Editing Sør-Aurdal (section)

==General information==
[[File:Bagn, Sør-Aurdal.JPG|thumb|left|View over Bagn from Øystre Bagn, with Vestre Bagn to the left and Reinli in the background. Down by the river is the administrative center Bagn.]]
The [[prestegjeld|parish]] of ''Søndre Aurdal'' was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see [[formannskapsdistrikt]] law). On 1 January 1894, the new [[Etnedal Municipality]] was established by merging the eastern valley area of ''Nordre Etnedal'' (population: 362) from the neighboring [[Nord-Aurdal|Nordre Aurdal]] municipality and the ''Søndre Etnedal'' area (population: 1,331) from the neighboring municipality of Søndre Aurdal. Then on 1 January 1984, the unpopulated northern side of the [[Makalaus]] mountain was transferred from Sør-Aurdal to [[Nord-Aurdal]].<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><ref name="snl" />

===Name===
The municipality (originally the [[prestegjeld|parish]]) is named after the ''Aurdalen'' valley ({{langx|non|Aurardalr}}) since it was a central geographic feature of the area. The first word in the name is {{wikt-lang|no|sør}} which is essentially a prefix that means "south". The second word comes from the local valley name. The first element of that word is the [[genitive case]] of the old river name, {{lang|non|Aur}}, now named {{lang|no|Bøaelva}}. The river name comes from the word {{wikt-lang|non|aurr}} which means "[[gravel]]". The last element of the second word is {{wikt-lang|non|dalr}} which means "[[valley]]" or "dale". Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled ''Søndre Aurdal''. On 3 November 1917, a [[royal decree|royal resolution]] changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to ''Sør-Aurdal''.<ref>{{Cite journal |year=1917 |title=Norsk Lovtidende. 2den Afdeling. 1917. Samling af Love, Resolutioner m.m |url=https://www.nb.no/items/URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2015102381014_001 |journal=[[Norsk Lovtidend]] |language=no |location=Kristiania, Norge |publisher=Grøndahl og Søns Boktrykkeri |pages=1057–1065}}</ref> Both {{wikt-lang|no|søndre}} and {{wikt-lang|no|sør}} mean "south" (more specifically, "søndre" means "southern"), so the name ''Sør-Aurdal'' means "(the) southern (part of) Aurdal". (The [[Church of Norway]] parish of Aurdal that had existed for centuries was divided into two in 1805, just over 30 years before the parish borders were used to defin the new municipality that was established in 1838.)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rygh |first=Oluf |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jJMOAAAAYAAJ |title=Norske gaardnavne: Kristians amt (anden halvdel) |date=1902 |publisher=W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri |edition=4-2 |location=Kristiania, Norge |page=221 |language=no |authorlink=Oluf Rygh}}</ref> {{See also|Nord-Aurdal#Name}}

===Coat of arms===
The [[coat of arms]] was granted by royal decree on 9 February 1990. The official [[blazon]] is ''"[[Azure (heraldry)|Azure]], a box [[reliquary]] [[Or (heraldry)|Or]]"'' ({{langx|no|I blått et gull relikvieskrin}}). This means the arms have a blue [[field (heraldry)|field]] (background) and the [[charge (heraldry)|charge]] is a [[reliquary]]. 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. The arms show the silhouette of a gilt-copper [[Middle Ages|medieval]] [[reliquary]] ([[chasse (casket)|chasse]]). It was designed to look like the one found in the [[Hedal Stave Church]], except that this one has five blue arches which are inspired by the arches on a similar medieval chasse from the nearby medieval [[St. Thomas Church, Filefjell|St. Thomas Church]] at [[Filefjell]] (now in the [[Bergen Museum]]) and representing the five [[Church of Norway]] parishes of the municipality (Bagn, Reinli, Hedalen, Bruflat, and Begnadalen). It also has two dragon heads in the design since Sør-Aurdal is one of only two municipalities in Norway that have two [[stave church]]es that are still in use. The color blue was chosen to represent the two river systems in the municipality that were historically important for the [[logging]] industry and [[sawmill]]s in Sør-Aurdal. The arms were designed by Arvid Sveen. 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=Sør-Aurdal |access-date=2023-04-22 |publisher=Heraldry of the World}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Sør-Aurdal, Oppland (Norway) |url=https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/no-05-40.html |access-date=2023-04-22 |website=Flags of the World}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1990-02-09 |title=Godkjenning av våpen og flagg |url=https://lovdata.no/dokument/LF/forskrift/1990-02-09-52 |access-date=2023-04-22 |website=Lovdata.no |publisher=Norges kommunal- og arbeidsdepartementet |language=no}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=http://www.sor-aurdal.kommune.no/artikkel.aspx?MId1=1&AId=165&back=1 |title=Bakgrunnshistorien til kommunevåpnet for Sør-Aurdal |publisher=Sør-Aurdal kommune |language=no |accessdate=2009-01-03}}</ref>

===Churches===
The [[Church of Norway]] has five parishes ({{lang|no|sokn}}) within the municipality of Sør-Aurdal. It is part of the [[Valdres prosti]] ([[deanery]]) in the [[Diocese of Hamar]].

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ style="font-size:medium"|'''''Churches in Sør-Aurdal'''''
!Parish ({{lang|no|sokn}})!!Church name!!Location of the church!!Year built
|-
|rowspan="1"|Bagn||[[Bagn Church]]||[[Bagn]]||1736
|-
|rowspan="1"|Begnadalen||[[Begnadalen Church]]||[[Begnadalen]]||1964
|-
|rowspan="1"|Hedalen||[[Hedalen Stave Church]]||[[Hedalen]]||c. 1165
|-
|rowspan="1"|Leirskogen||[[Leirskogen Church]]||[[Leirskogen]]||1924
|-
|rowspan="2"|Reinli||[[Reinli Stave Church]]||[[Reinli]]||1326
|-
|[[Reinli Chapel]]||[[Reinli]]||1964
|}