Sømna

Sømna is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Helgeland traditional region. The administrative center of Sømna is the village of Vik i Helgeland. Other villages in the municipality include Dalbotn, Sund, Vennesund, and Berg.

The oldest boat remains ever found in Norway (Haugvikbåten - 2,500 years old) was discovered in a bog in Sømna.

Sømna has some of the best agriculture in the region. Dairy and beef cows as well as grains are produced in Sømna. There is also a dairy in Berg that produces milk and cheese.

The 195 km2 municipality is the 301st largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Sømna is the 281st most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 1,970. The municipality's population density is 10.3 PD/km2 and its population has decreased by 3.1% over the previous 10-year period.

General information
The municipality of Vik was established on 1 January 1901 when it was separated from the large municipality of Brønnøy. The initial population of Vik was 2,731. In 1941 the municipality was renamed Sømna. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, a major municipal merger took place. The following areas were merged to form a new, larger Brønnøy municipality.
 * the town of Brønnøysund (population: 2,064)
 * the municipality of Sømna (population: 2,347)
 * the municipality of Brønnøy (population: 2,635)
 * the municipality of Velfjord (population: 1,380)
 * the part of Bindal municipality located Lande-Tosbotn area around the inner Bindalsfjorden (population: 296)

This merger was short-lived because on 1 January 1977, all of the old Sømna municipality (except the Hongsetbygda area) was removed from Brønnøy to become a separate municipality once again. There were 2,107 residents in the newly recreated Sømna municipality.

Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Vik farm (Vík) since the first Sømna Church was built there. The name is identical with the word which means "bay" or "inlet", here referring to the bay near the church that is now called Vikvågen.

On 13 November 1940, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Sømna starting on 1 December 1940. The new name was an old name for the area spelled as Sæmnese or Sørsøm (Søfn). The meaning of the name is unknown, but it is possibly derived from the word sveifa which means "wind" or "wave" or it could be derived from the word which means a "quiet sleep".

Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted on 14 June 1991. The official blazon is "Gules, three trefoils argent in pall stems conjoined" (I rødt tre sølv kløverblad forent i trepass). This means the arms have a red field (background) and the charge is a group of three clover leaves (trefoils). The clover 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 arms symbolize agriculture, culture, and prosperity combined. The arms were designed by Rolf Tidemann.

Churches
The Church of Norway has one parish (sokn) within the municipality of Sømna. It is part of the Sør-Helgeland prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland.

Geography and climate
The municipality of Sømna is mostly made up of the southern part of a peninsula off the mainland of Norway and the surrounding islands. It borders Brønnøy to the north by land and Bindal to the south and east by sea, across the Bindalsfjorden. Sømna consists mainly of a wide Strandflaten lowland (coastal brim), and is one of few municipalities in Northern Norway where the farmers still grow some grain.

Sømna has an oceanic climate with few temperature extremes, similar to Brønnøysund. However, Sømna has one national heat record: The warmest night ever recorded in Norway was July 29, 2019 at Sømna-Kvaløyfjellet (302 m) in Sømna with overnight low 26.1 °C.

Government
All municipalities in Norway are responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, welfare and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council. The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Helgeland District Court and the Hålogaland Court of Appeal.

Municipal council
The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Sømna is made up of 17 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.

Mayors
The mayors (ordfører) of Sømna (incomplete list):


 * 1952-1955: Jonas Enge (Ap)
 * 2005-2015: Edmund Dahle (Sp)
 * 2015-2015: Hans Gunnar Holand (Sp)
 * 2015-2019: Andrine Solli Oppegaard (Ap)
 * 2019–2023: Hans Gunnar Holand (Sp)
 * 2023–present: Gunder Strømberg (LL)

Notable people

 * August Nielsen (1877 in Vik at Sømna – 1956), a Norwegian architect
 * Ludvig Enge (1878 in Vik i Helgeland – 1953), a Norwegian civil servant and politician
 * Dag Skogheim (1928 in Sømna – 2015), a teacher, poet, novelist, short story writer, biographer, and non-fiction writer