Óttarr svarti[a] (“Óttarr the Black”) was an 11th-century Icelandic
skald. He was the court poet first of
Óláfr skautkonungr of Sweden, then of
Óláfr Haraldsson of Norway, the Swedish king
Anund Jacob and finally of
Cnut the Great of Denmark and England. His poems are significant contemporary evidence for the careers of Óláfr Haraldsson and Cnut the Great.
A recent review of the origins of the nursery rhyme
London Bridge is Falling Down has debunked the popularly held belief that it enshrines an English folk memory of a
Viking attack on London, sometimes connected with an attack in 1014 for which a stanza from Óttarr's Höfuðlausn is the earliest source.[2]
Jesch, Judith (2005) 'Skaldic poetry, a case of literacy avant la lettre?' In: Literacy in Medieval and Early Modern Scandinavian Culture. Ed. P. Hermann. Odense. Pp. 187–210
Jesch, Judith (2006). 'The ‘meaning of the narrative moment’: Poets and history in the late Viking Age'. In: Narrative and History in the Early Medieval West. Ed. E. M. Tyler, R. Balzaretti. Turnhout. Pp. 251–65
^Clark, John (2002). ‘London Bridge and the archaeology of a nursery rhyme’, London Archaeologist 9, 338–40; cf. Hagland, Jan Ragnar, and Watson, Bruce. (2005). 'Fact or folklore: the Viking attack on London Bridge', London Archaeologist 12, 328-33