The 1,041-square-kilometre (402 sq mi) municipality is the 108th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Åsnes is the 138th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 7,267. The municipality's population density is 7.2 inhabitants per square kilometre (19/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 4.4% over the previous 10-year period.[4][5]
General information
View of Gjesåssjøen lakeÅsnes Finnskog kirke
When municipal government was established in Norway on 1 January 1838, the Åsnes area was part of Hof Municipality. In 1849, Hof municipality was divided into two: Hof (population: 2,913) and Åsnes og Våler (population: 7,087). A short time later, in 1854, the municipality of Åsnes og Våler was divided into the two current municipalities of Våler (population: 3,410) and Åsnes (population: 3,677).[6]
During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1963, Hof Municipality (population: 3,222) was merged into Åsnes Municipality (population: 6,750). On 1 January 1969, the Rotberget farm area (population: 23) in the Finnskogen part of the municipality was transferred to the neighboring municipality of Grue.[6] In the 2010s, there had been talk of further municipal mergers but the neighboring municipalities of Grue and Våler both rejected merging with Åsnes.
Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Åsnes farm (Old Norse: Ásnes) since the first Åsnes Church was built there. The first element is áss which means "mountainridge". The last element is nes which means "headland". The headland that it is referring to is made by the river Glomma near the Åsnes farm which is located beneath a hill.[7] On 21 December 1917, a royal resolution enacted the 1917 Norwegian language reforms. Prior to this change, the name was spelled Aasnes with the digraph "Aa", and after this reform, the name was spelled Åsnes, using the letter Å instead.[8][9]
Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted on 9 December 2001. The official blazon is "Or, three pike hookssable in bend sinister points in base dexter" (Norwegian: I gult tre skrått nedvoksende svarte fløterhaker). This means the arms have a field (background) 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 charge is three hooks for log driving that are pointing downwards diagonally. This was chosen to represent the importance of logging and forestry to the municipality throughout history. There are three poles to symbolize the three important rivers of the municipality: Glomma, Flisa, and Kynna. The arms were designed by Arvid Steen. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.[10][11][12]
Finnskogen or the forest of the Finns is a belt about 32 kilometres (20 mi) wide which runs continuously northwards along the border between Norway and Sweden through six Norwegian municipalities, including Åsnes.
Åsnes has several lakes and rivers throughout the forested municipality which sits in the southern Glåmdal valley. It includes the lakes Gjesåssjøen, Hukusjøen, and Vermunden. The rivers Flisa, Rotna, and Glomma all flow through the municipality.
The municipal council(Kommunestyre) of Åsnes is made up of 23 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.
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