i think gaiman was either not going to name the god for the sake of being mysterious or playing with the idea that there is a god of forgetfulness. maybe?

I was going to read through all fourteen pages, but I couldn't wade through it all!

In any case, I know who the "forgettable god" was. Actually, let's just say that I'm sure that I know who the "forgettable god" should be, because I'm sure that there's a slim chance that Neil is confused about his Hindu mythology (and in the extremely complex world of the Hindu gods, confusion is easily forgiven).

The "forgettable god" should be Mercury.

More explicitly, the "forgettable god" should be a Hindu diety named Budha, the son of the moon god Soma and Tara, the wife of Brihaspati, or Jupiter. Budha is one of the navagraha, or planet-gods in Vedic astrology; to the Hindi, he is Mercury.

Much like the Roman Mercury, the Hindu Mercury is a god of two things: wealth and the mind.

He governs commerce, both tangible and intangible; he grants wealth on to his devotees; he removes obstacles in the way of success.

As the god of knowledge, it is Mercury's power to both grant and erase wisdom. The "greatest among the wise," he has the ability to remove thoughts from minds as well as grant inspiration.

The "forgotten god" is a dark-haired, dark-eyed, well-manicured man. Budha had dark hair and dark eyes, and was considered to be the most attractive of the navagraha.

Now is were we really get analytical:

The element mercury, also known as quicksilver, is the only metal that is liquid at room tempature. It is notoriously difficult to contain and is extremely quick to evaporate; the phrase "like trying to hold mercury" is a common euphamism for things which are either easily forgotten, or difficult to contain.

The "forgettable god"'s home is Las Vegas, which Gaiman goes out of his way to describe as a place where money evaporates or melts away, just like all knowledge of the "forgettable god."

If Mercury is both the incarnation of money and knowledge, and mercury is also impossible to contain or retain, you get ... knowledge and wealth that is impossible to contain or retain. The forgettable god.

More details:

The forgettable god wore what Gaiman referred to several times as a "charcoal suit." The only thing that can contain or absorb liquid mercury is charcoal, which is utilized in containers designed to control mercury spills.

Wednesday orders the forgotten god a Laphoraig and water while they're at the bar. Laphoraig is an Irish single-malt whiskey famous for its peaty aroma, partially the result of a brewing process that involves peat from the local peat bogs. Mercury is a natural byproduct of peat.

Gaseous mercury is used to create neon lights, which Gaiman notes numerous times are the hallmark of Vegas.

While I've already noted it, I think it's important to restate that Mercury was the son of Soma.

Finally, the Hindu word for Wednesday is derived from Budha's (Mercury's) name, just as our word for Wednesday is derived from Odin's name. This may further explain why Neil made Budha the "forgotten god" - because the book already had a Wednesday. (It also explains Neil's use of the song titled Why Can't He Be You - think about it for a minute - during the scene in the bar when Wednesday and Mercury meet, and why Neil chose to describe the two in such similar terms during that scene.)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: amaz0n,

Wow, amaz0n, that was the most detailed, best thought out suggestion so far.
I mean many other people have tossed out that suggestion, but your back-up from the various theologies and from the book (details like the charcoal and the neon) etc. really make a difference.

You have got a believer in me. Mercury/Budha MUST be our forgettable god!

How do you pronounce "Budha", and how is that different from the pronounciation of "Buddha"?

It's not any different from the pronounciation of 'Budha,' at least in the dialect I have knowledge of.

I'll add that, upon further consideration, I think that "the forgettable god" is supposed to be an embodied combination of all of the different Mercurys: the planet Mercury, the element Mercury, and the Hindi and Roman gods Mercury (who are virtually identical), with a strong leaning toward the Hindi Mercury (which is why Wednesday can bribe him with soma, and why he has dark hair and dark eyes).

The only Mercury that isn't consolodated into the forgettable god, though, is Wednesday. Odin is the Nordic equivalent of Mercury. (For more connections, as I noted, the Hindi word for Wednesday is derived from Budha's name; furthermore, the French word for Wednesday is Mercredi, which comes from the word ... well, I'm sure you can figure it out.)

Wednesday (Odin) is the only Mercury who isn't a god of commerce, which is I think the reason why he is seperate from the other Mercury. He is, however, like all the other Mercurys a dispenser and dissolver of knowledge, and by the end of the book you realize that Wednesday is just as hidden and invisible as the forgotten god (both metaphorically, because his true motives are hidden and he's constantly conning people by hiding his true identity under a facade, and physically, because at the end he's just a disembodied voice).

One of the dead giveaways that the forgettable god is Mercury (other than the reference to Soma) is the way that Gaiman describes the interaction between the god and Wednesday during the bar scene - he writes them as warped mirror images of each other. Wednesday is "the man in the light grey suit" and Mercury is "the man in the charcoal (dark grey) suit." Wednesday drinks Jack Daniels, a bourbon whiskey, and Mercury drinks Laphoraig, a scotch whiskey. And, of course, there's Why Can't He Be You. I don't think the lyrics are relevant, but I think the song title is - I think it's a distinct reference to the fact that Wednesday should "be" Mercury but isn't.

More important bits to note:

Because the planet Mercury is practically impossible to see with the human eye, the Egyptian name for Mercury is Sbg, 'unknown.'

The conception of Budha caused a war of the gods according to to Hindu mythology.

Budha's consort, Ila, is a lunar goddess. Since Laura's last name is Moon, we can assume that Shadow's last name is Moon, and because he never knew his father Shadow would have had his mother's last name, making his mother a Moon. His mother is described as being dark-haired and dark-eyed, which roughly indicates that his mother looked ethinically like the "forgotten god."

Way awesome!

