The official blazon is "Per fess argent and azure, a pile issuant from the base" (Norwegian: På sølv grunn blå skjoldfot med spiss oppover).

This means the arms have are divided with a line that is horizontal with a triangle point upwards in the middle.

Above the line, the field has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used.

Abundant summer farms (seter or sæter) are situated close to the treeline, both in the main valley and its tributaries.

The landscape is hummocky in general, and owes its appearance mainly to erosion by the Scandinavian Ice Sheet during the last glacial period.

To avoid engaging a fleet of 25 ships, 400 of King Olav's men and 100 loyal peasant farmers from Romsdal built a road up from the Romsdalfjord which passed through the area that became known as Lesjaverk.

[36] Iron smelting is recorded in Lesja municipality at Lesjaverk (Lesja Iron Works) as early as 1614, when King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway authorized the Romsdal Market at Devold on the Rauma river 4 miles upstream of Åndalsnes.

With this change, Molde assumed the role as principal market town for Romsdal formerly held by Veøy.

According to Du Chaillu, "...during the great famine of 1867; a year memorable in the annals of Northern Europe, when, in consequence of an early and heavy frost in summer, the crops were destroyed, and desolation and death spread over vast districts.

The lichen and the bark of the birch tree, mixed with a little flour, became the food of the people after the cattle had been eaten up and nothing else was left.

The prime minister and his colleagues, who were then in Lesja, were summoned and a communiqué, ending "God save Norway," and urging resistance to the unprovoked attack was issued.

They now intended to relocate to the west coast, but the Germans had dropped paratroopers higher in the Gudbrandsdalen, at Dombås, cutting off the rail route.

It was not until the evening of the 21st that the King was able to travel by road from Otta to Lesja on the east–west watershed and then down the narrow Romsdal to Åndalsnes.

[40] During the war a British fighter squadron (flying 'Gloster Gladiators') flew from the icebound surface of lake Lesjaskogsvatnet.

263 Squadron RAF operated with 18 Gloster Gladiator biplane fighters in late April 1940 as part of the Norwegian Campaign.