Skaun Municipality

Skaun is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Orkdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Børsa. Other villages include Buvika, Eggkleiva, Melby, Skaun, and Viggja.

The 224-square-kilometre (86 sq mi) municipality is the 298th largest by area out of the 357 municipalities in Norway. Skaun Municipality is the 128th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 8,484. The municipality's population density is 37.8 inhabitants per square kilometre (98/sq mi) and its population has increased by 14.8% over the previous 10-year period.

Skaun is predominantly rural, but is nonetheless situated only 25 kilometres (16 mi) from Norway's third largest city, Trondheim. Most inhabitants, except agricultural and public sector workers, work outside of the municipality in Trondheim, Orkanger, or Melhus. The European route E39 highway runs east to west across the northern part of the municipality and Norwegian County Road 709 runs north and south through the municipality.

The municipality of Børseskognen was established on 1 January 1890 when Børsa Municipality was divided into two: Børseskognen Municipality (population: 1,410) was in the south and a smaller Børsa Municipality (population: 2,300) in the north. In 1930, the name was changed to Skaun Municipality.

During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, Skaun Municipality (population: 1,251), Børsa Municipality (population: 1,476), and Buvik Municipality (population: 1,267) were merged to form a new, larger Skaun Municipality.

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

The municipality was originally named Børsaskognen meaning "the forest of Børsa", referring to its more rural forested nature compared to the more built up area of the neighboring Børsa Municipality to the north. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Børsaskogn, removing the definite form ending -en. On 13 October 1929, a royal resolution changed the name of the municipality to Skaun. This new name was chosen from the old Skaun farm (Old Norse: Skaun) since the first Skaun Church was built there. The name comes from the Old Norse word skinr which means "to shine". This is believed to refer to the lake Laugen.

The coat of arms was granted on 9 January 1987. The official blazon is "Per fess urdy azure and argent" (Norwegian: Delt blått og sølv ved palisadesnitt). This means the arms have a field (background) that is divided by a line with an "urdy" design. The background below the line has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The background above the line has a tincture of blue. The arms are designed to look like the four large, old standing stones found in the municipality. The four stones are most likely associated with a large grave site dating back to around 500-1000 AD. Local tradition states that these stones are where Einar Tambarskjelve moored his ships, and he owned a fort in Husaby in Skaun. The arms were designed by Einar H. Skjervold. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.