Lögberg-Heimskringla - 18.11.1994, Blaðsíða 5

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 18. nóvember 1994 • 5
“Oddi á Rangárvöllum” in South lceland
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Left:
Oddi Heritage Church
Far ieft:
Dr. Thor Jakobsson
addressing the
delegates
Below:
Conference
delegates on the hill
overlooking Oddi —
where the view disk
is situated.
“Ó, Guð Vors Lands”. Today a young
minister, Sr. Sigurður Jónsson, and his
wife Jóhanna and 3 children, have been
living in Oddi since 1991. Veiy close to
Oddi there are two farms, belonging to
the old complex of “Oddastaður” (“the
village of Oddi”).
On December 1, 1990, Oddafélagið,
“The Oddi Society”, was established in
order to advance greater interest in the
history of Oddi and the idea of re-estab-
lishing a cultural centre in Oddi, suggest-
ing the location as the future site of a
research and education centre for the
study of man and nature.
Recently, in the moming of June 18,
1994, at the beginning of the national 50-
year anniversary festivities in the district
of Rangárvellir, a “view-disk” (útsýnisskí-
fa) was inaugurated on the hill of
Gammabrekka at Oddi. On the disk the
visitor to Oddi is able to read the names
of surrounding mountains and surpris-
ingly many landmarks visible from the
small hill where Sæmundur fróði used to
play when he was a young boy.
For further information on
Oddafélagið, the “Oddi Society”, please
contact Dr. Þór Jakobsson, Espigerði
2(2E), IS-108 Reykjavík.
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famous medieval centre of culture
and power
©ddi at Rangárvellir in
South-Iceland is located
a few minutes drive east
of Hella. In earlier times
it was strategically situat-
ed at cross-roads of the main road
between the districts in the south and the
road to the north across the countiy. It
therefore became early a natural place for
power and central administration. Oddi
was the home of one of the most power-
ful and influential families in Iceland,
“Oddaverjar”, who lived there for genera-
tions, almost for four centuries.
Even though “Oddaverjar” played an
important role in the establishment of the
laws of society and the Church during
the first centuries of Christianity in
Iceland, as well as participating in the
administratíon and politícal affairs of the
country in general, the influence the
Oddaverjar exerted upon culture had
even a more profound and long-lasting
influence.
In Oddi one of the first schools of
Iceland was established and “Odda-
staður” was for centuries a centre for a
remarkable scholarly activity resultíng in
some of the literature which forms the
basis of Icelandic culture today.
The fírst settler, “landnámsmaður”, in
Oddi á Rangárvöllum was Þorgeir
Ásgrímsson who built his farm there
around 935. His great-grandson, Sigfús,
became the first minister of Oddi around
1050. Since then Oddi has always been a
rectory, a home of a minister. Son of
Sigfús, Sæmundur “fróði” (the leamed)
(1054-1133) studied in France for many
years, leaming the “seven free arts” of the
times (grammar, logic, rhetoric, mathe-
matics, geometíy, music and astronomy).
Turning back home to Iceland at the
encouragement of another intelligent
Icelandic student, Jón Ögmundsson,
Sæmundur fróði became an eminent
scholar, writíng some of the first books in
Iceland and he also became a leading fig-
ure in law-making during great changes
in society.
Like Sæmundur fróði, Jón Ögmunds-
son (1052-1121) was instrumental in the
establishment of the new Church,
becoming the first Bishop at Hólar in
North-Iceland. It was Jón who had the
traditional heathen names of the week-
days changed in Iceland. Instead of Þórs-
dagur, Óðinsdagur, Freysdagur he dictat-
ed that they should be Þriðjudagur,
Miðvikudagur, Fimmtudagur.
The grandson of Sæmundur, Jón
Loftsson (1124-1197), was a very impor-
tant man in the histoiy of Iceland. Jón’s
other grand-father (afi) was a Norwegian
king. Jón Loftsson was a powerful ruler
of Iceland, his power based as much on
the great respect he enjoyed as a wise
and just chief as on the power he inherit-
ed. He successfully resisted the ever-
growing dominance of the intemational
Church. Jón fostered like his own sons
the most famous Icelander who ever
lived, Snorri Sturluson (1178-1241), the
author of the Eddas and Heimskringla,
the history of the kings of Norway.
The golden age of Oddi á Rangár-
völlum ended in the thirteenth century
but most of the time since, Oddi was cov-
eted by the clergy as a “good ministry”
(“gott brauð“). It has been a home of
many respectable ministers, the best
known in later times being the poet
Matthías Jochumsson (1835-1920), the
author of the Icelandic natíonal anthem,