A delightful article has been posted and is making the rounds: “An Eye for Odin? Divine Role-Playing in the Age of Sutton Hoo” by Neil Price and Paul Mortimer. I thoroughly recommend it.
One particular table is given on page 531 and I cannot help but present it here. It’s a listing of items with “altered eyes” in what we may assume to be representations of Wōden’s missing eye.
Object and Location | Deposition Date | Altered Eye |
---|---|---|
Högom textiles, Sweden | c. 500 | Left |
Elsfleth buckle tongue, Germany | c. 500–600 | Left |
Hellvi helmet mask, Gotland, Sweden | c. 550 | Right |
Torslanda matrix, Öland, Sweden | c. 550–700 | Right |
Uppåkra helmet eyebrow, Skåne, Sweden | c. 550–700 | Right |
Gevninge helmet ocular, Roskilde, Denmark | c. 550–700 | Right |
Vendel grave 12 shield grip, Uppland, Sweden | c. 600 | Right |
Valsgärde grave 7 helmet crest, Uppland, Sweden | c. 620–710 | Left |
Sutton Hoo Mound 1, East Anglia, England Helmet eyebrow, animal head, whetstone, and purse-lid figure | c. 625 | Left |
Uppåkra figurine, Skåne, Sweden | c. 700–900 | Right |
Øster Vandet mask-weight, Denmark | c. 700–900 | Left |
Staraja Ladoga ferrule, Russia | c. 750–800 | Left |
Ribe pendant head, Denmark | c. 750–950 | Right |
Even if you limit to particular areas with more than one find, the results are still mixed as to which eye is altered. It seems like a good bet, if we’re interpreting the finds correctly, that it didn’t matter which eye was missing, just as it doesn’t especially matter now.