I'd answer the same way as Jamie did. Neither eye is specified in
Simek: Dictionary of Northern Mythology (trsn. Angela Hall); Odin is
just said to sacrifice "an eye". Neither eye is specified in the
prose of Gylfaginning, nor in the corresponding stanza from Völuspá.

Þar kom Alföðr ok beiddist eins drykkjar af brunninum, en hann fekk
eigi, fyrr en hann lagði auga sitt at veði. Svá segir í Völuspá:

"All-father (=Odin) came there (to Mimir's well) and asked for a drink
from the well, but he didn't get one till he'd pledged his eye. So it
says in Völuspá:"

Allt veit ek, Óðinn,
hvar þú auga falt,
í þeim inum mæra
Mímisbrunni.
Drekkr mjöð Mímir
morgin hverjan
af veði Valföðrs.
Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?

"I know all, Odin, where you hid your eye in the famous well of Mimir.
Mimir drinks mead every morning from Val-father's (=Odin's) pledge.
Do you understand yet (or: do you know more), or what?"

Völsunga saga:

Hann var hár mjök ok eldiligr ok einsýnn.
"He was very tall, old-looking and one-eyed."

Hann hafði eitt auga ok geir í hendi.
"He had one eye and a spear in his hand."

Þá kom at einn maðr, hár ok eldiligr, með eitt auga...
"Then a man came up, tall and old-looking, with one eye..."

Of four pictures in the Wikipedia entry on Odin, two have the left eye
missing, two the right eye [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odin#_note-0
]. While the text of the article does specify the left eye, it
doesn't source the claim. The footnote at the end of the following
sentence directs us to Anthony Faulkes translation of Skáldskaparmál
(without any page reference), but I think this is probably just a
reference for the story of Odin's theft of the mead. I searched an
online text of Skáldskaparmál for the strings 'aug' and 'eyg', and all
I found about Odin's eye was this verse by Þjóðólfr inn hvinverski
about a battle:

Valr lá þar á sandi,
vitinn inum eineygja
Friggjar faðmbyggvi,
fögnuðum dáð slíkri.

"The dead lay there on the sand, destined for the one-eyed dweller in
the embrace of Frigg (i.e. Frigg's husband, Odin). We rejoiced in
such a deed / such daring."

I also searched online texts (with normalised spelling) of likely
Eddic poems for the string 'aug' but without finding any clue about
which eye Odin gave up.

A cursory look at the Internet shows claims either way, for left and
right (which undermine those statements that claim one or the other to
be "generally believed"), as well as opinions that there is no
evidence in Old Norse texts. Most claims for a specific eye are
backed up by nothing at all. Some are backed up by rationalisations
based on personal symbolism or intuition; at least one is supported by
a dream! Possibly my favourite is: "You need to check the
literature...Odin snatched out his own RIGHT eye to give to Mimir. Not
his left" - with, of course, no hint about where to look. I haven't
found any claim for a specific eye yet which even mentions a
particular Old Norse source, but my knowledge is incomplete too, so I
can't rule out the possibility that some exists. Maybe
"forever_twisted_rocker" can enlighten us?

LN




--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "forever_twisted_rocker"
<forever_twisted_rocker@...> wrote:

>
> Odin offered his left eye. I have done various research over the
> years that all say the left eye was given to be used as insight to
> certain upcoming, or somthing of the sort.
>
>
> --- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Jamie Fessenden"
> <wyrdplace@> wrote:
> >
> > To the best of my knowledge, which eye he lost is never specified
> in the archaic written sources. I could be wrong, of course -- I
> haven't read the entire corpus of Norse literature, and it's also
> possible I did read it, but don't remember. But I think later
> authors and artists simply chose whichever eye seemed right to them.
> >
> > Jamie
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: victor_akl_nz
> > To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
> > Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2007 9:35 PM
> > Subject: [norse_course] Eye of Odin
> >
> >
> > Hi all, just wondering if anyone on the list could enlighten me
> as to
> > the source/s that refer to Odin's missing eye and if they
> actually
> > state which eye he kept and which eye was missing.
> >
> > I've come across various authors who seem to differ in oppinion
> to each
> > other which was actually missing and it would be good to clarify
> this.
> > Any help much appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Victor.
> >
>