Odal or Odalen is a valley and traditional district in

Innlandet Innlandet is a county in Norway. It was created on 1 January 2020 with the merger of the old counties of Oppland and Hedmark (the municipalities of Jevnaker and Lunner were transferred to the neighboring county of Viken on the same date). ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, 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 ...

. The district encompasses the area around the lake Storsjøen in the north and to the areas around the river

Glåma The Glomma, or Glåma, is Norway's longest and most voluminous river. With a total length of , it has a drainage basin that covers fully 13% of Norway's surface area, all in the southern part of the country. Geography At its fullest length, the ...

in the south. The district is currently divided between the two municipalities of

Sør-Odal Sør-Odal is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Odalen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Skarnes. Other villages in Sør-Odal include Disenå and Sander. The ...

and Nord-Odal. A person from Odalen is commonly called an .

Geography

The Glommadal (or Glåmdalen) valley is a designation for the valley formed by the river

Glomma The Glomma, or Glåma, is Norway's longest and most voluminous river. With a total length of , it has a drainage basin that covers fully 13% of Norway's surface area, all in the southern part of the country. Geography At its fullest length, the ...

(or Glåma), which is the longest and largest river in Norway. From the lake

Aursund Aursunden or Aursund is a lake in the municipality of Røros in Trøndelag county, Norway. The village of Brekken lies along the eastern shore and the village of Glåmos lies along the western shore. There are several inflows to the lake inclu ...

in the north on southwards to

Elverum is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Østerdalen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Elverum. Other settlements in the municipality include Heradsbygd, Sørskog ...

, the valley is called the

Østerdalen Østerdalen () is a valley and traditional district in Innlandet county, in Eastern Norway. This area typically is described as the large Glåma river valley as well as all its tributary valleys. It includes the municipalities Rendalen, Alvdal ...

. From that point and further south until

Kongsvinger Kongsvinger () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Glåmdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Kongsvinger. Other settlements in the municipality include Aus ...

, the valley is referred to as

Solør Solør is a Norwegian traditional district consisting of the valley between Elverum in the north and Kongsvinger in the south. It is part of Innlandet county and it includes the municipalities Våler, Åsnes, and Grue. Glomma valley Glommada ...

. As the river turns and heads west from Kongsvinger all the way to the border with Nes Municipality, the valley is called the Odalen (Nes is part of the district of

Romerike 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) ...

). These designations are traditional districts, reflecting the designations that the locals have historically used for their valleys.

History

The name ''Odalen'' is derived from the

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

name . The first part of the name comes from the

word or , which means 'river' (here referring to the

river). The last element is , which means 'valley' or 'dale'. The name can be documented to have been in use since 1386. Traces of human habitation dating back to the

Nordic Bronze Age The Nordic Bronze Age (also Northern Bronze Age, or Scandinavian Bronze Age) is a period of Scandinavian prehistory from c. 2000/1750–500 BC. The Nordic Bronze Age culture emerged about 1750 BC as a continuation of the Battle Axe culture (th ...

, between 1500 and 500 BCE. The first farms were probably cleared close to the lake about 500 BCE, in the early

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

. Settlement spread slowly around the lake and inland, and by the year 800, there may have been as many as 50 farms in the area. Settlement accelerated in the

Viking Era The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the ...

, increasing the number of farms by as much as an order of magnitude. Increased mobility in the Norwegian population likely changed the character of the society in Odalen, and there is evidence the area was under the administration of the

Thing Thing or The Thing may refer to: Philosophy * An object * Broadly, an entity * Thing-in-itself (or ''noumenon''), the reality that underlies perceptions, a term coined by Immanuel Kant * Thing theory, a branch of critical theory that focuse ...

Eidsvoll Eidsvoll (; sometimes written as ''Eidsvold'') is a municipality in Akershus in Viken county, Norway. It is part of the Romerike traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sundet. General information ...

. When the region was

Christianized Christianization ( or Christianisation) is to make Christian; to imbue with Christian principles; to become Christian. It can apply to the conversion of an individual, a practice, a place or a whole society. It began in the Roman Empire, conti ...

around 1030, several churches were built, including locations at Oppstad, Strøm, Ulleren, Mo and Trøftskogen. The area became politically more autonomous. The valley may have become overpopulated until the

Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

and following plagues, when a huge proportion of the population died. Farms were abandoned and consolidated during this time, and it took at least 200 years for the population to reach its previous levels. During the 17th century, Odalen suffered economic setbacks as a result of taxation and general economic downturns. Forestry rose as a complementary source of income to agriculture. By all accounts, the agricultural sector has not grown appreciably in the area since the 18th century. Trautgruva iron ore mine was operated until 1830.

References

{{use dmy dates, date=March 2022 Districts of Innlandet Valleys of Innlandet Nord-Odal Sør-Odal