to in the south to Oslo in the north. It is part of the Skagerrak strait, connecting the Nor ...

further south. The flow is amongst

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 t ...

's strongest. File:Svelvik_kirke_TRS.jpg, is a long church from 1859 with seating for 450. File:MF Svelviksund in Svelvik TRS 070414 014.jpg, The ferry plies between (

) and Svelvik, and is

's shortest ferry crossing. File:Vilt og vakkert ved fjorden.jpg, Fra fjorden, januar 2009, by Håvard Selby Ebbestad File:2009 Oktober Strømmen 002.jpg, Oktoberkveld ved Svelvikstrømmen, by Håvard Selby Ebbestad

References

Statistics Norway Statistics Norway ( no, Statistisk sentralbyrå, abbreviated to ''SSB'') is the Norwegian statistics bureau. It was established in 1876. Relying on a staff of about 1,000, Statistics Norway publish about 1,000 new statistical releases every yea ...

* {{Vestfold Cities and towns in Norway Drammen