Molde

Heraldry of the World Civic heraldry of Norway - Norske Kommunevåpen

MOLDE

Province : Møre og Romsdal
Additions : 1964 Bolsøy, Veøy (partly)

Origin/meaning

The arms were granted at the same date as the town rights, on June 27, 1742.

The two founding industries in Molde during the Middle Ages were export of timber and export of salt fish. The barrel in the coat-of-arms represent the timber export, and the whale the export of fish. Molde was never a whaling port, and the significance of the whale is that it, according to Medieval superstition, was sent by God to chase the fish towards land at certain times every year. The creator of the coat-of-arms had obviously never seen the schools of orcas and pilot whales in the fjord outside Molde, since the whale depicted is a baleen whale

The arms in the Coffee Hag album +/- 1930

Literature : Norske Kommunevåpen, Kommunalforlaget, 1987. Background by

Hakon Vinje