Drivveden ligger ved tangvollen.

The driftwood lies by the seaweed bank.

Breakdown of Drivveden ligger ved tangvollen.

• ved: by
• ligge: to lie (be located)
• tangvollen: the seaweed bank
• drivveden: the driftwood

Questions & Answers about Drivveden ligger ved tangvollen.

Why does drivveden end in -en?

Because -en is the usual definite ending for many masculine/common-gender nouns in Norwegian.
So:

• drivved = driftwood
• drivveden = the driftwood

In this sentence, the speaker is talking about specific driftwood, not just driftwood in general.

Is drivved a countable noun in Norwegian? In English, driftwood often feels uncountable.

It can work a bit differently from English. In Norwegian, drivved is often treated as a noun that can still appear in the definite form drivveden when referring to a particular piece or a particular mass of driftwood already understood from the context.

So even though English often says simply driftwood, Norwegian can naturally say drivveden for the driftwood.

Why does the sentence use ligger instead of er?

Norwegian often uses position verbs where English would just use is.
Ligge literally means lie or be lying, but it is also commonly used for things that are located somewhere, especially things resting on the ground or in a natural position.

So:

• Drivveden er ved tangvollen would sound less natural
• Drivveden ligger ved tangvollen is the normal way to say that the driftwood is lying / is located there

This is very common in Norwegian:

• Boka ligger på bordet = The book is on the table
• Byen ligger ved kysten = The city lies on the coast / is on the coast