Øyslebø og Laudal

Øyslebø og Laudal is a former municipality in Vest-Agder county, that was located in the old Vest-Agder county in Norway. The 250 km2 municipality existed from 1838 until 1899. The administrative centre was the village of Øyslebø. The municipality was located in part of the present-day municipality of Lindesnes in Agder county.

History
The parish of Øslebø og Løvdal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). According to the 1835 census, the parish had a population of 1,895. The spelling of the name was later changed to Øyslebø. On 1 January 1899, Øyslebø og Laudal was split to create two new municipalities: Øyslebø (population: 991) and Laudal (population: 836). These two municipalities later merged with the majority of Bjelland and a portion of Finsland to form the new municipality of Marnardal.

Name
The parishes of Øyslebø and Laudal were merged in 1838 and the new, resulting municipality was given the compound name Øyslebø og Laudal, literally meaning "Øyslebø and Laudal".

The parish of Øyslebø is named after the old Øyslebø farm (Øyðslubœr) since the first Øyslebø Church was built there. The first element comes from the old name for the local river Øyðsla. The old river name was likely derived from the verb which means "to destroy". The last element is which means "farm" or "farmstead". Historically, the name was spelled Øslebø or Øislebø.

The parish of Laudal is named after the old Laudal farm (Laugardalr) since the first Laudal Church was built there. The first element of the name of the farm comes from the old name for the river, Laug, (now the Lågåna river). The old river name is identical to the word which means "bath". The last element is which means "valley" or "dale". Therefore, the name means the bath river valley.