Editing Hjelmeland (section)

==General information==
[[File:Skiftun.JPG|thumb|left|View of the Hjelmeland countryside]]
[[File:Jøsenfjorden.JPG|thumb|left|View of the Jøsenfjorden]]
[[File:Hjelmelandsvågen stone bridge(js)03.jpg|thumb|left|View of an old stone bridge in Hjelmeland]]
[[File:Årdal gamle kirke1.jpg|thumb|left|View of the [[Old Årdal Church]]]]
Hjelmeland was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see [[formannskapsdistrikt]] law). In 1859, Hjelmeland municipality was split into two: the southern portion of the municipality (population: 1,315) was split off to form the new municipality of [[Årdal, Rogaland|Årdal]] and the remainder of the municipality became the municipality of [[Hjelmeland og Fister]] (population: 3,084). On 1 July 1884, the western islands and the western coast of the mainland (population: 832) were split off from [[Hjelmeland og Fister]] to form the new municipality of [[Fister (municipality)|Fister]] and the rest of the municipality was renamed simply "Hjelmeland" which now had 2,249 residents.<ref name="Dag">{{Cite book |last=Jukvam |first=Dag |url=http://www.ssb.no/emner/00/90/rapp_9913/rapp_9913.pdf |title=Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen |publisher=[[Statistics Norway|Statistisk sentralbyrå]] |year=1999 |isbn=9788253746845 |language=no}}</ref>

During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the [[Schei Committee]]. On 1 January 1965, all of Hjelemland municipality (population: 1,691) was merged with most of the municipality of [[Årdal, Rogaland|Årdal]] (except the Sundgardene area along the Årdalsfjorden), the mainland part and the island of [[Randøy]] from the municipality of [[Fister (municipality)|Fister]], and the small Buergårdene area on [[Ombo]] from the municipality of [[Jelsa (municipality)|Jelsa]]. The population of the newly enlarged Hjelemland was 2,909; nearly doubling the size of the municipal population.<ref name="Dag" />

On 1 January 2020, the parts of Hjelmeland municipality that were located on the island of [[Ombo]] were transferred to the neighboring [[Stavanger Municipality]] so that the whole island would be part of the same municipality.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Hele Ombo blir del av Nye Stavanger |url=https://www.aftenbladet.no/lokalt/i/Ql6xP8/hele-ombo-blir-del-av-nye-stavanger-dette-har-tatt-altfor-lang-tid |access-date=2020-06-28 |work=Stavanger Aftenblad |language=no}}</ref>

===Name===
The municipality (originally the [[prestegjeld|parish]]) is named after the old ''[[Hjelmelandsvågen|Hjelmeland]]'' farm ({{langx|non|Hjalmaland}}) since the first [[Hjelmeland Church]] was built there. Today the farm is a part of the [[Hjelmelandsvågen]] urban area. The first element of the name is the plural [[genitive case]] of {{wikt-lang|non|hjalmr}} which means "[[helmet]]" (likely referring to two hills behind the farm which have the form of two helmets). The last element is {{wikt-lang|non|land}} which means "land" or "farm".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rygh |first=Oluf |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u4pBAAAAIAAJ |title=Norske gaardnavne: Stavanger amt |date=1915 |publisher=W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri |edition=10 |location=Kristiania, Norge |pages=321 and 329 |language=no |authorlink=Oluf Rygh}}</ref>

===Coat of arms===
The [[coat of arms]] was granted on 30 November 1984. The official [[blazon]] is ''"[[Gules]], a triple [[saltire]] [[fretty]] [[Or (heraldry)|Or]]"'' ({{langx|no|På raud grunn ein gull Andreaskross, laga med trilling strengar}}). This means the arms have a red [[field (heraldry)|field]] (background) and the [[charge (heraldry)|charge]] is a set of three interwoven [[Saltire|St. Andrew's crosses]]. The charge 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. They are based on the local tradition of making chairs and other furniture with seats of woven twigs ({{lang|no|jærstoler}}). The process of weaving is symbolised in the arms. At the same time the arms show the strength and solidarity of the municipality. Furthermore, there are three sets of crosses to represent the fact that Hjelmeland is made up of three previous municipalities (Hjemeland, [[Fister (municipality)|Fister]], and [[Årdal, Rogaland|Årdal]]) that were merged in 1965. The arms were designed by Svein Magnus Håvarstein who based the idea from an initial idea by Magnus Torgersen. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Civic heraldry of Norway - Norske Kommunevåpen |url=https://www.heraldry-wiki.com/heraldrywiki/index.php?title=Hjelmeland |access-date=2023-07-03 |publisher=Heraldry of the World}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Hjelmeland, Rogaland (Norway) |url=https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/no-11-33.html |access-date=2023-07-03 |website=Flags of the World}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1984-11-30 |title=Godkjenning av våpen og flagg |url=https://lovdata.no/dokument/LF/forskrift/1984-11-30-1934 |access-date=2023-07-03 |website=Lovdata.no |publisher=Norges kommunal- og arbeidsdepartementet |language=no}}</ref>

===Churches===
The [[Church of Norway]] has three parishes ({{lang|no|sokn}}) within the municipality of Hjelmeland. It is part of the [[Ryfylke prosti]] ([[deanery]]) in the [[Diocese of Stavanger]].

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ style="font-size:medium"|'''''Churches in Hjelmeland'''''
!Parish ({{lang|no|sokn}})!!Church name!!Location of the church!!Year built
|-
|rowspan="1"|Fister||[[Fister Church]]||[[Fister]]||1867
|-
|rowspan="1"|Hjelmeland||[[Hjelmeland Church]]||[[Hjelmelandsvågen]]||1858
|-
|rowspan="2"|Årdal||[[Årdal Church (Rogaland)|Årdal Church]]||[[Årdal, Hjelmeland|Årdal]]||1919
|-
|[[Old Årdal Church]]||[[Årdal, Hjelmeland|Årdal]]||1619
|}