Norse Homelands

To the right you will see a map of the modern day kommunes that make up the geographical area that constitutes the Norwegian Homelands of members of the RDD Lag. Most are in the Southeastern part of Buskerud Filke, while one is in Askerus Filke. Hurum, Røyken and Asker were three independent municipalities from 1837 to 2020. On January 1, 2020, the three municipalities were merged into the new Asker municipality. Also in 2020, Neder Eiker was incorporated into the kommune of Drammen. Below are descriptions of the political subdivisions kommune and Fulke in Norway. These descriptions are extracted directly from Wikipedia, and the references are listed below.

Norwegian Kommune

A Kommune is one of the smallest geographical and administrative jurisdictions in Norway. Norway is divided into 429 geographical divisions. The kommune has responsibility for basic services such as schools for children ages 6-16, kindergarten for children under age 6, health services, areal community planning, and technical services. In addition, kommune boundaries are used with a number of other departments and associations.

Kommune(s) were formed in 1837 and the country was divided into 392 geographical areas with the basis being the clerical district (prestegjeld). In1930 there were 747kommunes. Kommune boundaries changed as the communication changed from water-based to land-based. In 1967 the “Schei committee” reorganized the structure and formed 454 kommunes. Some of the boundaries were later changed back, but since then many have been combined so that in 2012 there are 429 kommunes. There can be a big difference in the number of inhabitants in each kommune. The smallest is Utsira with 216 people and the largest is Oslo with 599,230 inhabitants per January 1, 2011.

All kommunes are geographically a subdivision of the fylke. Oslo has the distinction of being both a kommune and a fylke.

Norwegian Fylke

A Fylke (from norrønt Fylki or Folk) is an administrative geographical area larger than a kommune, that has its own administration. The boundary of a Kommune lies entirely within afylke. There are several kommunes within a Fylke in Norway with the exception of Oslo that works like a city and a county. Bergen functioned like a city and county as well until 1972 when Bergen became a city in Hordaland County. Pre- 1972 while Bergen functioned like a county and city it was designated the county number 13. Since the change in 1972 this county number 13 is no longer in use. Only a county is designated a Fylkesnummer (county number).

The term Fylke was also used during vikingtiden (viking time), prior to the unification of Norway by Harald Hårfagre around 800 AD. At that time the term Fylke represented a small country with a king and a court system. Prior to year 800 when Norway was unified there were approximately 30 such small kingdoms. Later the term Fylke became syssel, then it became Len. From 1662 until 1919 the term used was Amt, and from 1919 the term Fylke is used again. Through time there has been border changes and name changes as well to these kingdoms until Norway was united and eventually the areas these kingdoms occupied became the counties in Norway they are today.

Norway is today divided into 19 (20 with Svalbard) administrative counties.