Agder

Name

The origin of the name Agder is uncertain. The Old Norse form of the name is Agðir or Egðafylki, and may derive from Old Norse ǫgð or Indo-European root **ak-*, 'to be sharp', suggesting 'the land that juts out (into the sea)'. This same root may also appear in place names like Agdenes (in Orkland Municipality), Aga (in Bømlo Municipality) and Agdestein (in Stord Municipality). Another interpretation links it to Old Norse agi, meaning 'rough seas', which would make Agder 'the land by the turbulent sea'.

The Old Norse term for the inhabitants of the area was Egðir. The Egðir are believed to be the same etymologically as the Augandzi people mentioned in the Getica of Jordanes, who wrote of Scandza (Scandinavia) in the 6th century. If Jordanes's Scandza is a palatalized form of *Scandia, then Augandzi is likely a palatalized form of *Augandii, residents of *Augandia.

Municipalities

On 1 January 1838, the formannskapsdistrikt law went into effect, creating local municipalities all over Norway. The municipalities have changed over time through mergers and divisions as well as numerous boundary adjustments. When Agder county was established on 1 January 2020, it had 25 municipalities.

History

Norway of the Viking Age was divided into petty kingdoms ruled by chiefs who contended for land, maritime supremacy, or political ascendance and sought alliances or control through marriage with other royal families, either voluntary or forced. These circumstances produced the generally turbulent and heroic lives recorded in the Heimskringla.

For example, the Ynglinga saga tells us that Harald Redbeard, chief of Agðir, refused his daughter Åsa to Gudröd Halvdanson, on which event Gudröd invaded Agðir, killed Harald and his son Gyrd, and took Åsa whether she would or no. She bore a son, Halvdan (the Black), and later arranged to have Gudröd assassinated. Among the royal families, these events seem to have been rather ordinary. Her word was the last in the argument, as her grandson, Harald Fairhair, unified Norway.

;Kings of Agder

;;Legendary Kings

• Harald Agderking
• Víkar
• Kissa
• King Bjæring

;;Monarchs of Agder (790–987)

• Harald Granraude, 7??–815, father of Åsa
• Åsa, between 815 and 834–838, mother of Halfdan the Black
• Halfdan the Black, father of Harald Fairhair, from 838
• Kjotve the Rich, late 9th century
• Harald Gudrødsson Grenske, 976–987

Prior to the Viking Age is a gap in the region's history for a few hundred years, but in Jordanes we also find regions of the same but earlier forms of names, presumably also petty kingdoms under now unknown chiefs. The previous most credible source, Ptolemy, gives the briefest of sketches, only citing all of Norway as the Chaedini ("country people"). Perhaps the difference between kingdoms was not sufficiently important to cite them individually.

Prior to then the most credible and respected source, Tacitus in Germania Chapter 44 described the Suiones, who were divided into civitates (kingdoms?) along the coast of Scandinavia and were unusual in owning fleets of a special type of ship. These were pointed on both ends and were driven by banks of oars that could be rearranged or shipped for river passage. They did not depend on sail (so Tacitus says) but other than that they do not differ from Viking ships. These civitates went all the way around Scandinavia to the Arctic, or at least to regions of very long days, where they stopped.

It seems clear that in the Roman Iron Age Norway was populated by people of the same identity as Sweden, who were called the Suiones by Latin sources. In settling the coast at some point in prehistory they had been divided into civitates by the terrain. These states took on mainly geographical names or names of individuals or mythological characters. Agder was one of them.

After the unification of Norway by Harold Fairhair and army and allies in the 10th century, all the civitates became provinces (fylker) and after their conversion to Christianity, they became dioceses or parishes. The development of Old Norse into local dialects and the dissimilation of customs due to isolation added an ethnic flavor to the area, which is cherished today.

References

References

1. (2013-03-08). "Arealstatistikk for Norge".
2. (21 February 2017). "Dette er Norges nye regioner".
3. Store norske leksikon. "Agder".
4. (1997). "Agder". Det Norske Samlaget.
5. (2021). "Kulturhistoriske landskap av nasjonal interesse på Agder. Rapport". Riksantikvaren.
6. Völundarhúsins, Freyia. "Augandzi (The Tribe and Kingdom of Agder, Norway)".