Frøya is an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in Frøya municipality in

Trøndelag Trøndelag (; sma, Trööndelage) is a county in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County ( no, Trondhjems Amt); in 1804 the county was split into Nord-Trøndelag and Sør-Trøndelag by the King of Denma ...

county,

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 the ...

. The island makes up about 63% of the land area of Frøya municipality. The island lies in a large

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arc ...

of islands in the Frøyhavet sea, just northwest of the entrance to the

Trondheimsfjorden The Trondheim Fjord or Trondheimsfjorden (), an inlet of the Norwegian Sea, is Norway's third-longest fjord at long. It is located in the west-central part of the country in Trøndelag county, and it stretches from the municipality of Ørland ...

. The

Frøyfjorden The Frøyfjorden is a strait between the islands of Frøya and Hitra in Trøndelag county, Norway. The long strait is rather shallow, only about at its deepest. The Frøya Tunnel goes beneath the fjord from Hammarvika in Frøya Municipali ...

lies to the south of the island and that separates it from the large island of

Hitra Hitra is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The municipality covers the island of Hitra and hundreds smaller islands, islets, and skerries. It is part of the Fosen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village ...

. The island is rocky with heather-covered moorland as well as marshes and lakes. There are no naturally forested areas on the island. The highest point on the island is Besselvassheia, at above sea level. The southern and eastern coasts are relatively smooth, but the northern coast is very jagged with many

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, Förden and East Jutland Fjorde, Germany, ...

s and coves. Sletringen Lighthouse lies at the southwestern tip of the island. The island is connected to the mainland via the

Frøya Tunnel The Frøya Tunnel ( no, Frøyatunnelen) is an undersea tunnel connecting the municipalities of Frøya and Hitra in Trøndelag county, Norway. The tunnel is located about south of the village of Sistranda on Frøya. The long road tunnel reach ...

which connects it to the neighboring island of Hitra. The island of Hitra is then connected to the mainland by the

Hitra Tunnel The Hitra Tunnel ( no, Hitratunnelen) is an undersea tunnel in Hitra Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The tunnel connects the island of Hitra to the mainland. The tunnel is long and reaches a depth of below sea level, making it the ...

Name

The name of the island (and municipality) comes from Norse mythology. Although ''Frøya'' is a variant of the name of the Norse goddess

Freyja In Norse paganism, Freyja (Old Norse "(the) Lady") is a goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, sex, war, gold, and seiðr (magic for seeing and influencing the future). Freyja is the owner of the necklace Brísingamen, rides a chario ...

, 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 settlemen ...

form of the name of the island was ''Frøy'' or ''Frey'' (the ending ''-a'' in the modern form is actually the definite article - so the meaning of ''Frøya'' is 'the Frøy'). Therefore, the name of the island probably has the same root as the name of the

Norse god In Germanic paganism, the indigenous religion of the ancient Germanic peoples who inhabited Germanic Europe, there were a number of different gods and goddesses. Germanic deities are attested from numerous sources, including works of literature ...

Freyr Freyr (Old Norse: 'Lord'), sometimes anglicized as Frey, is a widely attested god in Norse mythology, associated with kingship, fertility, peace, and weather. Freyr, sometimes referred to as Yngvi-Freyr, was especially associated with Sweden an ...

, brother to Freyja. The names originally were titles: "

lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

" or " lady". The oldest meaning of the common word was "(the one) in front; the foremost, the leading" and here in the sense "the island in front of

". Until 1906 the island and municipality name was spelled ''Frøien'' (''-en'' is the definite article in Danish-Norwegian).

Media gallery

Flatval, Frøya - panoramio.jpg, Flatval Gammelhuset på Frøya - panoramio.jpg, House on Frøya Fylkesveg 451 i Soer-Troendelag.jpg, Road on Frøya Husvika - panoramio.jpg, Husvika Sistranda, Frøya, Norway.jpg, Sistranda Frøya, Nórsko, apríl 2016 - panoramio (7).jpg, Plantlife on Frøya Two of everything.jpg, Houses in Titran Titran in the evening.jpg, View of Titran

References

{{authority control Islands of Trøndelag Frøya, Trøndelag

Name

Media gallery

See also

References