Rygge

Rygge kommune
Municipality
Coat of arms Østfold within Norway
Rygge within Østfold
Coordinates: 59°22′29″N 10°42′53″E / 59.37472°N 10.71472°ECoordinates: 59°22′29″N 10°42′53″E / 59.37472°N 10.71472°E
Country	Norway
County	Østfold
Administrative centre	Rygge
Government
• Mayor (2007)	Inger-Lise Skartlien (Ap)
Area
• Total	74 km^2 (29 sq mi)
• Land	70 km^2 (30 sq mi)
Area rank	400 in Norway
Population (2004)
• Total	13,753
• Rank	76 in Norway
• Density	197/km^2 (510/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	12.8 %
Demonym(s)	Ryggesokning[1]
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code	NO-0136
Official language form	Bokmål
Website	www.rygge.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

Rygge is a municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Rygge. Rygge was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt).

The emblem of Rygge is the Pasque flower. Rygge is connected to Oslo by double-tracked railway, and four-lane motorway.

Rygge is served by Moss Airport.

General information

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Rygge farm, since the first church was built there. The Old Norse form of the name is not known (the oldest manuscripts from 1353-1528 use the form "Ryg(g)jof"). A possible (but uncertain) reconstruction is Rýgjuhof. The first element would then be the genitive case of rýgja, a sideform of rýgr which means "lady". (Like ylgja to ylgr, both forms with the meaning 'she-wolf'.) The last element is probably hof meaning "temple". If this is correct, then the word rýgja most probably is referring to the goddess Freyja, since the meaning of the word freyja also is 'lady'.

An alternative explanation is that the word is derived from "rygg", which means "ridge", and related to place names like "Ryen" further east. The "ridge" in question would be the end moraine that runs across the landscape here, from the other side of the fjord and stretching east through Sweden and into the Baltic region. In Østfold, this moraine is referred to as the "Raet".

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times. It was granted on 30 November 1984. The arms show a golden spur on a red background. A spur like this was found in the area that dated back to the Viking Age. It is one of the largest golden items that was ever found in Norway and was thus chosen as a symbol on the arms.^[2]

Military

Rygge Air Station replaced a temporary airfield constructed by German forces during World War II. The contemporary airfield, northeast of the highway and main railway is situated in Rygge and its neighbouring municipality Råde. It was constructed from 1952–1954 and until recently it was one of the largest establishments of the Royal Norwegian Air Force. The military use of the airfield is now much reduced. A civilian air terminal Moss Airport, Rygge, was opened in early 2008.

Number of minorities (1st and 2nd generation) in Rygge by country of origin in 2015^[3]

Ancestry	Number
Poland	390
Vietnam	261
Pakistan	114
Sweden	106
Turkey	101
Lithuania	86
Denmark	69
Kosovo	54

See also

• Kirkegrenda, a village in the municipality

References

1. "Navn på steder og personer: Innbyggjarnamn" (in Norwegian). Språkrådet. Retrieved 2015-12-01.
2. Norske Kommunevåpen (1990). "Nye kommunevåbener i Norden". Retrieved 2008-12-15.
3. "Immigrants and Norwegian-born to immigrant parents, by immigration category, country background and percentages of the population". ssb.no. Retrieved 29 June 2015.

External links

• Media related to Rygge at Wikimedia Commons
• The dictionary definition of Rygge at Wiktionary
• Municipal fact sheet from Statistics Norway