Other villages in the municipality included Botnen, Eitrheim, Håra, Røldal, Seljestad, Skare, and Tyssedal.

[4] In 1927, Erling Johnson, working at Odda Smelteverk, invented a process to produce three-component, NPK fertilizers.

The official blazon is "Azure, an arrowhead argent" (Norwegian: På blå grunn ein opprett sølv pilodd).

This means the arms have a blue field (background) and the charge is an arrowhead (Norwegian: pilodd) that is pointing upwards.

The arrowhead has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used.

This is seen as reflecting the strength of will of the community and also the production of hydroelectric power and the important industries based on it.

The colors are interpreted as representing the white of the Folgefonna glacier and the snowcapped mountains surrounding Odda and the blue of the fjord cutting deep into the landscape to reach the municipality.

[12][13][14] In 2010 an international report stated: What makes Odda smelteverk so important and central to the application of Norway’s hydro power sites and pioneer chemical industry as a World Heritage Site is the fact that here in an internationally unique way the physical remains of an early chemical production process are still present.

[15] Odda grew up around this smelter in the early-twentieth century, drawing migrants from different parts of Norway.

As a result, there developed a new dialect, a mixture of that spoken in the home regions of the migrants - a phenomenon termed by linguists "a Koiné language".

The researcher Paul Kerswill conducted an intensive study of the Norwegian spoken in the two communities, relating them to very different geographical origins: The workers in Odda came predominantly (86%) from western Norway.

[19] The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Odda was made up of 27 representatives that were elected to four year terms.

[38] There are also many large lakes such as Sandvinvatnet, Votna, Valldalsvatnet, Røldalsvatnet, Ringedalsvatnet, Langavatnet, and parts of Ståvatn.