Melhus (or ''Nedre Melhus'') is the

administrative centre An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...

Melhus Melhus is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Gauldalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Melhus. Other villages include Gåsbakken, Hovin, Korsvegen, Kvål, Ler, Lundamo, St ...

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 Denmar ...

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 t ...

. The village is located in the lower

Gauldalen Gauldal or Gauldalen ( en, Gaula River valley) is a valley and traditional district in Trøndelag county, Norway. The river Gaula runs through the long valley from the Røros mountains near the lake Aursunden to the Trondheimsfjorden. The n ...

valley, along the river Gaula, about south of the city of

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

. The village has a population (2018) of 6,393 and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

of . The village lies along the

European route E06 European route E6 ( no, Europavei 6, sv, Europaväg 6, or simply E6) is the main north-south thoroughfare through Norway as well as the west coast of Sweden. It is long and runs from the southern tip of Sweden at Trelleborg, into Norway and thr ...

highway as well as the

Dovrebanen The Dovre Line ( no, Dovrebanen) is a Norwegian railway line with three slightly different lines which all lead to the historic city of Trondheim. Definition *Dovre Line is the current name of the 548 km main line of the Norwegian railway s ...

railway line. The railroad stops at the Melhus Station in the central part of the village. The historic

Melhus Church Melhus Church ( no, Melhus kirke), also known as "the Gauldal Cathedral", is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Melhus municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is located in the village of Storsand, about south of the village of Me ...

is located about south of Melhus in the village of Storsand. Melhus is the largest urban area in the municipality, so it has a mall, many stores and businesses, restaurants, banks, a medical centre, a school, and the municipal government offices.

History

Melhus was the site of many important events during 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 Germ ...

. It was the site of the

Rimul Rimul or Romol is a farm in the municipality of Melhus in Trøndelag county, Norway. The farm lies near the western part of the village of Melhus. It was the scene of the murder of Håkon Sigurdsson (also known as ''Hákon Sigurðsson'' or Háko ...

farm in Melhus at which

Jarl Haakon Haakon Sigurdsson ( non, Hákon Sigurðarson , no, Håkon Sigurdsson; 937–995), known as Haakon Jarl (Old Norse: ''Hákon jarl''), was the ''de facto'' ruler of Norway from about 975 to 995. Sometimes he is styled as Haakon the Powerful ( n ...

was killed by his slave,

Tormod Kark Tormod Kark (Old Norse: ; Modern Icelandic: ) was a slave in Viking Era Norway. He appears in the saga ''Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar''. Biography His life was closely tied to Haakon Sigurdsson (c. 937 – 995). In 995, a quarrel broke out between ...

Jarlshola Jarlshola ( en, The Cave of the Jarl) is a small cave in the municipality of Melhus in Trøndelag county, Norway. The cave is near the small farm of Rimul in the village of Melhus. It is thought to be the hiding place of Håkon Sigurdsson (al ...

is the location in Melhus thought to have been the hiding place of Jarl Haakon and Tormod Kark on their last night before the infamous murder at Rimul.

Name

The village (originally the

prestegjeld A ''prestegjeld'' was a geographic and administrative area within the Church of Norway (''Den Norske Kirke'') roughly equivalent to a parish. This traditional designation was in use for centuries to divide the kingdom into ecclesiastical areas tha ...

) is named after the old ''Melhus'' farm ( non, Meðalhúsar), since the first

was built there. The first element is ''meðal'' which means "middle" and the last element is the

plural The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...

form of ''hús'' which means "house". The farm is one part of a greater and older farm, which had the name ''Óðinssalr'' which means "the ''salr'' (

mead hall Among the early Germanic peoples, a mead hall or feasting hall was a large building with a single room intended to receive guests and serve as a center of community social life. From the fifth century to the Early Middle Ages such a building was t ...

) of

Odin Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered Æsir, god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, v ...

Media gallery

Melhus sentrum, hovedgata (3).JPG, Melhusbanken (1).JPG, Coop extra på Melhus (1).JPG, Melhus videregående skole (2).JPG, Melhushallen (03).jpg, Melhustorget (2).JPG, Trøndertun folkehøgskole (3).JPG, Idegården på Melhus (2).JPG, Brekkåsen skoles inngang, Norway.JPG,

References

{{Authority control Villages in Trøndelag Melhus