Hardsyssel or Harsyssel is a traditional district and an ancient

syssel A syssel is a historical type of country subdivision in Denmark and elsewhere in Scandinavia. The mediaeval Danish ''sysler'' may be compared to the '' fylker'' of Norway, the '' landskaps'' of Sweden and Finland, the shires of England and Scotlan ...

in Denmark, forming the western part of central

Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

. Hardsyssel is roughly identical with the former

Ringkjøbing County Ringkjøbing Amt (English, ''Ringkjøbing County'') is a former county (Danish: ''amt'') on the Jutland peninsula in western Denmark. It had the lowest population density of all the Danish counties. The county was abolished effective January 1, ...

. Today it forms the western half of

Region Midtjylland The Central Denmark Region ( da, Region Midtjylland), or more directly translated as the Central Jutland Region and sometimes simply Mid Jutland, is an administrative region of Denmark established on 1 January 2007 as part of the 2007 Danish muni ...

. The biggest towns in Hardsyssel are

Herning Herning () is a Danish town in the Central Denmark Region of the Jutland peninsula. It is the main town and the administrative seat of Herning Municipality. Herning has a population of 50,565 (1 January 2022)Holstebro Holstebro is the main town in Holstebro Municipality, Denmark. The town, bisected by ''Storåen'' ("The Large Creek") and has a population of 36,489 (1 January 2022).Struer,

Ringkøbing Ringkøbing (older spelling ''Ringkjøbing'') is a town in Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality in Region Midtjylland on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in west Denmark. It has a population of 9,894 (1 January 2022).Skjern,

Lemvig Lemvig, with a population of 6,816 (2022),BY3: Po ...

and

Ikast Ikast is a Denmark, Danish town in the Mid Jutland Region (''Midtjylland''). It is the seat of Ikast-Brande Municipality since 2007. It was the seat of the former Ikast Municipality. Geography The town is situated in the middle of Jutland. The ...

. The name Hardsyssel is today less commonly used than before, as most people refer to ''Western Jutland'' or ''Central Jutland'', areas with no strict borders. The name is believed to be derived from the Germanic stem of the

Harudes The Charudes or Harudes were a Germanic group first mentioned by Julius Caesar as one of the tribes who had followed Ariovistus across the Rhine. While Tacitus' ''Germania'' makes no mention of them, Ptolemy's ''Geographia'' locates the Charudes ...

, as are the county and the traditional district of

Hordaland Hordaland () was a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark, and Rogaland counties. Hordaland was the third largest county, after Akershus and Oslo, by population. The county government was the Hordaland County Municipal ...

and

Hardanger Hardanger is a traditional district in the western part of Norway, dominated by the Hardangerfjord and its inner branches of the Sørfjorden and the Eid Fjord. It consists of the municipalities of Ullensvang, Eidfjord, Ulvik and Kvam, and is ...

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 German district of

Harz The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German ...

has its name from the same origin. An inhabitant of Hardsyssel is a ''harder'' or a ''harbo''. The dialect of Hardsyssel belongs to the West Jutlandic group. The landscape is flatter and more open than that of eastern Denmark, marked by sandy soil,

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

and some

conifer Conifers are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single ...

plantations A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

. From the Middle Ages until the 19th century it was quite sparsely inhabited. After Denmark's loss of Slesvig and

Holstein Holstein (; nds, label=Northern Low Saxon, Holsteen; da, Holsten; Latin and historical en, Holsatia, italic=yes) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of German ...

in 1864, it was decided to claim much of the infertile land for agriculture, but some of the heaths remain. Significant industry didn't arrive until the 1960s. Some of the greatest companies today are

Vestas Vestas Wind Systems A/S is a Danish manufacturer, seller, installer, and servicer of wind turbines that was founded in 1945. The company operates manufacturing plants in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan, India, Italy, Romania, the Uni ...

(windmills), B&O (radio and television) and

Cheminova Cheminova is a Danish global company that primarily produces agrochemicals. Its main activities are the identification, development, production, registration and marketing of pesticides for the management of weeds, insects and fungal diseases i ...

(pesticides).

References

Traditional districts of Denmark {{CentralDK-stub

See also

References