Sunnylven is a former municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The 637 km2 municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1965. Since that time, it has made up the southern part of the present-day Stranda Municipality. It encompassed the areas around the Sunnylvsfjorden and Geirangerfjorden. The village of Hellesylt was the administrative centre of the municipality and Geiranger was the other main population centre in Sunnylven. The main church for the municipality was Sunnylven Church in Hellesylt.

History

The municipality of Sunnylven was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). According to the 1835 census, Sunnylven had a population of 1,476. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, the two neighboring municipalities of Sunnylven (population: 1,221) and Stranda (population: 3,453) were merged into one large Stranda Municipality.

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the Sunnylvsfjorden. The first element is which means "southern". This is likely referring to the fact that the main Storfjorden splits into two branches: Norddalsfjorden (in the north) and Sunnylvsfjorden (in the south). The last element is iflir which is frequently used in the Sunnmøre area in the names of fjords. It possibly comes from the word viflir which means "low, wet terrain". Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Sunnelven. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Sunnylven.

Government

While it existed, this municipality was responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment, social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. During its existence, this municipality was governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.

Municipal council

The municipal council (Heradsstyre) of Sunnylven was made up of 17 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows: