Vik is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

Sortland Municipality or is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Vesterålen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Sortland (town ...

Nordland Nordland (; , , , ) is one of the three northernmost Counties of Norway, counties in Norway in the Northern Norway region, bordering Troms in the north, Trøndelag in the south, Norrbotten County in Sweden to the east, Västerbotten County to t ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The village is located on the island of

Langøya Langøya is the third largest island of Norway (outside of Svalbard), with an area of . The island is a part of the Vesterålen archipelago in Nordland county, Norway. The island includes Bø Municipality and Øksnes Municipality as well as pa ...

, about north of the town of Sortland. The Vik farm previously comprised an area completely from the isthmus Vikeid in the west to Gåsfjord in the northeast, spanning between its furthers points. Today, however, Vik is considered limited to the middle of this larger area. Vik lies on the north side of the inlet Vikosen, the outlet of the river Vikelva. The valley Vikdalen and the lake Vikvatnet lie north of Vik. The island Vikøya lies in the Sortlandsundet strait east of Vik and across the bay entrance Vikbotn. Vik is connected to the town of Sortland by County Road 956, which branches off of County Road 820 at the Vik Bridge where the river Vikelva empties into the inlet Vikosen. Vik has a long history and is one of the oldest inhabited places in Sortland. It was mentioned in a letter dating from 1400, and its name was recorded as ''Viick'', ''Wiigh'', and ''Wiig'' in the past. It the 1840s, a considerable number of people moved to Vik from

Voss Voss () is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality and a Districts of Norway, traditional district in Vestland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Vossevangen. Other villages inclu ...

. Although Sortland Municipality does not have a strongly developed fishing industry, fishermen live across large parts of the municipality, especially in Vik. The shallow water of the Vik Inlet is protected as the Vik Inlet Nature Reserve, particularly because of its importance as an area for the

pink-footed goose The pink-footed goose (''Anser brachyrhynchus'') is a goose which breeds in eastern Greenland, Iceland, Svalbard, and recently Novaya Zemlya. It is migratory, wintering in northwest Europe, especially Ireland, Great Britain, the Netherlands, a ...

during spring.''Vikosen naturreservat''. Map and description of the nature reserve.
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Further reading