Vardal is a former municipality in Oppland

Oppland

is a county in Norway, bordering Sør-Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. The county administration is in Lillehammer. Oppland is, together with Hedmark, one of the only two landlocked counties of Norway....

 county, Norway.

It was created in 1837 as Vardal formannskapsdistrikt

Formannskapsdistrikt

Formannskapsdistrikt was the name for a Norwegian local self-government districts put into force in 1838. This system of municipality was created in a bill approved by the Storting and signed into law by King Carl Johan on 14 January 1837...

. According to the 1835 census the municipality had a population of 2,921. On 1 January 1861 the town of Gjøvik

Gjøvik

is a town and a municipality in Oppland county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Gjøvik.In 1861, the village of Gjøvik in the municipality of Vardal was granted town status and was separated from Vardal to form a separate municipality...

 was separated from Vardal to constitute a separate administrative unit, leaving Vardal with a population of 4,114.

Starting in 1921, a series of border adjustments which moved territory from Vardal to Gjøvik took place. The parts moved to Gjøvik in 1921 and 1955 had 723 and 1,372 inhabitants respectively. On 1 January 1964 the district Sørligrenda with 87 inhabitants was incorporated into Vestre Toten

Vestre Toten

Vestre Toten is a municipality in Oppland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Toten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Raufoss.-Name:...

 municipality to the south. The rest of Vardal, with 9,612 inhabitants, was incorporated into Gjøvik along with Biri

Biri, Norway

Biri is a village in the municipality of GjøvikOppland county, Norway. It was formerly classified as a municipality.The parish of Biri was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 . On 1 January 1910, the district Snertingdal was divided from Biri to form a municipality of its own,...

 and Snertingdal

Snertingdal

Snertingdal is a former municipality in Oppland county, Norway.It was created by a split from Biri on January 1, 1910. At that time Snertingdal had a population of 2,028....

.

The name

The Norse

Old Norse

Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....

form of the name was Vardalr. The first element is probably an old rivername, the last element is dalr m 'dale, valley'.