Åsa, Ringerike

Coordinates: 60°7′56.65″N 10°20′44.17″E / 60.1324028°N 10.3456028°E / 60.1324028; 10.3456028

Åsa is a village in Ringerike municipality, Norway.

The village stretches from Åsaporten, the first road tunnel towards Åsa from Norderhov, and around the north end and east side of the fjord area, south to the border with Hole. It is located in inner Steinsfjorden. Åsa has one elementary school called Vegård with around 50-60 kids. Åsa was named after two farms around the mouth of the Åsaelva river.

The conveyor in Asa (Kjerraten i Åsa), dating from the period 1807-1850, was a system to transport timber up a hillside. The conveyor consisted of 12 water wheel with a chain between. It had a vertical drop of 389 meters over a total length of 3900 meters. It took 3 hours to carry a timber through the conveyor, which had a capacity of approximately a log every sixth minute. The conveyor was originally filed by Norwegian businessman and politician.Peder Anker from Bogstad, who owned large areas of forest in the area. He needed a solution to transport timber from Steinsfjorden in Åsa up to lake Damtjern and Storflåtan before floating it down to Sørkedalsvassdraget. The system was designed by Swedish engineer Samuel Bagge (1774-1814).

Ringerike

Ringerike refers to various areas and organizations in Norway:

Other meanings

Ringerike (municipality)

Ringerike is a municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Ringerike. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Hønefoss.

The municipality of Ringerike was created on 1 January 1964 after the merger of the town of Hønefoss and the rural municipalities of Hole, Norderhov, Tyristrand, and Ådal. However, the area of Hole was removed from the municipality of Ringerike on 1 January 1977 to become a separate municipality once again. The historic area of Ringerike included not just the modern municipality of Ringerike but also Hole and Krødsherad, Modum and Sigdal.

General information

Etymology

The Old Norse form of this name was Hringaríki. The first element is (probably) the genitive plural of hringir, the name of an old Germanic tribe. The last element is ríki n 'kingdom, reich'. (See also Romerike.)

Coat of arms

The coat of arms were granted on 16 June 1967. The arms show a gold ring on a red background. The colours red and gold represent royalty and are the royal colors of Norway. The ring is a canting symbol and at the same time symbolises the unity of the area, which has been a separate entity (even considered a petty kingdom) since medieval times.

Ringerike (traditional district)

Ringerike is a traditional district in Norway, commonly consisting of the municipalities Hole, and Ringerike in Buskerud county. In older times, Ringerike had a larger range which went westward, to the municipalities Krødsherad, Modum, and Sigdal, also in Buskerud.

Ringerike has a rich history that is connected with one of the most notable kings in the history of Norway, as Halfdan the Black and the Dagling clan. There are also many archaeological remains in the area, dating to the medieval period and earlier.

Etymology

The district was known in Old Norse as Hringaríki which means the reich of the Rings, and the Rings were a Germanic tribe. The initial H was dropped sometime in the 13th century. The etymology of the district has been, however, contested among philologists.

Halvdan Koht suggested in 1921 that the first settlers of Ringerike settled around Tyrifjorden in a ring, though this theory is outdated to many.

It is suggested that Ringerike was named in a similar fashion of Romerike, which was named after the old name for Glomma, Rauma. Eivind Vågslid suggested in 1959 that Ringa was the old name of the river Storelva, because it goes in a ring-shaped form.