Stjørdal () or is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Stjørdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Stjørdal, also called Stjørdalshalsen. Some of the villages in the municipality include Elvran, Flornes, Hegra, Hell, Kvithammer, Prestmoen, Skatval, Skjelstadmarka, Sona, and Værnes.
The municipality is known for the village of Hell which is located in the Lånke area of Stjørdal. Hell is especially known for its train station, Hell Station, where you find the old sign saying (meaning "Cargo handling").
The municipality is the 125th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Stjørdal is the 50th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 24,287. The municipality's population density is and its population has increased by 10.1% over the previous 10-year period.
General information
The old prestegjeld of Stjørdalen was established as the municipality of Stjørdalen on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 January 1850, Stjørdalen municipality was divided into two new municipalities: Øvre Stjørdal (population: 5,199) in the east and Nedre Stjørdal (population: 6,543) in the west. Later, on 1 January 1874, Øvre Stjørdal municipality was divided into two new municipalities: Hegra (population: 3,409) in the west and Meråker (population: 1,861) in the east. On 1 January 1902, Nedre Stjørdal municipality was divided into three new municipalities: Lånke (population: 1,449) in the south, Skatval (population: 2,125) in the north, and Stjørdal (population: 3,158) in the central part. This Stjørdal was quite small in comparison to its size today, but over time it was expanded.
During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1962, the municipalities of Stjørdal (population: 6,204), Hegra (population: 2,704), Lånke (population: 1,967), and Skatval (population: 1,944) were all merged to form a much larger municipality of Stjørdal.
On 1 January 2018, the municipality switched from the old Nord-Trøndelag county to the new Trøndelag county.
Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the Stjørdalen valley (). The first element is the genitive case of the local river name (now called the Stjørdalselva river). The meaning of the river name is unknown. The last element is which means "valley" or "dale". Historically, the municipal name was spelled Stjørdalen. The pronunciation of the name Stjørdal in the local dialect is .
Coat of arms and flag
On 29 September 1983, by resolution of its municipal council, Stjørdal adopted a new municipal coat of arms in red and gold, bearing a gold or yellow Lindworm (a two-legged dragon or wyvern) on a field of red. The arms were granted on 25 November 1983.
The official blazon is "Gules, a lindworm couchant Or" (). This means the arms have a red field (background) and the charge is a lindworm with two legs and two wings (also known as a wyvern. The charge has a tincture of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. The arms were designed by Hallvard Trætteberg. Most Norwegian municipalities have a banner of their respective coats of arms as a flag, and accordingly, the municipal flag of Stjørdal similarly bears a yellow wyvern on a red field.
Although the coat of arms is from modern times, the dragon motif of the arms was inspired by a medieval seal for the district, dating from 1344. The old municipal seal was considered unsuitable for selection as the municipal coat of arms, because to obtain a municipal coat of arms and flag, a Norwegian municipality must fulfill certain heraldic requirements that do not apply to a seal. For example, a coat of arms will generally contain only one pictorial motif, while Stjørdal's seal had three motifs and failed to meet additional requirements concerning color elements. The municipality sought assistance from the National Archives of Norway, and was referred to archivist Hallvard Trætteberg, resulting in a collaboration to develop the new coat of arms.
The dragon is a symbol of Saint Margaret of Antioch, and its depiction is derived from Stjørdal's old seal, which showed Saint Margaret standing on a slain dragon. According to Stjørdal's municipal website, both the four-legged dragon and the two-legged wyvern are used in ancient designs of arms going back thousands of years, and have "always stood as a symbol of authority, power, and exalted dignity of great national cultures."