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Odal, NorwayOdal is a landscape in the county of Hedmark in eastern Norway. It consists of the municipalities of Sr-Odal and Nord-Odal and encompasses the communities around the lake of Storsjen. 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 ting in Eidsvoll. With the introduction of Christianity around 1030, several churches were built, and the area became politically more autonomous. The area may have become overpopulated until the Black Plague and following plagues, when a huge proportion of the population died. Farms were abandoned and consolidated during this time, and it took at least 200 years for the population to reach its previous levels. In the 1600s, Odal suffered economic setbacks as a result of taxation and general economic downturns. Forestry rose as a complementary source of income to agriculture. By all accounts, the agricultural sector has not grown appreciably in the area since the 1700s. Sr-Odal and Nord-Odal were split into separate municipalities in 1819.
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