Meldal Municipality

Meldal is a former municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 2020 when it joined Orkland Municipality. It was part of the Orkdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Meldal. Other villages included Løkken Verk, Bjørnli, Å, and Storås.

At the time of its dissolution in 2020, the 613-square-kilometre (237 sq mi) municipality was the 184th largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Meldal Municipality was also the 233rd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 3,905. The municipality's population density was 6.4 inhabitants per square kilometre (17/sq mi) and its population had increased by 0.3% over the previous 10-year period.

The municipality was most renowned for its mining activities at Løkken Verk, being the birthplace of the Orkla mining company, now Orkla Group. It was also home to the annual Storåsfestivalen music festival.

The parish of Meldal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1839, the southern district of Meldal (population: 2,368) was separated to form the new Rennebu Municipality. This left Meldal with 3,184 residents.

On 1 January 2018, the municipality switched from the old Sør-Trøndelag county to the new Trøndelag county.

On 1 January 2020, the neighboring Agdenes Municipality, Orkdal Municipality, and Meldal Municipality, plus the majority of Snillfjord Municipality were merged to form the new Orkland Municipality.

The municipality (originally the parish) is named Meldal (Old Norse: Meðaldalr) after its location in the Orkdalen valley. The first element is meðal which means "middle". The last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale". Thus the name means "the middle of the valley". Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Meldalen. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Meldal, removing the definite form ending -en.

The coat of arms was granted on 5 February 1985 and it was in use until 1 January 2020 when the municipality was dissolved. The official blazon is "Gules, an ear of corn in a roundel voided embattled Or" (Norwegian: I rød, et gull kornaks i tannhjul). This means the arms have a red field (background) and the charge is the top of an ear of corn inside a gear-shaped circular ring. The charge 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 design was chosen to symbolize the importance of local industry and agriculture. The arms were designed by Harald Ekseth.