Øvre Eiker is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Buskerud Buskerud () is a Counties of Norway, county and a current electoral district in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Innlandet, Vestland, Telemark and Vestfold. The region extends from the Oslofjord and Drammensfjorden in the southeast to Hardanger ...

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

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 ...

. It is part of the

traditional region A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examp ...

of Eiker. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Hokksund. The old municipality of Eiker was divided into ''Øvre Eiker'' (upper Eiker) and '' Nedre Eiker'' (lower) on 1 July 1885. As of 2015, more employees worked for the unicipalgovernment and in the service sector, than in any other field of employment; even fewer—16 %—are employed in construction or in lectricalpower companies and water companies; 3%work in the manufacturing sector.

General information

Name

The

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was 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 ...

form of the name was ''Eikjar''. The name is the

plural In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...

form of ''eiki'' which means "

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

wood". The meaning of ''Øvre Eiker'' is "(the) upper (part of) Eiker". (The municipality of Eiker was divided in 1885.)

Coat-of-arms

The

coat-of-arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achiev ...

is from modern times. They were granted on 24 October 1981. The arms show three silver oak

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

and two

acorn The acorn is the nut (fruit), nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'', ''Notholithocarpus'' and ''Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains a seedling surrounded by two cotyledons (seedling leaves), en ...

s on a blue background. The oak is a canting element, since ''Eik'' means oak in the

Norwegian language Norwegian ( ) is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family spoken mainly in Norway, where it is an official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelli ...

Geography

Øvre Eiker is a lush valley along

Drammenselva Drammenselva () is a river in Buskerud Counties of Norway, county, southeastern Norway. Location Drammenselva is one of the largest rivers in Norway, with a drainage basin of about and a Discharge (hydrology), discharge of per second. Drammen R ...

with Modum to the north and

Drammen Drammen () is a city and municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and villages such ...

to the east. To the south flows Eikeren watercourse, which is dominated by the contiguous

Lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

s Eikeren and Fiskumvannet. Eikeren is 156

Meters The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...

deep and is partly located in

Holmestrand is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town in Holmestrand Municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. The town is the administrative centre of the municipality. It is located along the shore of the Ytre Oslofjord, about northwest of the Horten ...

municipality in the south. The municipality's highest point, Myrehogget, 707 meters above sea level. is located west, between Øvre Eiker and Flesberg municipality. About half of the municipality's inhabitants live in the municipal center Hokksund, which in 2021 had 9,514 inhabitants, the rest live mainly in the settlements Vestfossen, Skotselv, Ormåsen, and Darbu. The municipality is part of the Drammen region and Buskerudbyen, which is a collaboration within transport, environment and health.

Energy

Hakavik Power Station, startpoint of 55 kV single phase AC grid for traction current. Hellefoss Power Station, was put into operation in 1952. Skotselv Power Station started production in 1992.

Notable residents

* Christopher Borgersen Hoen (1767 in Eiker – 1845) farmer and rep. at the Norwegian Constituent Assembly at Eidsvoll in 1814 * Jonas Lie (1833 at Hokksund – 1908) novelist, poet, and playwright * Olaf Mørch Hansson (1856 in Øvre Eiker – 1912) an actor, theatre director and journalist * Christopher Hornsrud (1859 in Skotselv – 1960)

Prime Minister of Norway The prime minister of Norway (, which directly translates to "minister of state") is the head of government and chief executive of Norway. The prime minister and Cabinet of Norway, Cabinet (consisting of all the most senior government departme ...

in 1928 * Henny Dons (1874 at Aker – 1966) a Norwegian educator and inner missionary * Hans Dons (1882 in Øvre Eiker – 1940)

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

officer, first manned flight in Norway * Thina Thorleifsen (1885 in Hokksund – 1959) a politician, active in the women's movement * Else Halling (1899 in Øvre Eiker – 1987) a Norwegian textile artist * Harald Henschien (1902 at Øvre Hoen – 1968) accordionist, accordion manufacturer, editor * Aage Møst (1923 in Skotselv – 2011) a journalist and sports official * Thorleif Enger (born 1943 in Øvre Eiker) former CEO of Yara International * Per Olaf Lundteigen (born 1953) farmer and Øvre Eiker municipal councillor 2003/07 * Nikolai Hængsle (born 1978 in Skotselv) a Norwegian bass guitarist, member of BigBang *

Masud Gharahkhani Masud Gharahkhani (; born 22 September 1982) is a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party (Norway), Labour Party, who has been serving as the President of the Storting since 2021, and as a member of the Storting for Buskerud (Storting constitu ...

(born 1982) an Iranian-Norwegian politician, brought up in Skotselv

Sport

* Randi Thorvaldsen (1925 in Fiskum – 2011) a champion speedskater in the early 1950s * Jorunn Horgen (born 1966 in Hokksund) a windsurfer, world champion in 1980s & 90s * Mona Bollerud (born 1968 in Fiskum) former biathlete, World Championship medallist * Gustav Wikheim (born 1993 in Hokksund) a Norwegian footballer with over 200 club caps * Lucas Braathen (born 2000 in Hokksund) a Brazilian alpine skier * Martinius Stenshorne (born 2006 in Hokksund) a Norwegian racing driver

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

The following cities are twinned with Øvre Eiker: * Kerteminde,

Region of Southern Denmark The Region of Southern Denmark (, ; , ; ) is an administrative region of Denmark established on Monday 1 January 2007 as part of the 2007 Danish Municipal Reform, which abolished the traditional counties ("amter") and set up five larger regions ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

Lempäälä Lempäälä () is a municipality in Finland, located in the Pirkanmaa region. It lies south of the regional capital, Tampere. The population of Lempäälä is approximately , while the Tampere metropolitan area, metropolitan area has a population ...

Western Finland Western Finland (, ) was a province of Finland from 1997 to 2009. It bordered the provinces of Oulu, Eastern Finland and Southern Finland. It also bordered the Gulf of Bothnia towards Åland. Tampere was the largest city of the province. Histor ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

* Ulricehamn,

Västra Götaland County Västra Götaland County () is a county or '' län'' on the western coast of Sweden. The county is the second most populous of Sweden's counties and it comprises 49 municipalities (''kommuner''). Its population of 1,616,000 amounts to 17% of S ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Gallery

File:Haug kirke Hokksund Norway 2016-10-29l 02.jpg, Haug Church in Hokksund File:Bakke kirke TRS.jpg, Bakke Church File:Fiskum kirke TRS 060715 046A.jpg, Fiskum Church File:Fiskum gamle kirke 02.jpg, Old Fiskum Church File:Dam at Øksnevann.JPG, Øksnevann Dam File:Darbu stasjon.jpg, Darbu Station File:Nøstetangenmuseet.jpg, Nøstetangen Museum in Hokksund File:Hokksund stasjon front.jpg, Hokksund Station

References

External links

* *
Municipal fact sheet
from

Statistics Norway Statistics Norway (, 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 year on its web site. All rele ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ovre Eiker Municipalities of Buskerud