In 1864, the parish of
Lille-Elvdalen (later renamed "Alvdal") was separated from the large
Tynset Municipality to become the new Lille-Elvdalen Municipality. Initially, the new municipality had a population of 3,216. On 1 January 1914, the western part of Alvdal Municipality (population: 2,284) was separated to become the new
Folldal Municipality. This left Alvdal Municipality with 2,135 residents. Historically, the municipality was part of
Hedmark county. On 1 January 2020, the municipality became a part of the newly-formed
Innlandet county (after
Hedmark and
Oppland counties were merged).
Name The area was historically known as Elvdalen or Øvre Elvdalen (). The first element is meaning "upper", the next part is the
genitive case of which means "
river", and the last element is which means "
valley" or "dale". Thus the name means "(upper) river
valley", referring to the upper part of the
Glåma river valley. When the municipality was established in 1864, it was named
Lille-Elvdalen Municipality, which meant "Little" Elvdalen in order to distinguish it from the nearby
Store Elvedalen Municipality ("the large Elvedalen"). On 3 November 1917, a
royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to
Alvdal, to better represent the local pronunciation of the name.
Coat of arms The
coat of arms was granted on 25 November 1988. The official
blazon is
"Azure, two skis in bend issuant from base sinister" (). This means the arms have a blue
field (background) and the
charge is a set of two diagonal
skis. The charge has a
tincture of
argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The design symbolizes the history and importance of
skiing in the area. One of the oldest pairs of skis discovered by archeologists in Norway was found in Alvdal. The skis were dated to about 500 AD. The arms were designed by Helge Ness from Alvdal. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.
Churches The
Church of Norway has one parish () within Alvdal Municipality. It is part of the
Nord-Østerdal prosti (
deanery) in the
Diocese of Hamar. ==Geography==