Brandval

Brandval is a former municipality in the old Hedmark county, Norway. The 587 km2 municipality existed from 1867 until its dissolution in 1964 when it became part of Kongsvinger Municipality. It was located in the southern part of the traditional district of Solør. The administrative centre of the old municipality was the village of Brandval where Brandval Church is located. The municipality included the populated Glomma river valley in the west and the more sparsely populated Finnskogen forest area in the east.

History
Historically, Brandval was part of the large parish of Grue. On 1 January 1838, when municipalities were established in Norway, Brandval was part of Grue Municipality, making up the southern part of the municipality. On 1 January 1867, the Brandval area (population: 3,946) was separated from Grue to become the new Brandval municipality. This left Grue with 6,464 residents. In 1941 a small part of Grue municipality (population: 68) was transferred to Brandval municipality. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the municipality of Brandval (population: 4,384) was merged with the town of Kongsvinger (population: 2,349) and the municipality of Vinger (population: 6,257) to form the new Kongsvinger Municipality which had a total population of 12,990 residents.

Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Brandval farm (Brandváll) since the first Brandval Church was built there. The first element is which means "fire" or "burning". The last element is váll which means "land that is cleared by burning". Thus the name likely refers to a forested area that was cleared by burning.

Government
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 (Herredsstyre) of Brandval was made up of 21 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:

Mayors
The mayors of Brandval:


 * 1868-1870: Lars Bredesen Breen
 * 1871-1886: Per Hansen Gjølstad
 * 1887-1889: Kolbjørn Olsen
 * 1890-1897: Per Hansen Gjølstad
 * 1898-1901: Martin Hansen
 * 1902-1910: Arne Næss
 * 1911-1913: Rangvald Jahr
 * 1914-1919: Nils Aas
 * 1920-1931: Ole Ruud
 * 1932-1934: Kasper Dalermoen
 * 1935-1936: Arnt Nylund
 * 1937-1937: Thor Hals
 * 1938-1940: Gustav Storhæsen
 * 1941-1945: Ole Sandbæk
 * 1945-1947: Anton Braaten
 * 1948-1963: John Ruud