Gjerdrum () 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 ...

Akershus Akershus () is a traditional region and current electoral district in Norway, with Oslo as its main city and traditional capital. It is named after the Akershus Fortress in Oslo. From the middle ages to 1919, Akershus was a fief and main county ...

in Viken

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers 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 t ...

. It is part of the traditional region of Romerike. Gjerdrum borders the municipalities of Nannestad, Nittedal, and

Ullensaker Ullensaker is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus in Viken (county), Viken Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Romerike. The administrative centre of the municipality i ...

, and

Lillestrøm Lillestrøm is a municipality in Viken county. It is located in the traditional district of Romerike. With a population of 85,757 inhabitants, it is the fourth most populated municipality in Viken. It was founded on 1 January 2020 as a merger be ...

. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of

Ask Ask is the active verb for a direct question. Ask may also refer to: Places * Ask, Akershus, a village in Gjerdrum municipality, Viken county, Norway * Ask, Buskerud, a village in Ringerike municipality, Viken county, Norway * Ask, Vestland, a ...

Name and coat of arms

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 or m ...

) is named after the old Gjerdrum farm ( Norse ''Gerðarvin''). The first element is the

genitive In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...

of a river name ''Gerð'' and the last element is ''vin'' '

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or artifi ...

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine ...

'. The river name is derived from the Norse word ''garðr'' meaning ' fence' and so the meaning is 'the river whose function is a fence (and/or as a border)'. The

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

is from modern times. They were granted in 1993. The arms show a traditional Norwegian form of

roundpole fence The roundpole fence is a wooden fence typical to the countryside in Sweden (in Swedish: ''gärdesgård''), Norway (in Norwegian: ''skigard''), Finland (in Finnish: ''riukuaita'', ''risuaita'' or ''pistoaita'') and Estonia (in Estonian: ''roigas ...

. The arms are also canting because the name of the municipality refers to a fence.

History

Gjerdrum was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see

formannskapsdistrikt () is the name for Norwegian local self-government districts that were legally enacted on 1 January 1838. This system of municipalities was created in a bill approved by the Parliament of Norway and signed into law by King Carl Johan on 14 January ...

Store norske leksikon The ''Great Norwegian Encyclopedia'' ( no, Store Norske Leksikon, abbreviated ''SNL''), is a Norwegian-language online encyclopedia. The online encyclopedia is among the most-read Norwegian published sites, with more than two million unique vis ...

says that artefacts indicate that humans have lived in Gjerdrum since ancient times; furthermore the names of places also indicate the same.

2020 landslide

On 30 December 2020 a

quick clay Quick clay, also known as Leda clay and Champlain Sea clay in Canada, is any of several distinctively sensitive glaciomarine clays found in Canada, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Finland, the United States and other locations around the world. The clay ...

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...

occurred in the village of Ask within Gjerdum municipality. 10 people died. The slide measured , injured 10 people (including one seriously), left 10 unaccounted for and led to 1,000 being evacuated from the village, with several homes having been destroyed in the slide.

Geography

Gjerdrum lies on the southwestern part of the

Romerike Plain Romerike is a traditional district located north-east of Oslo, in what is today south-eastern Norway. It consists of the Viken municipalities Lillestrøm, Lørenskog, Nittedal, Rælingen and Aurskog-Høland in the southern end (Nedre Romerike), ...

(''Romerikssletta''); this eastern part of the municipality lies at a low altitude and is covered by significant layers of clay that was deposited, towards the end of the previous ice age. The quick-clay at Gjerdrum was deposited (in a

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 ...

) around 8,000 or 9,000 years ago, when the sea level was around 200 meters higher.

Demographics

In 2021, 1258 inhabitants were immigrants or Norwegian-born to immigrant parents. 264 inhabitants had Polish parents and/or were Polish (themselves); 173 had Lithuanian parents and/or were Lithuanian.

Sports

The local sports team is

Gjerdrum IL Gjerdrum Idrettslag is a Norwegian sports club from Gjerdrum, Akershus. It has sections for association football, team handball, alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, biathlon, floorball and volleyball. It was founded as ''Gjerdrum IF'' on 25 Januar ...

People from Gjerdrum

Christian Krohg Christian Krohg (13 August 1852 – 16 October 1925) was a Norwegian naturalist painter, illustrator, author and journalist. Krohg was inspired by the realism art movement and often chose motifs from everyday life. He was the director and s ...

(1777–1828) politician, cabinet member, MP *

Olaf Devik Olaf Martin Devik (20 December 1886 – 14 April 1987) was a Norwegian physicist and civil servant. He worked in academia until 1938, when he became an official in the Norwegian Ministry of Church and Education. During the German occupation of N ...

(1886 in Gjerdrum – 1987) meteorologist and physicist *

Daniel Franck Daniel Franck (born 9 December 1974) is a Norwegian professional snowboarder. He started riding in 1991, professionally since 1993. After winning the National and Nordic championships he aimed higher and started riding world cup competitio ...

(born 1974) a snowboarder, silver medallist in the men's halfpipe in the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in the ...

Petter Fagerhaug Petter Fagerhaug (born 29 September 1997) is a Norwegian cyclist, who most recently rode for UCI ProTeam . He primary competes in cross-country mountain biking, but also occasionally on the road. Major results ;2016 : 1st Cross-country, National ...

(born 1997 in Gjerdrum) cross-country mountain biker * Kristoffer Skjerping (born 1993) a former road racing cyclist, lives in Gjerdrum

Gallery

File:Gjerdrum kirke2.JPG, Gjerdrum kirke File:Gjerdrumungdomsskole.JPG, Gjerdrum ungdomsskole File:Akershus IMG 8670 Kråkfoss.JPG, River Leira by Kråkfoss waterfalls

References

External links

* *
Municipal fact sheet
from

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 ...

*
GIL football
{{Authority control Municipalities of Akershus Municipalities of Viken (county)