Oddur Gottskálksson

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.

[4][5] By 1554, Oddur had been elected as a jurist (lögmaður) for the north and west of Iceland, serving until his death in 1556.