View of a farm along the lake LomnessjøenView of a farm in the Rendalen valley
The parish of Rendal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). This municipality was quite large, spanning 4,201 square kilometres (1,622sqmi) from the Østerdalen valley to the border with Sweden. During the 1870s, discussions began on dividing the large municipality. On 1 January 1880, Rendal Municipality was split in two to create the new Øvre Rendal Municipality (population: 1,868) in the north and Ytre Rendal Municipality (population: 1,661) in the south.[5]
During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, a new Rendalen Municipality was established, but it did not have quite the same boundaries as the old Rendal municipality.[5]
Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the Rendalen valley (Old Norse: Reindalr) which is located in the municipality. The first element is rein which means "reindeer". The last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale". The river Rena runs through the valley and it is not known if the valley was named after the river or if the river was named after the valley. A nearby mountain Renafjellet also has a similar name.[4][6]
The mayor (Norwegian: ordfører) of Rendal Municipality was the political leader of the municipality and the chairperson of the municipal council. The following people have held this position:[9]
12Thorsnæs, Geir; Haugen, Morten O., eds. (27 November 2024). "Øvre Rendal". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Foreningen Store norske leksikon. Retrieved 3 June 2025.
↑Hansen, Tore; Vabo, Signy Irene, eds. (25 November 2024). "kommunestyre". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Foreningen Store norske leksikon. Retrieved 31 December 2024.
