The parish of Jælse was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1859, the municipality was split, with the northern district becoming the municipality of Sand. The split left Jelsa with a population of 2,606. On 1 January 1914, the eastern district was split off as the new municipality of Erfjord. This left Jelsa with 1,539 residents.[3]
On 1 January 1965 the municipality of Jelsa was dissolved due to recommendations by the Schei Committee. The majority of Jelsa (population: 928) was merged with the municipalities of Erfjord, Sand, and Suldal to form a new, enlarged Suldal Municipality. At the same time, the Buergårdene area (population: 8) on the island of Ombo was moved to Hjelmeland Municipality, and the rest of the island of Ombo that belonged to Jelsa (population: 89) was moved to Finnøy Municipality.[3]
Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Jelsa farm (Old Norse: Jalsa) since the first Jelsa Church was built there. The meaning of the name is uncertain, but it is probably the old name for the Jelsafjorden. It is possible that the name comes from the word jálmr which means "noise". Another possibility is that it comes from the Shetland word jāl which means "scream" or "screech" (particularly referring to the noise a seagull makes). Historically, the name was spelled Jælse.[4][2]
The municipal council(Herredsstyre) of Jelsa was made up of 17 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows: