Skaun

Skaun kommune
Municipality
Coat of arms Sør-Trøndelag within Norway
Skaun within Sør-Trøndelag
Coordinates:
Country	Norway
County	Sør-Trøndelag
District	Orkdalen
Administrative centre	Børsa
Government
• Mayor (2003)	Jon P. Husby (Sp)
Area
• Total	224.17 km2 (86.55 sq mi)
• Land	213.05 km2 (82.26 sq mi)
• Water	11.12 km2 (4.29 sq mi)
Area rank	318 in Norway
Population (2010)
• Total	6,626
• Rank	166 in Norway
• Density	31.1/km2 (81/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	13.4 %
Demonym(s)	Skauning
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1657
Official language form	Neutral
Website	www.skaun.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

Skaun is a municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Orkdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Børsa. Other villages include Buvika, Eggkleiva, Melby, Skaun, and Viggja.

Skaun is predominantly rural, but is nonetheless situated only 25 kilometres (16 mi) from Norway's third largest city, Trondheim. Most inhabitants, except agricultural and public sector workers, work outside of Skaun in Trondheim, Orkanger, or Melhus. The European route E39 runs east to west across the northern part of the municipality and Norwegian County Road 709 runs north and south through the municipality.

General information

The municipality of Børseskognen was established on 1 January 1890 when it was separated from the municipality of Børsa. The initial population was 1,410. In 1930 the name was changed to Skaun. On 1 January 1965, Skaun, Børsa, and Buvik were merged to form a new, larger municipality of Skaun.

Name

The Old Norse form of the name was (also) Skaun. The name comes from the Old Norse word "skinr", meaning "to shine". This is believed to refer to the lake Laugen.

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times; they were adopted on 9 January 1987. The silver and blue colored arms are based on the four large, old standing stones found in the municipality. The four stones are most likely associated with a large grave site dating back to around 500-1000 AD.

Churches

The Church of Norway has three parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Skaun. It is part of the Deanery (prosti) of Orkdal and the Diocese of Nidaros.

Churches in Skaun

Parish (Sokn)	Church Name	Year Built	Location of the Church
Buvik	Buvik Church	1819	Buvika
Børsa	Børsa Church	1857	Børsa
Skaun	Skaun Church	1183	Skaun

Geography

The municipality of Skaun lies on the south side of the Gaulosen, an arm of the Trondheimsfjord. The river Mora flows north into the lake Laugen and the river Børselva flows north out of the lake Laugen up to the fjord. The lake Malmsjøen is located in the southeastern part of the municipality.

Skaun has three neighboring municipalities: Orkdal to the west, Melhus to the south and east, and Trondheim to the north across the Gaulosen.

Notable residents

• Kari Aalvik Grimsbø, goalkeeper on the Norway national handball team
• Einar Tambarskjelve, the Viking, and his estate. The legend says he used the four monumental standing stones in Børsa to moor his boats. (These stones are the theme for the coat-of-arms.)
• Jostein Wilmann, biker. The best placed Norwegian in the Tour de France time competition

Fictional residents

• Kristin Lavransdatter, who was the key character in a trilogy written by the Nobel Prize winner in literature, Sigrid Undset. There is a celebration of this every year the second week-end in August. It takes place at Husaby, where Sigrid Undset lived while writing the second book, Husfrue ("Houselady"). The books also have large parts of their storyline from Husaby.

External links

• Sør-Trøndelag travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Municipal fact sheet from Statistics Norway
• Skaun Tourist Information
• Celebration "Kristin på Husaby" (Norwegian)