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 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. The 203.4 km2 lake holds about 6 km3 of water and reaches a maximum depth of 150 m. The surface of the lake sits about 662 m 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).

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 km, it makes a completely straight line between the summits of the 1002 m tall mountain Våndsjögusten and the 1185 m tall mountain Østerhogna. Straight-line national borders are very unusual in Scandinavia, except in the very northernmost parts.