How Odin Lost His Eye

6. The American God

Odin Anthony Hopkins
Starz

While the version of Odin which instantly comes to mind for many will be either the Marvel Comics character or his Marvel Cinematic Universe incarnation, Neil Gaiman's American Gods also put its own spin on Odin.

Gaiman has previous with Odin, mind, for he introduced the character into his legendary Sandman title. In Sandman, Odin was largely similar to the incarnation seen in Norse mythology, bar for a slightly more mischievous side that saw him sharing a similar mindset to Loki at times.

In Gaiman's American Gods, however, he provided a version of Odin who was a little changed up from that Norse god. That version would be the Mr. Wednesday character, who has subsequently been portrayed by Ian McShane in Amazon's adaptation of American Gods. Where as the Sandman Odin had a mildly questionable edge, Mr. Wednesday was a full-on conman desperate to pit other all-mighty beings against one another.

The word Wednesday is "onsdag" in Swedish, with Old Norse language having "onsdag" as loosely translated to Odin's Day. In American Gods, it's never specified just how Mr. Wednesday has lost his eye, but we do know that he has replaced that lost eye with a glass replacement that's a slightly different shade to his other eye.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.