Editing Bjarkøy Municipality (section)

==General information==
[[File:Grytoy.jpg|thumb|left|View of [[Grytøya]] island]]
The [[prestegjeld]] (church parish) of ''Sand'' was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see [[formannskapsdistrikt]] law). The name was later changed to "Bjarkøy". During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the [[Schei Committee]]. On 1 January 1964, the southernmost part of the [[Senja (island)|island of Senja]] (the ''Senjehesten'' [[peninsula]]) and the ''Lemmingsvær'' island (total population of the two locations: 480) was transferred from Bjarkøy to [[Tranøy Municipality]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jukvam |first=Dag |year=1999 |title=Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen |url=http://www.ssb.no/emner/00/90/rapp_9913/rapp_9913.pdf |publisher=[[Statistics Norway|Statistisk sentralbyrå]] |language=Norwegian}}</ref> On 1 January 2013, Bjarkøy Municipality was merged with [[Harstad Municipality]] to the south, forming a new, larger Harstad Municipality.

===Name===
The municipality (originally the [[prestegjeld|parish]]) was originally named "Sand" after the old ''Sand'' farm ({{langx|non|Sand}}) on the island of [[Sandsøya, Troms|Sandsøya]], since the first [[Bjarkøy Church]] was built there. The name comes from the word is {{wikt-lang|non|sandr}} which means "[[sand]]" or "[[sandbank]]". In 1887, the church was moved to the island of [[Bjarkøya]], so the municipal name was changed to ''Bjarkø''. This new name comes from the [[island]] of [[Bjarkøya]] ({{langx|non|Bjarkarey}}). The first element is the [[genitive case]] of {{wikt-lang|non|bjǫrk}} which means "[[birch]]". The last element is {{wikt-lang|non|ey}} which means "[[island]]". (The name of the island, since it is an old trading place, is perhaps inspired by the name of the old and well-known town of [[Birka]] in [[Sweden]], which has the same meaning).<ref name="snl">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Bjarkøy |encyclopedia=[[Store norske leksikon]] |publisher=[[Kunnskapsforlaget]] |url=https://snl.no/Bjark%C3%B8y |date=2018-02-14 |editor-last=Thorsnæs |editor-first=Geir |language=Norwegian |accessdate=2018-07-29}}</ref><ref name="or">{{Cite book |last=Rygh |first=Oluf |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=py5MAQAAIAAJ |title=Norske gaardnavne: Tromsø amt |date=1911 |publisher=W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri |edition=17 |location=Kristiania, Norge |page=30 |language=no |authorlink=Oluf Rygh}}</ref> Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled ''Bjarkø''. On 6 January 1908, a [[royal decree|royal resolution]] changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to ''Bjarkøy'', to give the name a more [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] and less [[Danish language|Danish]] spelling due to [[Norwegian language conflict|Norwegian language reforms]].<ref>{{Cite journal |year=1908 |title=Norsk Lovtidende. 2den Afdeling. 1908. Samling af Love, Resolutioner m.m |url=https://www.nb.no/items/URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2015110481021_001 |journal=[[Norsk Lovtidend]] |language=no |location=Kristiania, Norge |publisher=Grøndahl og Søns Boktrykkeri |page=24}}</ref>

===Coat of arms===
The [[coat of arms]] was granted on 11 April 1986. The official [[blazon]] is ''"[[Azure (heraldry)|Azure]], a [[griffin|demi-griffin]] [[Attitude (heraldry)|passant]] [[Or (heraldry)|Or]]"'' ({{langx|no|I blått en halv gull griff}}). This means the arms have a blue [[field (heraldry)|field]] (background) and the [[charge (heraldry)|charge]] is a demi-[[griffin]] (upper half showing, no legs). The griffin has a [[tincture (heraldry)|tincture]] of [[Or (heraldry)|Or]] which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. Bjarkøy wanted to have its coat of arms to be the same as those used by the medieval [[Norwegian nobility|Bjarkøy noble family]], however, the old 13th century family arms were already in use by [[Troms]] county. So a variation was adopted - a demi-griffin was used instead. This family was one of the most influential families in the northern part of Norway during medieval times. They used a [[griffin]] for the arms of the family starting in the late 13th century.  The arms were designed by Øystein H. Skaugvolldal.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Civic heraldry of Norway - Norske Kommunevåpen |url=https://www.heraldry-wiki.com/heraldrywiki/index.php?title=Bjarkøy |access-date=2023-01-24 |publisher=Heraldry of the World}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Bjarkøy, Troms (Norway) |url=https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/no-19-15.html |access-date=2023-01-24 |website=Flags of the World}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1986-04-11 |title=Godkjenning av våpen og flagg |url=https://lovdata.no/dokument/LF/forskrift/1986-04-11-898?q=flagg |access-date=2023-01-24 |website=Lovdata.no |publisher=Norges kommunal- og arbeidsdepartementet |language=no}}</ref> The arms of Bjarkøy were retired after the merger in 2013 since Harstad retained its old coat of arms after the merger.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Tøhaug |first=Pia |date=2013-02-01 |title=Harstad beholder bølgesymbolet |url=https://www.nrk.no/troms/harstad-beholder-kommunevapenet-1.10895316 |access-date=2018-07-29 |work=NRK Troms |language=Norwegian}}</ref> {{See also2|Coat of arms of [[Troms#Coat of arms|Troms]] county}}

===Churches===
The [[Church of Norway]] had one parish ({{lang|no|sokn}}) within Bjarkøy Municipality. At the time of the municipal dissolution, it was part of the [[Trondenes prosti]] ([[deanery]]) in the [[Diocese of Nord-Hålogaland]].

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ style="font-size:medium"|'''''Churches in Bjarkøy'''''
!Parish ({{lang|no|sokn}})!!Church name!!Location of the church!!Year built
|-
|rowspan="2"|Bjarkøy og Sandsøy||[[Bjarkøy Church]]||[[Nergården]]||1766
|-
|[[Sandsøy Church]]||[[Sandsøya, Troms|Sandsøya]]||1888
|}