Søndeled is a village in

Risør is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located on the Skagerrak coast in the traditional region of Sørlandet. The administrative centre of Risør municipality is the town of Risør. There are many villages in Risør such as Akland, ...

municipality in

Agder Agder is a county (''fylke'') and traditional region in the southern part of Norway. The county was established on 1 January 2020, when the old Vest-Agder and Aust-Agder counties were merged. Since the early 1900s, the term Sørlandet ("south ...

county,

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 ...

. The village is located at the western end of the

Søndeledfjorden Søndeledfjorden is a fjord in Risør municipality in Agder county, Norway. The long fjord begins at the village of Søndeled and flows east into the Skaggerak. The large island of Barmen sits in the middle of the fjord, effectively separating it ...

at the mouth of the river Brøbøvann. The villages of Fiane and

Eikeland Eikeland is a village in southeastern part of the municipality of Gjerstad in Agder, Norway. It is located about southeast of the municipal center of Gjerstad and about north of the village of Søndeled. The Norwegian County Road 418 runs throug ...

(in

Gjerstad Gjerstad is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional region of Sørlandet, in the southeastern part of the county, along the border with Telemark county. The administrative centre of the municipality is the villa ...

) lie about to the north, the village of

Akland Akland is a village in Risør municipality in Agder county, Norway. The village is located at the southwestern end of the Søndeledfjorden. The village sits at the junction of the European route E18 highway, the Norwegian County Road 416, and the ...

lies about to the south, and the town of Risør is about to the southeast. Historically, the village was the

administrative centre An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...

of the old municipality of

Søndeled Søndeled is a former municipality in the old Aust-Agder county in Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1964 when it was merged into the municipality of Risør in what is now Agder county. The municipality enco ...

which existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1964. People from this area are called ''søndølingar''. The

Norwegian County Road 418 Norwegian county road 418 (Fv418) is a Norwegian county road in Agder county, Norway. The long road runs between the junction of Norwegian County Road 416 at the Aspelund farm in Risør municipality and the junction with Norwegian County Road ...

runs through the village, connecting to the

European route E18 European route E18 runs from Craigavon in Northern Ireland to Saint Petersburg in Russia, passing through Scotland, England, Norway, Sweden and Finland. It is about in length. Although the designation implies the possibility of a through jour ...

highway a short distance to the southwest. The village has a school, shops, and

Søndeled Church Søndeled Church ( no, Søndeled kirke) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Risør Municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the village of Søndeled. It is the church for the Søndeled parish which is part of the Aust-Ned ...

Name

The village (and municipality) is named after the

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Ice ...

that it sits along (

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 ...

: ''Sundaleiðr'', now called the

). The first element comes from the word ''sundene'' '

strait A strait is an oceanic landform connecting two seas or two other large areas of water. The surface water generally flows at the same elevation on both sides and through the strait in either direction. Most commonly, it is a narrow ocean channe ...

s' and the last element is ''led'' (Old Norse: ''leið'') 'path, way'. Hence the name means the 'path between the straits'.

Notable residents

Berge Helle Kringlebotn Berge Helle Kringlebotn (22 January 1904 – 19 August 1992) was a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party. He was born in Tune. He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Aust-Agder in 1961, but was not re-elected in 1965. Kringl ...

, a local politician *

Sigurd Marcussen Sigurd Marcussen (20 April 1905 – 20 December 2006) was a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. In 1935, he was elected to Risør city council. After the Second World War he moved to Søndeled and was elected to the municipal council t ...

, a local politician and trade union leader

References

Villages in Agder Risør {{Agder-geo-stub