Odal, Norway (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Odal is a traditional district in the county of Hedmark in eastern Norway. It consists of the municipalities of Sor-Odal and Nord-Odal and encompasses the communities around the lake of Storsjo. Traces of human habitation dating back to the Nordic Bronze Age, between 1500 and 500 BCE. The first farms were probably cleared close to the lake about 500 BCE, in the early Iron Age. Settlement spread slowly around the lake and inland, and by the year 800, there may have been as many as 50 farms in the area. Settlement accelerated in the Viking era, increasing the number of farms by as much as an order of magnitude. Increased mobility in the Norwegian population likely changed the character of the society in Odal, and there is evidence the area was under the administration of the thing in Eidsvoll.