Søndeled is a village in

Risør is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is located on the Skagerrak coast in the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Southern Norway, Sørlandet. The administrative centre of Ri ...

municipality in

Agder Agder is a counties of Norway, county () and districts of Norway, traditional region in the southern part of Norway and is coextensive with the Southern Norway region. The county was established on 1 January 2020, when the old Vest-Agder and Au ...

county,

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 ...

. The village is located at the western end of the Søndeledfjorden at the mouth of the river Brøbøvann. The villages of Fiane and

Eikeland Eikeland is a village in southeastern part of the municipality of Gjerstad in Agder, Norway. It is located about southeast of the municipal center of Gjerstad and about north of the village of Søndeled. The Norwegian County Road 418 runs throu ...

(in

Gjerstad Gjerstad is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional region of Sørlandet, in the southeastern part of the county, along the border with Telemark county. The administrative centre of the municipality is the vill ...

) lie about to the north, the village of Akland lies about to the south, and the town of Risør is about to the southeast. Historically, the village was the

administrative centre An administrative centre 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 the administrative language, such as Belgi ...

of the old municipality of

Søndeled Søndeled is a List of former municipalities of Norway, former municipality in the old Aust-Agder Counties of Norway, county in Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1964 when it was merged into the municipality o ...

which existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1964. People from this area are called ''søndølingar''. The Norwegian County Road 418 runs through the village, connecting to the

European route E18 European route E18 runs between Craigavon, County Armagh, Craigavon in Northern Ireland and Saint Petersburg in Russia, passing through Scotland, England, Norway, Sweden and Finland. It is about in length. Although the designation implies the ...

highway a short distance to the southwest. The village has a school, shops, and

Søndeled Church Søndeled Church () is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Risør Municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the village of Søndeled (village), Søndeled. It is the church for the Søndeled parish which is part of the Aust-Nede ...

Name

The village (and municipality) is named after the

fjord In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...

that it sits along (

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 ...

: ''Sundaleiðr'', now called the Søndeledfjorden). The first element comes from the word ''sundene'' '

strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...

s' and the last element is ''led'' (Old Norse: ''leið'') 'path, way'. Hence the name means the 'path between the straits'.

Notable residents

* Berge Helle Kringlebotn, a local politician * Sigurd Marcussen, a local politician and trade union leader

References

Villages in Agder Risør {{Agder-geo-stub