Oddur Gottskálksson

{{icelandic name|Oddur}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Oddur Gottskálksson

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| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{circa|1495/96}}

| birth_place = Hólar, Iceland

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1556|1514}}

| death_place = Laxá í Kjós, Iceland

| nationality =

| other_names =

| occupation = jurist

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| known_for = First translation of the New Testament into Icelandic

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}}

File:Title page of Oddur Gottskálksson's 1540 translation of the New Testament into Icelandic.jpg

Oddur Gottskálksson (1495/1496{{Cite journal|author=Vilborg Auður Ísleifsdóttir|date=2005|title=Oddur norski og Nýja testamentið 1540|journal=Ritmennt. Ársrit Landsbókasafns Íslands|volume=10|pages=133–150: 143|url=https://timarit.is/page/5429582#page/n145/mode/2up}} – 1556) was the translator of the first book printed in Icelandic, the New Testament.

Oddur was born in Hólar where his father, Gottskálk grimmi Nikulásson was bishop. After his father died in 1520, Oddur was sent to live with his paternal family in Bergen, Norway. When he was a young adult, he went to study in Germany, where he became acquainted with the ideas of the Protestant Reformation. Before 1535, he returned to Iceland to serve as a scribe for the Catholic Bishop of Skálholt, Ögmundur Pálsson. It was there that he befriended Gissur Einarsson and other Reform-minded clergy and began his translation of the New Testament.{{cite web|title=Oddur Gottskálksson's Translation of the New Testament|url=https://landsbokasafn.is/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=750&cntnt01origid=1&cntnt01detailtemplate=LBS_KjorgripurDetail&cntnt01returnid=1|access-date=8 February 2021|publisher=Landsbókasafn Íslands Háskólabókasafn|location=Reykjavík, Iceland}}

According to Oddur's own account, he did his translation work secretly in a barn: "Jesus, Our Redeemer, was laid in a donkey's crib, but now I lay in a barn to put his Word in my native language."„Jesús, lausnari vor, var lagður í einn asnastall en nú tek ég að útleggja og í móðurmál mitt að snúa orði hans í einu fjósi.“ Oddur's translation of the New Testament was published with the approval of King Christian III and the Church of Denmark in 1540, marking the acknowledgement by the church of the Icelandic language.{{Cite journal|author=Veturliði Óskarsson|date=November 2019|title=The Icelandic Language at the Time of the Reformation: Some Reflections on Translations, Language and Foreign Influences|url=|journal=Nordlit|volume=|issue=43|pages=102–114|doi=10.7557/13.4960|doi-access=free}}{{cite book|last=Neijmann|first=Daisy L.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e_3jxYe5nTMC|title=A History of Icelandic Literature|date=1 January 2006|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|isbn=0-8032-3346-9|location=Lincoln, Nebraska|pages=177–178|access-date=8 February 2021}}

By 1554, Oddur had been elected as a jurist (lögmaður) for the north and west of Iceland, serving until his death in 1556. Oddur drowned while crossing the Laxá í Kjós river.{{cite book|author=Jón Egilsson|title=Safn til Sögu Íslands og Íslenzkra Bókmennta|url=https://baekur.is/bok/000339579/1/Safn_til_sogu_Islands_og|accessdate=21 February 2021|year=1856|publisher=S.L. Möcler|location=Copenhagen, Denmark|language=is|pages=76–79|chapter=Biskupa Annálar|trans-title=Museum of the History of Iceland and Icelandic Literature|trans-chapter=Bishop's Annuals}}