Eide, Aust-Agder


Eide is a former municipality in Aust-Agder county, Norway. It is currently located within the municipality of Grimstad in the traditional district of Sørlandet. The municipality of Eide existed from 1838 until 1962. The municipality was made up of on the mainland and the rest being nearly 70 small islands off the Skaggerak coast. The larger islands include Auseøya, Homborøya, and Ålesøya. The administrative centre was the village of Eide where the Eide Church is located. Other villages in Eide included Jortveit and Homborsund.

History

The municipality of Eide was created on 1 January 1838. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1962, the area of Gitmarkgårdene, with 22 inhabitants, was incorporated into the neighboring municipality of Lillesand. The rest of the municipality of Eide, with 504 inhabitants, was merged into the neighboring municipality of Landvik. Later, in 1971, Landvik was incorporated into the municipality of Grimstad.

Name

The municipality is named after the old Eide farm, since the first Eide Church was built there. The name is identical to the word eid which means "isthmus" because the farm is located between two bodies of water: the Fosdalskilen and Engekilen.

Notable residents