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Ringerike kommune

County	Buskerud
District	Ringerike
Municipality	NO-0605
Administrative centre	Hønefoss
Mayor (2003)	Kolbjørn Kværum (Ap)
Official language form	Bokmål
Area  - Total  - Land  - Percentage	Ranked 47 1,552 km² 1,423 km² 0.48 %
Population  - Total (2004)  - Percentage  - Change (10 years)  - Density	Ranked 26 28,060 0.61 % 2.4 % 20/km²
Coordinates	60°12′N 10°9′E / 60.2, 10.15Coordinates: 60°12′N 10°9′E / 60.2, 10.15
www.ringerike.kommune.no Data from Statistics Norway

Ringerike is a municipality in the county of Buskerud, Norway.

Ringerike was created as a new municipality January 1, 1964 - after the merger of the town of Hønefoss, and the rural municipalities of Hole, Norderhov, Tyristrand and Ådal. (Hole was, however, again separated from Ringerike January 1, 1977.)

The town of Hønefoss is the administrative center. The municipality is bordered on the north by Sør-Aurdal and Søndre Land, on the east by Gran, Jevnaker, Lunner and Oslo, in the south by Bærum, Hole and Modum, and in the west by Krødsherad and Flå.

The coat-of-arms is from modern times (1967). It shows a (royal) ring - and the colours red and gold also represent royalty. (See below under name and history.)

The Norse form of the name was Hringaríki. The first element is (probably) the plural genitive case of hringir - the name of an old Germanic tribe. The last element is ríki n 'realm, kingdom'.

The historic Ringerike included not just the modern municipality of Ringerike but also Hole - and (sometimes) the eastern parts of Modum and Krødsherad.

There are many archaeological remains in the area, dating from the earliest times as well as from the medieval period. Ringerike has been mentioned in Norwegian history since the earliest times.

In the early Viking Age, before Harald Fairhair, the landscape was a petty kingdom. Sigurd Hjort Helgasson, a king of Ringerike, was the father of Ragnhild, the mother of Harald Harfargr, unifier of Norway. Following Harald's consolodation of Norway in the late 800s, the kingdom appears to have been ruled by a series of local jarls and client kings. One, Harald's son Halfdan Haleg, met his end in Orkney at the hands of Jarl Turf-Einar, who reputedly performed the blood-eagle on him. A later subking of Ringerike, Sigurd Syr, was the father of Harald Hardråde.

Ringerike is famous for two agriculture products; Ringerike potato (Ringerikspotet) and Ringerike pea (Ringeriksert). Ringerike pea has obtained PDO (protected designation of origin). The Ringerike potato has applied for the same protection, and is waiting for the result from the Agriculture department(2003). In june 2007 the potato got "protected geographical indication, PGI" under the name Ringerikspotet fra Ringerike. 6 farmers are now producing and packing this special potato at Ask in Ringerike. Most of the potato is sold in the Oslo area.

• Harald 3. Sigurdsson "Hardråde" (1015-1066) King of Norway 1046-1066. Killed under the battle of Stamford Bridge (England) 25. september 1066.
• Jens Aabel, started production of Ringerike potato ca. 1867
• Frode Andresen, Norwegian biathlete
• Erik Hagen, Norwegian soccer player
• Anders Jacobsen, Norwegian ski jumper. 2. in world cup 2006.