Møre og Romsdal
Møre og Romsdal (; ) is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the town of Molde, while Ålesund is the largest town. The county is governed by the Møre og Romsdal County Municipality which includes an elected county council and a county mayor. The national government is represented by the county governor. Name. The name "Møre og Romsdal" was created in 1936. The first element refers to the districts of Nordmøre and Sunnmøre, and the last element refers to Romsdal. Until  1919, the county was called "Romsdalens amt", and from 1919 to 1935 "Møre fylke". For hundreds of years (1660-1919), the region was called "Romsdalen amt", after the Romsdalen valley in the present-day Rauma Municipality. The Old Norse form of the name was "Raumsdalr". The first element is the genitive case of a name "Raumr" derived from the name of the river Rauma, i.e. "The Dale of Rauma". "Raumr" may refer to stream or current, or to booming or thundering waterfalls like Sletta waterfall. A purely legendary approach to the name refers to Raum the Old, one of the  sons of Nór, the eponymous Saga King of Norway. Since the majority of the residents of the county lived in the Sunnmøre region, there was some controversy over the name. In 1919, many of the old county names were changed and this county was renamed "Møre fylke". The name "Møre" was chosen to represent the region where the majority of the county residents lived. That name is dative of Old Norse: "Mǿrr" ("á Mǿri") and it is probably derived from the word "marr" referring to something wet like bog (common along the outer coast) or the sea itself. The name  is interpreted as "coastland" or "bogland". Møre was originally the name of the coastal area from Stad and north including most of Fosen. (There is also a coastal district in Sweden that has the same name: Möre.) The change in name from Romsdalen to Møre was controversial and it did not sit well with the residents of the Romsdal region. Finally in 1936, the name was changed again to a compromise name: Møre og Romsdal (). The ambiguous designation "møring"—"person from Møre"—is used strictly about people from Nordmøre (and less frequently for people from Sunnmøre), excluding the people from Romsdal (while , consequently, "romsdaling"—"person from Romsdal"— is used about the latter). Coat of arms. The coat of arms was granted on 15 March 1978. It shows three gold-colored Viking ships on a blue background. Shipping and shipbuilding were historically very important to the region, so boats were chosen as the symbol on the arms. The masts on the Viking ships form crosses, which symbolize the strong Christian and religious beliefs as well as the strong religious organisations in the county. There are three boats to represent the three districts of the county: Sunnmøre, Romsdal and Nordmøre. Geography. Traditionally, the county has  been divided into three districts. From north to south, these are Nordmøre, Romsdal, and Sunnmøre. Although the districts do not have separate governments and despite modern road, sea and air connections throughout the county, the three districts still have their own identities in many ways. Historically speaking, connections have been stronger between Nordmøre and Sør-Trøndelag to the north, Romsdal and Oppland to the east, and Sunnmøre and Sogn og Fjordane to the south, than internally. Differences in dialects between the three districts bear clear evidence of this. Due to geographical features, the county has many populated islands and is  intersected by several deep fjords. Due to its difficult terrain, Møre og Romsdal has been very dependent on boat traffic, and its main car ferry company, MRF, has existed since 1921. Settlements. Møre og Romsdal has six settlements with town status. The largest three (Ålesund, Kristiansund, and Molde) were towns long before 1993 when municipalities were given the legal authority to grant town status rather than just the King (and government). This change in law led to an increase in the number of towns (Fosnavåg, Åndalsnes, and Ulsteinvik were all added after this time). The county contains many other urban  settlements (as defined by Statistics Norway) without town status, every municipality except for Halsa and Smøla contain at least one. As of 1 January 2018, there were 192,331 people (about 72 percent of the population) living in densely populated areas in the county while only 73,946 people lived in sparsely populated areas. The population density is highest near the coast, with all of the county's towns located on saltwater. The largest town in the county is Ålesund, with a population of 52,626 in the agglomeration which it forms together with parts of Sula. Municipalities. Møre og Romsdal has a  total of 26 municipalities. Infrastructure. Møre og Romsdal is served by nine airports, of which only the four airports located near the four largest centres have regular domestic flights. The largest airport in the county is Ålesund Airport, Vigra, which offers the only scheduled international routes from any airport in Møre og Romsdal. Ålesund Airport had 732,614 passengers in 2006. Kristiansund Airport, Kvernberget, had 364,350 passengers in 2007, while Molde Airport, Årø, had 401,292, down from 444,677 in 2006. Ørsta–Volda Airport, Hovden, had 49,842 passengers in 2006. None of the airports in Møre og Romsdal offer regular flights to  each other. In 2007, Møre og Romsdal had of public roads, an increase of since the previous year, as well as of private roads, more than in 2006. There is one railway, the Rauma Line, which starts at Åndalsnes and connects to the main railway network of Norway. Public buses are operated by the county, using the brand name Fram. History. The county (with its current borders) was established in 1671 - but after just four years (in 1675) it was divided into two amts (counties): Romsdal (which included Nordmøre) and Sunnmøre (which included Nordfjord). In 1680 (only 5 years later ), Sunnmøre (including Nordfjord) was merged into Bergenhus amt. Then in 1689 (another 9 years later), the three regions of Romsdal, Sunnmøre and Nordmøre were again merged into one amt/county: Romsdalen. Then in 1701 (another 11 years later) Romsdalen amt was split and divided between Trondhjems amt (which got Romsdal and Nordmøre) and Bergenhus amt (which got Sunnmøre). In 1704 (a mere 4 years later), the three regions of Romsdal, Sunnmøre and Nordmøre were again merged into one county. The borders of the county have not been changed much since 1704. The annex parish of Vinje within the larger Hemne  parish was transferred from Romsdalens amt to Søndre Trondhjems amt in 1838 (according to the 1838 Formannskapsdistrikt law, a parish could no longer be divided between two counties, so Vinje had to be in the same county as the rest of the parish). On 1 January 2019, the municipality of Rindal was transferred from Møre og Romsdal county to the neighboring Trøndelag county. On 1 January 2020, the municipality of Halsa will become part of the new municipality of Heim in Trøndelag county. In 2019, archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research, using large-scale high-resolution georadar  technology, determined that a 17 meter long Viking ship was buried on the island of Edøya near Edøy Church. They estimate the ship's age as over 1,000 years: from the Merovingian or Viking period; the group planned to conduct additional searches in the area. A similar burial was found previously by a NIKU team in 2018, in Gjellestad.