Marnardal

Marnardal kommune
Municipality
Coat of arms Vest-Agder within Norway
Marnardal within Vest-Agder
Coordinates: 58°14′34″N 07°29′49″E / 58.24278°N 7.49694°E / 58.24278; 7.49694Coordinates: 58°14′34″N 07°29′49″E / 58.24278°N 7.49694°E / 58.24278; 7.49694
Country	Norway
County	Vest-Agder
District	Sørlandet
Administrative centre	Heddeland
Government
• Mayor (2007)	Helge Sandåker (Ap)
Area
• Total	395.01 km2 (152.51 sq mi)
• Land	375.89 km2 (145.13 sq mi)
• Water	19.12 km2 (7.38 sq mi)
Area rank	240 in Norway
Population (2016)
• Total	2,290
• Rank	313 in Norway
• Density	6.1/km2 (16/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	5.5 %
Demonym(s)	Marnardøl
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1021
Official language form	Neutral
Website	www.marnardal.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

Marnardal is a municipality in Vest-Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sørlandet. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Heddeland. Other villages in Marnardal include Bjelland, Breland, Koland, Laudal, and Øyslebø.

The Sørlandet Line runs through the municipality stopping at Breland Station and Marnardal Station.

Marnardal was established as a new municipality on 1 January 1964 through the merger of several municipalities. These areas that became Marnardal included all Bjelland municipality except for the Midtbø and Ågedal areas (population: 535), all of the municipality of Laudal, the Kleveland bru area of Finsland (population: 34), and all of Øyslebø municipality except for the Brunvatne area (population: 1,068). The municipal borders have not changed since that time.

The name of the municipality is a revival (from 1964) of the Old Norse name of the valley: Marnardalr. The first element is the genitive case of the river name Mǫrn (now called Mandalselva) and the last element is dalr meaning 'dale' or 'valley'. The meaning of the river name is unknown (maybe derived from marr which means 'sea').

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