Concept

Vågå

Summary
Vågå (ˈvôːɡoː) is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Vågåmo. Other village areas in Vågå include Lalm and Bessheim. The municipality is the 73rd largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Vågå is the 212th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 3,591. The municipality's population density is and its population has decreased by 4% over the previous 10-year period. The prestegjeld of Vaage was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 January 1908, the municipality was divided into three parts. The northeastern part of Vågå (population: 2,287) became Sel Municipality, the southeastern part (population: 1,241) became Hedalen Municipality, and the remaining areas in the west (population: 2,953) remained as Vågå municipality. During the 1960s, there were many municipal changes across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, the Tolstadåsen area of Vågå (population: 35) was transferred to the neighboring Sel Municipality. The municipality (originally the parish) is named Vågå, using a very old name for the area (Vaga or Vága) since the first Vågå Church was built there. Two origins have been suggested for the name Vågå (historic spelling: Vaage): The name Vågå may come from the Old Norse word vega meaning "travel". The area lies on an ancient east–west route mentioned in the Heimskringla. The Old Norse form of the name may come from vaga (accusative and dative cases) from the word vagi (nominative case). It was probably originally the name of the lake Vågåvatn, but the meaning is unknown. (Maybe derived from vage which means "sleigh runner" since the shape of the lake has some similarity of form with a sleigh runner.) Historically, the name was written "Vaage" and in 1918, it was changed to "Vaagaa" to better match the local pronunciation.
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