Femund

Femund

Femund

Lake in Røros, Engerdal, and Os, Norway

Femunden is Norway's third largest lake and the second largest natural lake in Norway. It is located in Innlandet and Trøndelag counties in Norway, just 13 km (8.1 mi) west of the border with Sweden. The lake lies primarily in the municipality of Engerdal (in Innlandet) and also smaller parts are located in the municipalities of Os (Innlandet) and Røros (Trøndelag). Femundsmarka National Park borders the northeastern part of the lake.[1]

Map of Femund
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The 203.4-square-kilometre (78.5 sq mi) lake holds about 6 km3 (1.4 cu mi) of water and reaches a maximum depth of 150 m (490 ft). The surface of the lake sits about 662 m (2,172 ft) above sea level.

Name

The first element (Fe- or Fem-) has no known meaning, and the last element is the suffix -mund or -und (both are common in Norwegian place names).[1]

History

After Sweden had conquered the parishes of Idre and Särna in 1644 lake Femunden was considered to be part of the border between Norway and Sweden. But this was never officially recognised by Norway (or in reality by the Danish government, since Norway was ruled from Copenhagen in the early modern age), and during border adjustments in 1751 the Femundsmarka area east of the lake was granted to Norway from Sweden. The new (and current) border from 1751 is quite special: For a length of 61 kilometres (38 mi), it makes a completely straight line between the summits of the 1,002-metre (3,287 ft) tall mountain Våndsjögusten and the 1,185-metre (3,888 ft) tall mountain Østerhogna. Straight-line national borders are very unusual in Scandinavia, except in the very northernmost parts.

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Store norske leksikon. "Femunden" (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2011-02-25.
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