Kviteseid

Kviteseid is a municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. It is located in the traditional districts of Vest-Telemark and Upper Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Kviteseidbyen. Other villages in Kviteseid include Åsgrend, Brunkeberg, Eidstod, Fjågesund, Kilen, Morgedal, and Vrådal. The municipality is the 163rd largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Kviteseid is the 255th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 2,452. The municipality's population density is and its population has decreased by 1.8% over the previous 10-year period. Kviteseid Seminar was the first public teacher training school in Norway which started in 1819 and was in operation until 1889. Kviteseid Library (Kviteseid Folkebibliotek) was founded in 1895. The library was first based on a book collection from Kviteseid Seminar. The main industries of the municipality are forestry, agriculture, tourism, and hydroelectric power. The Telemark Canal goes through Kviteseid. There are also several ski resorts in Kviteseid. The little village of Morgedal is located in northern Kviteseid. It is known as the "Cradle of Modern Skiing" ("Skisportens vugge") and the home of Sondre Norheim. Here, the Olympic Flame was lit for the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, and 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. The parish of Hvideseid was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). The spelling of the name was later changed to Kviteseid. On 11 October 1873, an unpopulated area of Kviteseid was transferred to Seljord Municipality. The boundaries have not changed since that time. The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Kviteseid farm (Hvítingseið) since the Old Kviteseid Church was built there. The first element comes from the old name for the lake Kviteseidvatnet. That name is the plural genitive case of the word hvítr which means "white" or "the white one".