Lierne is a municipality in Trøndelagcounty, Norway. It is part of the Namdalenregion, and it is the largest municipality by area in Trøndelag. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sandvika. Other villages include Inderdal, Mebygda, and Tunnsjø senter. The municipality borders Sweden to the south and east. Most of Lierne lies on the Swedish side of the drainage divide between Norway and Sweden. The municipality is the 16th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Lierne is the 308th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 1,355. The municipality's population density is and its population has decreased by 5.6% over the previous 10-year period.
General information
Lierne was the largest obstacle in the negotiations before the Stromstad Treaty of 1751 in which the border was defined in detail. Sweden wanted it based on its location on the Eastern side of the drainage divide, although Norway got it based on its connection to the Snaasen parish in Norway, and as compensation Norway gave up its demand for the Idre and Särna parishes which were under Swedish control since 1644. This gave a curve in the border. The municipality of Lierne was established on 1 January 1874 when it was separated from the large municipality of Snaasen. Initially, the population of Lierne was 1,015. On 1 July 1915, it was divided into two municipalities: Nordli in the north and Sørli in the south. This division, however, was short-lived. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964 they were merged back together again under the former name Lierne. After the merger, there were 2,045 residents in the new municipality. On 1 January 2018, the municipality switched from the old Nord-Trøndelag county to the new Trøndelag county.
Name
The Old Norse form of the name was Finnahlíð, where the first element is the pluralgenitive case of finnr which means "Sami person" because the district was mostly populated by Sami people at the time. The last element is li which means "mountainside". Later, the name was shortened by dropping the Finn part and using the definite plural form of the li part as Lierne.
Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted on 3 February 1984. The arms show three white Willow Ptarmigans on a blue background. The birds are plentiful in the area and hunting them was of great importance historically for the inhabitants to survive during the winters in the area. The bird was thus chosen as a symbol for the municipality.
The municipal council of Lierne is made up of 15 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the council is as follows:
