Audnedal

Audnedal is a former municipality in the old Vest-Agder county, Norway. It was located in the traditional district of Sørlandet. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Konsmo. Other villages in Audnedal include Byremo and Vivlemo. The municipality existed from 1964 until its dissolution in 2020 when Audnedal was merged into the neighboring municipality of Lyngdal in what is now Agder county. Prior to its dissolution in 2020, the municipality was the 302nd largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Audnedal was the 341st most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 1,765. The old municipality of Undal was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). That municipality only existed until 1845 when it was split into Nord-Audnedal and Sør-Audnedal. Those municipalities were later divided also. Sør-Audnedal was divided into Spangereid in 1899 and Nord-Audnedal was divided into Konsmo and Vigmostad in 1911. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. This is when the present-day municipality of Audnedal was created. Audnedal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1964 when the municipality of Konsmo (population: 712), the municipality of Grindheim (population: 701), and the Ågedal and Midtbø areas (population: 96) of Bjelland municipality were merged. This new Audnedal municipality mostly corresponded to the historical borders of the old municipality of Nord-Audnedal. On 1 January 2020, the neighboring municipalities of Audnedal and Lyngdal merged into a new, larger municipality called Lyngdal. The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the Audnedalen valley (Auðnudalr). The first element is the genitive case of the river name Auðna (now Audna). The river name is derived from the word auðn which means "destruction" or "wasteland" (because of the flooding that often happens along the river). The last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale".