Loppa

The municipality is named after the island of Loppa (Old Norse: Loppa), since it was the former centre of the municipality and the first church (Loppa Church) was located there. The meaning of the name is uncertain, however it is mentioned to be of Norse origin.[7] Historically, the name was spelled Loppen.[8][9]

The coat of arms was granted on 19 December 1980. The official blazon is "Or a cormorant wings elevated sable" (Norwegian: I gult en svart skarv). This means the arms have a charge that is a great black cormorant in sable. The field (background) 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 cormorant was chosen as a symbol since the municipality has several typical fishing villages which often attract cormorants which are reputed to be good fish-catchers. The yellow color in the field symbolizes the riches from the local fishing industry. The arms were designed by Arvid Sveen.[10][11][12]

The Church of Norway has one parish (sokn) within the municipality of Loppa. It is part of the Alta prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Nord-Hålogaland. In the medieval ages Loppa was its own parish, with traces after an old church in the fishing village of Yttervær, on the island Loppa.

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Loppa is made up of 15 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the council is as follows:

The mayors of Loppa:[33][34]

Little is known of this period historically and archaeologically in this area. However the discovering of a Roman Age longhouse from 120 AD,[36] at the island of Loppa shows the earliest signs of settlement in the Early Iron Age. Perhaps was this the very beginning of Norse taxation of the Sami peoples in the area and the interaction between the two peoples of trade and commerce in fishing and the industry of the hunting of maritime mammals.[37][38] The longhouse is also one of the oldest one ever discovered in Northern Norway.

In 1962 a rich female Viking Age grave was discovered on the island of Loppa. It contained luxurious personal objects such as tortoise brooches, a round brooch in the Oseberg style, a whalebone plaque, beads, knife, scissor and an arrowhead. The female grave was dubbed "The Queens Grave" due to the manner in which she was buried. However she was most likely not a queen but a very important person indeed on Viking Age Loppa. Perhaps a housewife of a local chieftain? The wealth of the grave reflects that of the Norse elite's presence in the area. The burial was dated to the 9th century AD.[36][39][40]

In 1964 a longhouse from Viking Age was also discovered dated to the end of the 8th century AD. Several other buildings and boathouses was also discovered and dated to the same period as the longhouse and the rich female grave. There is also several burials from Iron Age on the island, where the biggest a burial cairn with the size of 13 meters in diameter. The amount of Iron Age burials and houses suggests that of a more permanent Norse settlement.[40]

In Middle Ages, the hunting and the production of oil from marine mammals seems to stop, and fishing becomes more important. Along the coast of Northern Norway we see so called farm mounds of ancient settlements, and at Loppa there are at least 6 farm mounds spread out on the island of Loppa, Silda and at mainland Andsnes. However, the farm mounds of Northern Norway seem to have their upbringing already in Early Iron Age, suggesting that fishing was already a commercial trade before the Middle Ages. On the island of Loppa one of the farm mounds was dated to the 1100s AD, with a church site close by. This suggests that Loppa was its own parish already in the Middle Ages.[40][41]

Hans E Kinck, 1908