Varaldsøy (municipality)

Varaldsøy is a former municipality in the old Hordaland county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1902 until its dissolution in 1965. The 83 km2 municipality encompassed the whole island of Varaldsøy and a 2 to 3 km wide strip of the mainland west of the island. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village area of Varaldsøy on the southern part of the island, where Varaldsøy Church is located.

History
On 1 January 1902, the southern district of the municipality of Strandebarm was separated to become the new municipality of Varaldsøy. Initially, Varaldsøy had a population of 848. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, the municipality of Varaldsøy was dissolved and its lands were split between two neighboring municipalities. The Mundheim area northwest of the island on the mainland (population: 300) was incorporated into Kvam Municipality, and the island of Varaldsøy and the rest of the mainland area southwest of the island (population: 511) became a part of Kvinnherad Municipality.

Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the island of Varaldsøy (Varaldsey). The first element comes from the old male name Varaldr. The last element is which means "island". Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Varaldsø. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Varaldsøy. The letter y was added to the end of the word to "Norwegianize" the name (ø is the Danish word for "island" and øy is the Norwegian word).

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.

Mayors
The mayors (ordfører) of Varaldsøy:


 * 1902-1919: Nils Dybsland
 * 1920-1922: Nils Kårstad
 * 1923-1925: Torbjørn Galtung
 * 1926-1928: Erik Skjelnæs
 * 1929-1931: Nils Dybsland
 * 1932-1940: Kristoffer Mundheim
 * 1941-1942: Lars Nedrevåge
 * 1942-1945: Sverre Mundheim
 * 1945-1945: Kristoffer Mundheim
 * 1946-1961: Lars Gerhard Sandvik
 * 1961-1963: Arnt Johan Pettersen
 * 1964-1965: Haktor Djuvsland

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