Andøy

Andøy is the northernmost municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Vesterålen archipelago. The main island in the municipality is Andøya. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Andenes. Other villages in the municipality include Bjørnskinn, Bleik, Dverberg, Fiskenes, Fornes, Nordmela, Risøyhamn, Skarstein, Å, Åknes, and Åse.

General information

The municipality of Andøy was established as a new municipality on 1 January 1964 after the merger of the old municipalities of Andenes, Bjørnskinn, and Dverberg. Initially, Andøy had 7,366 residents. The municipal boundaries have not changed since that time.

Name

The Old Norse form of the name was Andarøy (from Amdarøy). The first element is the genitive case of the old uncompounded name of the island: Ǫmd. The last element is øy which means "island". The meaning of the uncompounded name is unknown.

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 7 January 1983. The arms show a silver wave on a blue background. It was chosen as a symbol for the fact that the municipality is situated at the sea and that fishing is important economically to the municipality.

Å, Andøy

Å is a village in the municipality of Andøy in Nordland county, Norway. It is located on the east coast of the island of Andøya along the Andfjorden. The village of Dverberg lies about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) to the north and the village of Åse lies about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) to the south. Its sign is often replaced due to people stealing it for novelty purposes.

Name

The village (originally a farm) was first mentioned in 1567 ("Aa"). The name is from Old Norse á, which means "(small) river".

References