Lårdal

For the municipality in Vestfold, see Lardal.

Lårdal is a former municipality in Telemark county, Norway. Lårdal is a small village located next to the lake Bandak, in the eastern parts of the county Telemark. Lårdal was earlier its own municipality, but in 1964 it made a larger municipality together with Mo, called Tokke. There is a church, a school and a place where you can buy fast food. Three years ago Lårdal had its own grocery store, but because of the low population in Lårdal, they had to close it down. Now, the people living in Lårdal have to go to Høydalsmo to buy food. Lårdal is also home to the former journalist and television presenter Bjørn Honerød.

The parish of Laurdal was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). On 1 January 1964 a merger took place between Lårdal and Mo, creating the new municipality Tokke. Before the merger Lårdal had a population of 1,929.

The name

The Old Norse form of the name was Lagardalr. The first element is the genitive case of lǫgr m 'water, river', the last element is dalr m 'dale, valley'. (For a similar name see > Lardal.)

Until 1884 the name was written "Laurdal", in the period 1884-1920 "Laardal", from 1921 on "Lårdal".