Oddi (Icelandic: [ˈɔtːɪ]) is a small village and church at Rangárvellir in Rangárvallasýsla, Iceland. Oddi at Rangárvellir was a cultural and learning center in South Iceland during the Middle Ages. There has been a church at Oddi since the introduction of Christianity. The current church at Oddi dates from 1924.
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For centuries, Oddi (Old Norse: [ˈodːe]) was the central home of the powerful family, Oddaverjar. The two best known leaders in Oddi were Sæmundur Sigfússon the Learned (1056-1133) and his grandson Jón Loftsson (1124-1197). The historian Snorri Sturluson (1178-1241) was brought up and educated in Oddi by Jón Loftsson. It has been suggested that the name of the Edda is derived from Oddi.[4][5]
Iceland's patron saint Þorlákur Þórhallsson received his education at Oddi from the age of nine (1142-1147) and looked upon the priest Eyjólfur Saemundsson as his foster-father. Þorlákur received Holy Orders in the Diaconate at the age of fifteen and then the Catholic priesthood at age eighteen.
^The derivation of Edda from Oddi proposed in 1895 by Eiríkr Magnússon is discussed and rejected by Anatoly Liberman, "Ten Scandinavian and North English Etymologies," Alvíssmál 6 (1996): 63–98, here pp. 67–70. On the derivation of Edda see also Anatoly Liberman, "An Addendum to 'Ten Scandinavian and North English Etymologies' (Edda and glide/gleiten)," Alvíssmál 7 (1997): 101–4, here pp. 101–2.
