Ringerike is a municipality in the county of Buskerud, Norway. The town of Hønefoss is the administrative center.

The landscape of Ringerike

The name Ringerike is also used to mean the whole landscape of Ringerike: a wider area than that covered by the municipality itself — todays municipality of Hole, and sometimes Jevnaker, also being included in the landscape.

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, the Norwegian word rike meaning "kingdom".

Kings of Ringerike:

• Sigurd Hjort
• Halfdan the Black. His second wife was Ragnhild, daughter of Sigurd Hjort.