Åsskard (municipality)

Åsskard is a former municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The 151 km2 municipality existed from 1895 until its dissolution in 1965. It was located in what is now the northern part of Surnadal Municipality. The former municipality of Åsskard (historically spelled Aasgaard) included the area around the Åsskardfjorden, north of the Hamnesfjorden, and east of the Trongfjorden. The administrative centre was the village of Åsskard where the Åsskard Church is located.

History
The municipality of Aasgaard was established on 1 May 1895 when it was separated from the large Stangvik Municipality. It had an initial population of 629. On 1 July 1915, a southern district of Halsa Municipality (population: 114) was transferred to Aasgaard. The spelling was later changed to Åsskard. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, Åsskard Municipality (population: 1,014) was merged with most of Stangvik Municipality (population: 1,386) and Surnadal Municipality (population: 3,534) to form a new municipality called Surnadal.

Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Åsskard farm (Ásskarð) since the first Åsskard Church was built there. The first element is which means "rocky ridge" or "hill". The last element is which means "gap" or "pass" between hills or mountains. This is likely referring to the fact that the Åsskard farm was situated in a narrow, low area between some mountains on the isthmus between the Åsskardfjorden and the Hamnesfjorden.

Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Aasgaard. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Aasskard, bringing it back to a modern version of the Old Norse spelling. On 21 December 1917, a royal resolution enacted the 1917 Norwegian language reforms. Prior to this change, the name was spelled Aasskard with the digraph "Aa", and after this reform, the name was spelled Åsskard, using the letter Å instead.

Government
While it existed, this municipality was responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment, social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. During its existence, this municipality was governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.

Municipal council
The municipal council (Heradsstyre) of Åsskard was made up of 13 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows: