Sogn is a traditional district in Western Norway ''(Vestlandet)''. It is located in the

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Vestland Vestland is a county in Norway established on 1 January 2020. The county is located in Western Norway and it is centred around the city of Bergen, Norway's second largest city. The administrative centre of the county is the city of Bergen, whe ...

, surrounding the Sognefjord, the largest/longest

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, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Icela ...

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 district of Sogn consists of the municipalities of Aurland, Balestrand, Hyllestad, Høyanger, Gulen, Leikanger, Luster, Lærdal, Sogndal, Solund, Vik, and

Årdal Årdal is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located at the end of the Årdalsfjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The village of Årdalstangen is the administrative center of the municipality. The other main village is ...

. The district covers and contains about 35% of the county's population. The largest urban area in Sogn is the village of Sogndalsfjøra (in Sogndal municipality), with 3,455 residents. The second largest urban area is the village

Øvre Årdal Øvre Årdal is a village in Årdal Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is the larger of the two primary villages in Årdal. The village is situated at the northern end of the long lake Årdalsvatnet, with the village of Årdalstangen ...

(in Årdal municipality), with 3,397 people (this village used to be the largest, but recently it was passed by Sogndalsfjøra). The district of Sogn comprises the southern part of the former county Sogn og Fjordane. The districts of

Sunnfjord Sunnfjord ( en, the southern fjord - in contrast to Nordfjord) is a traditional district in Western Norway located in Vestland county. It includes the municipalities of Askvoll, Fjaler, the southernmost parts of Kinn, Sunnfjord, and the s ...

and Nordfjord are the other two districts in the county.

Etymology

The name ''Sogn'' derived from the name of Sognefjord. The name of the fjord is from the root of ''súga'' "to suck", referring to the strong tidal streams at the mouth of the fjord. An old name for the district is ''Sygnafylki''. The first element in this name is the genitive of ''sygnir'' which means "people from Sogn" and the last element is '' fylki'' "county".

History

Viking Age

Since early in the

Viking Age 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 The ...

, Sogn was a

petty kingdom A petty kingdom is a kingdom described as minor or "petty" (from the French 'petit' meaning small) by contrast to an empire or unified kingdom that either preceded or succeeded it (e.g. the numerous kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England unified into ...

called ''Sygnafylki''. Some notable Kings of Sogn were Harald Gullskjegg ("Goldbeard", father of Ragnhild, first wife of Halfdan the Black), Halfdan the Black, and

Harald Fairhair Harald Fairhair no, Harald hårfagreModern Icelandic: ( – ) was a Norwegian king. According to traditions current in Norway and Iceland in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, he reigned from 872 to 930 and was the first King of N ...

1662-present

In 1662, ''Sogn fogderi'' was created as part of the Nordre Bergenhus amt (county). Sogn was further divided into ''Indre Sogn'' (Inner Sogn) and ''Ytre Sogn'' (Outer Sogn). *''Indre Sogn'' consisted of the inner half of the district which included the present day municipalities of Aurland, Leikanger, Luster, Lærdal, Sogndal, and

. The village of Sogndalsfjøra was the administrative center. *''Ytre Sogn'' consisted of the present day municipalities of Balestrand, Gulen, Hyllestad, Høyanger, Solund, and Vik. The village of Høyanger was the administrative center. In 1919, ''Nordre Bergenhus amt'' was renamed '' Sogn og Fjordane fylke''.

References

{{coord, 61, 11, N, 06, 48, E, display=title, region:NO Districts of Vestland Petty kingdoms of Norway