Helleland is a former municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The 148-square-kilometre (57 sq mi) municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1965. The municipality is now located in the central part of the present-day municipality of Eigersund. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Helleland where the Helleland Church is located.[2]
History
The parish of Helleland was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). During the 1960s there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, the municipality of Helleland (population: 851) was merged with the town of Egersund (population: 3,787), the municipality of Eigersund (population: 4,664), and the Gyadalen and Grøsfjell areas of the municipality of Heskestad (population: 114). The merger created a much larger municipality of Eigersund.[3]
Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Helleland farm (Old Norse: Helliland) since the first Helleland Church was built there. The first element comes from the dative case of hellir which means "cave" or "cavern". The last element is land which means "land" or "district".[4]
The municipal council(Herredsstyre) of Helleland was made up of 13 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows: