Lunde, Telemark

Lunde is a former municipality in Telemark county, Norway. The 275 km2 municipality existed from 1867 until its dissolution in 1964. The area is now part of Nome Municipality. It was part of the traditional district of Midt-Telemark. The administrative centre was the village of Bjervamoen.

Lunde was the production site of the Troll automobile. It is also known as the birthplace of ski racer Atle Skårdal and jazz singer Torun Eriksen.

History
The parish of Lunde was established as a municipality on 1 January 1867 when the large Bø Municipality was divided. The northern district of Bø remained as Bø municipality with 2,633 residents and the southern district became Lunde municipality with a population of 2,257 people. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964 Lunde Municipality (population: 3,080) was merged with most of the neighboring Holla Municipality (population: 4,093) to form the new municipality Nome Municipality.

Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Lunde farm (Lundr) since the first Lunde Church was built there. The name is identical to the word which means "grove" or a "clump of trees". The present form Lunde is derived from the singular dative case of the word, lundi.

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 (Herredsstyre) of Lunde was made up of 25 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political party.