Oddi Helgason

Oddi Helgason (c.1070/80 – c. 1140/50), called Star Oddi (Icelandic: Stjörnu-Oddi), worked as a farm laborer in the 12th century in northern Iceland and achieved remarkable astronomical knowledge through careful observations. Oddi resumed his work in the Oddatala where he stated the position of the sun for every day of the year in Iceland and calculated the date of summer and winter solstices and their direction giving a useful source of orientation for sailors, since no navigational instruments were used at that time. Oddi features as the protagonist in the fourteenth century Old Norse-Icelandic tale Stjörnu-Odda draumr.