Rindal is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Orkdalen region. The administrative centre is the village of Rindal. Other villages in the municipality include Tiset and Romundstad. The municipality centres on agriculture and forestry services.

The 632-square-kilometre (244 sq mi) municipality is the 185th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Rindal is the 283rd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 1,957. The municipality's population density is 3.2 inhabitants per square kilometre (8.3/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 5% over the previous 10-year period.

General information

The parish of Rindal was established as a municipality in 1858 when it was separated from Surnadal Municipality. It was originally located within Møre og Romsdal county. The initial population of Rindal was 2,684. On 1 January 2008, the Fossdalen farm (population: 4) was transferred from Rindal (in Møre og Romsdal county) to Hemne Municipality (in Sør-Trøndelag county). On 1 January 2019, the municipality of Rindal was transferred from Møre og Romsdal county to Trøndelag county.

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Rindal farm (Old Norse: Rindudalr) since the first Rindal Church was built there. The first element is the genitive case of the river name Rinda which is derived from the verb rinna which means to "run" or "flow". The last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale". Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Rindalen. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Rindal, removing the definite form ending -en.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 20 January 1989. The official blazon is "Vert, a gavel Or" (Norwegian: I grønt en opprett gull klubbe). This means the arms have a green field (background) and the charge is a gavel. The gavel has a tincture of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. The gavel is meant to symbolize John Neergaard, who is considered the father of municipal governments in Norway, (formannskapets far), who was from Rindal. He was responsible for pushing for local government reform which led to the approval of the Formannskapsdistrikt law in 1837. The arms were designed by Einar Skjervold. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.

Churches

The Church of Norway has one parish (sokn) within the municipality of Rindal. It was historically part of the Indre Nordmøre prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Møre. On 1 January 2020, the parish of Rindal was transferred to the Orkdal prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Nidaros. This transfer was a result of the municipality of Rindal being transferred from Møre og Romsdal county to Trøndelag county in 2019.

Churches in Rindal

Parish (sokn)	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Rindal	Rindal Church	Rindal	1874
	Øvre Rindal Chapel	Tiset	1911

Geography

The municipality lies in the southwestern part of Trøndelag county, along the border with Møre og Romsdal county. Rindal formerly was part of Møre og Romsdal and at that time, it was the only landlocked municipality in that county. The lakes Foldsjøen and Gråsjøen lie along the border with Surnadal to the southwest. The large river Surna begins in Rindal at the confluence of the rivers Tiåa and Lomunda. The Trollheimen mountain range runs through southern Rindal. The Grønkjølen Nature Reserve lies in the extreme northwest of the municipality.

The municipality of Surnadal lies to the west in Møre og Romsdal county. Rindal shares a border with five other municipalities to the north, east, and south: Hemne, Orkdal, Meldal, Rennebu, and Oppdal.

Government

Rindal Municipality is responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, welfare and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council. The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Trøndelag District Court and the Frostating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Rindal is made up of 17 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.

Mayors

The mayors (Norwegian: ordfører) of Rindal:

Notable people

• Ola T. Heggem (born 1952 in Rindal), a Norwegian politician and Mayor of Rindal from 1992-2005 & 2011-2019

Sport

• Einar Ræder (1896 in Rindal – 1976), a long jumper, competed at the 1920 Summer Olympics
• Thorvald Heggem (1907 in Rindal - 1976), a Nordic combined skier and cross country skier
• Sigurd Røen (1909 in Rindal - 1992), a Nordic skier who competed in the 1930s
• Mikal Kirkholt (1920 in Rindal – 2012), a cross-country skier, team silver medallist at the 1952 Winter Olympics
• Magnar Ingebrigtsli (1932 in Rindal – 2001), a cross-country skier and biathlete, competed at the 1956 Winter Olympics
• Eli Landsem (born 1962 in Rindal), a former footballer and coach of the Norway women's national football team, 2009-2012