Editing Smøla Municipality (section)

==General information==
[[File:veiholmen1.jpg|thumb|left|The fishing village of Veiholmen]]
[[File:Edøy kyrkje.jpg|thumb|left|View of the [[Old Edøy Church]]]]
During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the [[Schei Committee]]. The new Smøla Municipality was established on 1 January 1960 after the merger of [[Edøy Municipality]] (population: 1,135), [[Brattvær Municipality]] (population: 1,361), and [[Hopen Municipality]] (population: 1,550). The initial population of the new municipality was 4,046. The boundaries have not changed since that time.<ref name="Dag">{{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=no |isbn=9788253746845}}</ref>

===Name===
The municipality is named after the main [[Smøla (island)|island of Smøla]] ({{langx|non|Smyl}} or {{lang|non|Smjöl}}). The name is probably related to the Danish word {{wikt-lang|da|smule}} or the modern Norwegian word {{wikt-lang|no|smuldre}} which both mean "crumble", referring to the thousands of small islands and islets around the main island.<ref name="snl" /> Researchers at [[Technische Universität Berlin]] have claimed that Smøla is the island which [[Pytheas]] called [[Thule]] ({{langx|grc|Θούλη}}, ''Thoúlē'').<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dag og Tid |url=http://old.dagogtid.no/nyhet.cfm?nyhetid=1456}}</ref>

===Coat of arms===
The [[coat of arms]] was granted on 10 March 1989. The official [[blazon]] is ''"[[Gules]], two seagulls [[Volant (heraldry)|volant]] [[argent]]"'' ({{langx|no|I rødt to oppflygende sølv måker}}). This means the arms have a red [[field (heraldry)|field]] (background) and the [[charge (heraldry)|charge]] is two flying [[seagull]]s. The charge has a [[tincture (heraldry)|tincture]] of [[argent]] which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. This design was chosen to highlight the fact that this is an island community and that is a common type of bird in the area. The arms were designed by Jarle Skuseth. 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=Smøla |access-date=2023-04-13 |publisher=Heraldry of the World}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Smøla, Møre og Romsdal |url=https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/no-15-73.html |access-date=2023-04-13 |website=Flags of the World}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1989-05-11 |title=Godkjenning av våpen og flagg |url=https://lovdata.no/dokument/LF/forskrift/1989-03-10-179 |access-date=2023-04-13 |website=Lovdata.no |publisher=Norges kommunal- og arbeidsdepartementet |language=no}}</ref> {{See also|Coat of arms of Hasvik}}

===Churches===
The [[Church of Norway]] has three parishes ({{lang|no|sokn}}) within Smøla Municipality. It is part of the [[Ytre Nordmøre prosti]] ([[deanery]]) in the [[Diocese of Møre]].

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ style="font-size:medium"|'''''Churches in Smøla'''''
!Parish ({{lang|no|sokn}})!!Church name!!Location of the church!!Year built
|-
|Brattvær||[[Brattvær Church]]||near [[Råket]]||1917
|-
|rowspan="2"|Edøy||[[Edøy Church]]||[[Straumen, Smøla|Straumen]]||1885
|-
|[[Old Edøy Church]]||[[Edøya]]||c. 1190
|-
|Hopen||[[Hopen Church]]||[[Hopen, Møre og Romsdal|Hopen]]||1892
|}

In 2019, archaeologists from the [[Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research]] using large-scale high-resolution [[georadar|georadar technology]], determined that a {{convert|17|m|adj=on}} long Viking ship was buried on the island of [[Edøya]] near the [[Old Edøy Church]]. They estimate its age as over 1,000 years, from the [[Merovingian period|Merovingian]] or [[Viking period]]; the group hopes to conduct additional searches in the area. A similar burial was found previously by the group, in [[Gjellestad Longship|Gjellestad]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=27 November 2019 |title=Ancient Viking ship discovered buried next to church using breakthrough georadar technology |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/viking-ship-burial-mound-found-norway-church-georadar-archaeology-a9218911.html |access-date=27 November 2019 |work=The Independent |quote=This will certainly be of great historical significance, archaeologists say}}</ref>