Suldal

Suldal is a municipality in the northeast corner of Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Ryfylke. Since 1965, the administrative centre of Suldal is the village of Sand i Ryfylke (prior to that it was the village of Suldalsosen). Other villages in Suldal include Haugsland, Jelsa, Marvik, Nesflaten, and Suldalsosen. The municipality is the 46th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Suldal is the 208th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 3,784. The municipality's population density is and its population has decreased by 1.6% over the previous 10-year period. The parish of Suledal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1842, the northern district of the municipality (population: 1,584) was separated to become the new municipality of Søvde. This left Suldal with 2,030 residents. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, Suldal (population: 1,412) was merged with the neighboring municipalities of Sand (population: 1,135) and Erfjord (population: 610) as well as all of the municipality of Jelsa except for the parts on the island of Ombo (population: 928) and the parts of Imsland municipality located south of the Vindafjorden (population: 61). On 1 January 1978, the parts of Vikedal municipality located southeast of the Vindafjorden on the Ropeid peninsula (population: 13) was transferred to Suldal. The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the Suledalen valley (Súladalr) since it was a central geographical feature of the municipality. The first element is the plural genitive case of súla which means "pillar" or "column" (likely referring to the mountain pass Suldalsporten). The last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale". Before 1891, the name was written "Suledal". The coat of arms was granted on 11 March 1976. The official blazon is "Gules, three bendlets wavy Or" (I raudt ein gull bølgjeforma trillingstreng, skråstilt høgre venstre).