Editing Grane Municipality (section)

===Name===
The municipality (originally the [[parish]]) is named after the old ''[[Grane, Nordland|Grane]]'' farm (spelled "Grane" in 1661), since the first [[Grane Church]] was built there in 1860. The name ''Grane'' is pronounced with a long a and short n, which is not [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalized]]. It is seemingly a simple and plain name, but many questions arise regarding both valid meanings for the word and the spoken forms it takes. The spoken form is most peculiar. It is distinct from other genuine old farm names in the area in that it is uninflected, with no definite form and consequently no distinct case (neither [[Dative case|dative]] nor [[Genitive case|genitive]]). It is said short and crisp, regardless of what speech context it is found in. 
[[File:Trofors jernbanestasjon.jpg|thumb|left|Trofors railway station on the Nordland Line, Grane]]
[[File:Laksforsen.jpg|thumb|left|Laksforsen, Vefsna river.]]
[[File:E6 Nordland.jpg|thumb|left|The portal at "The gate to North Norway" [[tourist information]] center.<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 October 2020 |title=Vil rive "Porten til Nord-Norge": – Skaper et kunstig skille mellom nord og resten av landet |url=https://www.nrk.no/nordland/vil-rive-_porten-til-nord-norge_-1.15187308}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2 July 2021 |title=Grane |url=https://snl.no/Grane}}</ref> [[European route E6]] passes thru the portal.]]

It seems to be a farm name with a grammatical form presuming a standard only found among farms cleared in the [[Middle Ages]], and likely around the 12th century. But the Grane farm was not cleared before the mid-17th century and there is nothing to suggest a prior settlement. Thus we find a basic disparity without any easy explanation. Farm names sometimes follow environmental descriptions given in the vernacular of the time, but it is quite difficult to see what environmental aspect would yield the name form of "Grane" in the speech of the 17th century.

One possible explanation is that those who cleared the farm around 1650 simply borrowed the name from another known place in the country. It is not doubtful that those who cleared the farm came from Åneset in what is now [[Vefsn Municipality]]. But this does not preclude the notion that the name may have its roots elsewhere. Sagas say it stems from [[Jämtland]] ([[Sweden]]). In [[Nord-Trøndelag]] there are three settlements for which one finds the farm name "Gran" (of course pronounced without the final 'e'). Outside the northern regions, the farm name is found only in [[Askvoll Municipality]] in [[Western Norway]]. The name of that farm is also written ''Grane'', and the pronunciation ([gra:nə]) is exactly the same. But it is rather insensible that the name could have been borrowed from there.

Therefore, if the name actually is a local development in the [[Old Norse]] speech forms of the [[Middle Ages]]—there was surely quite a significant farm settlement in the central valleys of [[Vefsn Municipality|Vefsn]] before the [[Bubonic plague]]—it was unlikely to have been used as the name for a farm. Rather it would have had to have been so well entrenched in its ancient speech form that it held over from the times of pestilence and [[Black Death]] when settlers were reduced to meager numbers. This is possible, but still mere conjecture.

In the matter of the name's valid meaning, it is obvious to assume that it has its origins in the tree name {{wikt-lang|non|grǫn}} which means "[[spruce]]". This should designate a place where spruces grow. This is an unlikely explanation for a name with local origins in the Middle Ages and makes little sense. Even though many spruces currently grow in that vicinity, recent pollen studies show that spruce forests came surprisingly late to that stretch of land. They were not present before the 13th to 14th centuries and it took several hundred years after that for spruce forest to proliferate in the Ner-Vefsn and [[Majavatnet]] settlements. Spruce trees were not likely characteristic of the Grane area in the Middle Ages.

Researchers into municipal naming practices have concluded that the stem 'gran', found in a series of names nationwide, cannot have its source in the environmental connection to spruce timber. At the root is certainly an Old Norse word which must have denoted something 'sharp', and which is now extant in only a few Norse dialects with traditional meanings. Used in a place name, the stem would probably signify 'something which protrudes up from the landscape.' <ref>{{Cite book |last=Jacobsen |first=Kjell |title=Gårdshistorie for Grane G.nr. 34-48 |publisher=Vefsn Bygdeboknemnd |year=1990 |series=Vefsn Bygdebok, særbind IIIa |location=Mosjøen |language=no}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rygh |first=Oluf |author-link=Oluf Rygh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K21BAAAAIAAJ |title=Norske gaardnavne: Nordlands amt |date=1905 |publisher=W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri |edition=16 |location=Kristiania, Norge |page=69 |language=no}}</ref>

Another theory is that the name derives from the [[Southern Sámi]] word ''kråane'', which means 'corner' or 'crook',<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nedtedigibaakoeh - Digibaakoeh gaskeviermesne |url=https://baakoeh.oahpa.no/detail/sma/nob/kråane.html}}</ref> referring to the bending and curving of the [[Vefsna|Vefsna river]] in the area. This is also the point where the river flowing westward from [[Hattfjelldal (village)|Hattfjelldal]] changes direction and turns north towards the [[Vefsnfjord]].