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Molde, Møre og Romsdal (Norway)

image by Tomislav Šipek, 05 November 2015

The Flag
Coat of Arms

See also:

About the flag

I'm not sure if it is or not the flag of Molde.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4aSRBMsrtE (see 0:24)
White one. What do you think?
Tomislav Šipek, 23 October 2015

It seems so the white flag with the coat of arms is used...
However, if you search for photos of the same location in the center of Molde, the flagstaffs there are mostly without any flags.
On the other hand, it seems that a popular flag there is the FC Molde (Molde FK), like this one occasionally also shown as vertical long flag with blue and white multistripes with the emblem in the centre...
Then there is this blue-white-red flag hoisted on 17th May! http://www.rbnett.no/nyheter/article10978611.ece (I guess just an ornament in the national colours, but strange nevertheless...)
Željko Heimer, 02 November 2015

Here is flag and coat of arms Molde.
Source: http://no.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g190506-i17949006-Molde_More_og_Romsdal_Western_Norway.html
Tomislav Šipek, 05 November 2015

Coat of Arms

image by Tomislav Šipek, 05 November 2015

Anyway, looking at the city coat of arms detailed presentation and rules at http://www.molde.kommune.no/historien-bak.356640.no.html and subsequent pages, it seems that there is no official flag at all...
Anyway, [c2j87] recounts that the city received the town privileges on 27 June 1742 (The city web site above states 29 June 1742) that included prescription on the coat of arms: "en vannsprutende hvalfisk, som driver en tønne for seg" being: "a water spouting whale, which drives a barrel in front itselves" (BTW, the web site and the [c2j87] include some differences in ortography, which is, I guess, one showing the modern language and the other the original 18th language...
Željko Heimer, 02 November 2015

When Norwegian was still written as Danish, the 'vann' would probably have been spelt 'vand', and likewise "tønde" for 'tønne'. Also, the 'seg' would have been 'sig'.

During the famine of 1739-1741, large numbers of herring entered the Moldefjord. Herring fishery thus relieved the hunger for many people. When Molde got city rights, one year after, the herring catch had saved many a life in the area. The explanation given for the appearance of the herring, was that where whales previously stayed more than a hundred kilometres from shore, they no must have driven the herring into the fjord. Thus, the arms show a whale driving a herring barrel to the town.
Source: http://www.molde.kommune.no/historien-bak.356640.no.html.
Everything on arms styling: http://www.molde.kommune.no/byvaapen.263535.no.html.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 22 April 2016