The Saga of Star Oddi (Stjörnu Oddi)
Oddi lived and worked in Flatey, Skjalfanda, in northern Iceland in the twelfth century. He was a hired labourer on a farm, Oddi differed from others in skills and was known as an man of education. He used a lot of his time analysing the movements of the sun, moon and stars. In this way, he was given the nickname Star, and was probably considered to be strange, spending his time on such studies. Oddi´s observations of the motion and the relative changes in the height of the sun across the sky made it possible for the Vikings to navigate during the light northern summer nights and, by using the sun, the sailing period for the Vikings were extended from the previously short summer period. 
 
Tables have been found, which were made by Star Oddi (Stjörnu-Oddi). One gives the altitude of the sun for the entire year, and another shows the direction of dawn and twilight, that is, of the light on the horizon at the sun's going up and down. All the measurements of angles were made in what was called "half-wheel", a kind of half sun-diameter. This was something which was known to every viking at that time. This knowledge had probably developed through the centuries, from generation to generation, from sailors to sailors, before Star Oddi linked the knowledge together with his technical work, documenting these skills of the Vikings in his work.
At Flatey there is an hill that is considered to be the place where Star Oddi worked. On the hill is a formed circle which locals say Star Oddi placed a stick in the middle and then analysed the shadow cast from the stick to construct his table for the sun's movements.

 



Flatey. The enlarged part shows the circle where Star Oddi made his observations of the sun's movements.

From his studies, Star Oddi was able to predict very precisely the behaviour of the sun in relation to the earth's movement and calculate latitude position at specific time. He did more than that, he developed the so called "sun stone" a stone that was able to gather week light penetrating through the clouded or foggy sky. This made navigation possible for the Vikings, independent of the sight to the clear sky. His work is considered to be the greatest engineering achievement of the Viking Age, enabling the Vikings to travel over long distances and finding their way back home again. Later, scientists have shown that Oddi, although unable to have had instruments of any kind, made remarkably exact observations without falling into errors which at that time were common in other parts of the world.

Viking culture and trade spread over wide areas in Europe and the discovery of America could probably not have been achieved without great knowledge in the art of navigation. On regular basis, ships sailed between Norway, the Faeroes and Iceland. The isolation at the Faeroes and Iceland were great, but through the sailing, contacts were made to the world outside the isolated North Atlantic area. The Vikings from Iceland, Norway and Faeroes realised many adventures through traveling the world and they later brought stories home from the outside world. The Vikings were great story tellers, which forms the background for the Icelandic Saga, written in the Viking Age. These Sagas contain not only stories from Iceland but from other countries as well. The Sagas are a great source of history and their precision in telling have been verified on many occasions, even though the story tellers might have embellished the story in order to make the story more exciting and to amuse the listeners.

 



Map showing the countries where the Vikings sailed mostly between.