I love it!
I'm SOLD!

when rereading american gods I stumbled on another idea.

Towards the end of the novel there is a "coming to america' story about the first god to come to america and be forgotten. He was an asian god, very early on and his people fled to the alaskan tundra and then to the americas. Then they forgot about him and started to worship animals because he no longer talked to them.

Nunyunnini, is as far as I can tell not mentioned anywhere else in the book. The last line in the "coming to america" story is that he is completely forgotten.

Although that's very true, the god in Las Vegas in the charcoal suit is not forgotten, but forgettable. Like he can wipe the mind of his presence.

But its a great thought! Way to go for a super-close reading!

yes, but many times they also say that gods are not so much as a God the way we understand it, just a physical embodyment of what we preceive them. they play the part of what ever we want them to be.

Who can be something nobody remembers?

I tried googling Nunyunnini, but didnt turn many results. Onlylinks related directly to american gods. I wonder if Neil created him out of what little we know about the original imagrents or if there is real documentation somewhere, lost and forgotten.

someone shouldask him on his journal to come to this thread and tell us. haha.

acctually, I just found somethingthat disproves that. I didnt even realize it till i saw someone else post.

http://neilgaimanboard.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/179602665/m/309603665

this post mentions sam being the reborn version of the priestest who worshipped Nunyunnini. It was her coming to america story, not his. Oh well. it was a good try.

I think there was a god in celtic mythology who was related to moeny and forgetfulness but Im not sure...

just to toss one more confusing factoid. The Soma link in patheon.org links to a god named Agni. Agni is generous to all, consumes rivers of soma, and is necessary conduit for sacrifices to gods. This last bit would explain why Odin/Wednesday is so adamant about having the forgotten god at the battlefield.

Could it be some version of Jesus or St.Paul?

We'd rather not think of where the Pope's gold came from. We'd rather not know how our favourite celebrity merchandise endorsement deals are financed. In this there is a connection between The Catholic Church, Televangelists, and Celebrity Icons. We all worship a few of them, but would rather not think of why.

It doesn't matter how Donald Trump got rich, so long as he hires us.

While most people seem obsessed with the forgetfulness and are proposing just about everyone who ever lived in the vicinity of Lethe and anyone who ever had anything to do with memory, I think that is going about it the wrong way. What we should be looking for is a god whose name no-one remembers. If you can suggest a god by name, that's the wrong one.

The mention of the "body-in-the-bog" taste of Laphroig made me think of Tollund Man and I went on a quest to find who he might have been sacrificed to... and found that he probably wasn't a sacrifice as he was once thought to be. Not completely disheartened, I searched for other sacrifices in peat bogs and came across references to the Gundestrup Cauldron. The cauldron almost certainly was an offering to a god and whichever god it was for would have enjoyed the taste of peat from it for a thousand years or more.

The cauldron has the image of a horned god who appears in a lot of Celtic art. He is a god who is often depicted carrying a purse of coins, who seems to be associated with fertility and who is thought to marry the Goddess at Beltane. His name is unknown. The only inscription on any image of him is an incomplete Latin title which probably read "Cernunnos" - The Horned One (I say probably because the first letter of the inscription is missing).

The god we're looking for sees and perhaps manipulates the flow of wealth around Las Vegas. He causes the meeting between a waitress and an oncologist who has won at a casino which will probably lead to activities relating to fertility. He is also looking for a female partner of his own who is thought to be dead or to have taken herself out of the picture about 200 years ago. The Goddess, as Nature personified, could well have died or disappeared during the Industrial Revolution.

So there's my theory, such as it is, which is mine. I think the forgotten god is the horned god of Celtic mythology who is sometimes called Cernunnos but whose actual name is unknown. He isn't associated with forgetfulness, obviously, because everyone has forgotten that detail along with his name and most other attributes. But he is still worshipped. And I think he killed Mr Black in the library with the lead pipe.

quote:

Originally posted by Paul Duncanson:
While most people seem obsessed with the forgetfulness and are proposing just about everyone who ever lived in the vicinity of Lethe and anyone who ever had anything to do with memory, I think that is going about it the wrong way. What we should be looking for is a god whose name no-one remembers. If you can suggest a god by name, that's the wrong one.

The mention of the "body-in-the-bog" taste of Laphroig made me think of Tollund Man and I went on a quest to find who he might have been sacrificed to... and found that he probably wasn't a sacrifice as he was once thought to be. Not completely disheartened, I searched for other sacrifices in peat bogs and came across references to the Gundestrup Cauldron. The cauldron almost certainly was an offering to a god and whichever god it was for would have enjoyed the taste of peat from it for a thousand years or more.

The cauldron has the image of a horned god who appears in a lot of Celtic art. He is a god who is often depicted carrying a purse of coins, who seems to be associated with fertility and who is thought to marry the Goddess at Beltane. His name is unknown. The only inscription on any image of him is an incomplete Latin title which probably read "Cernunnos" - The Horned One (I say probably because the first letter of the inscription is missing).

The god we're looking for sees and perhaps manipulates the flow of wealth around Las Vegas. He causes the meeting between a waitress and an oncologist who has won at a casino which will probably lead to activities relating to fertility. He is also looking for a female partner of his own who is thought to be dead or to have taken herself out of the picture about 200 years ago. The Goddess, as Nature personified, could well have died or disappeared during the Industrial Revolution.

So there's my theory, such as it is, which is mine. I think the forgotten god is the horned god of Celtic mythology who is sometimes called Cernunnos but whose actual name is unknown. He isn't associated with forgetfulness, obviously, because everyone has forgotten that detail along with his name and most other attributes. But he is still worshipped. And I think he killed Mr Black in the library with the lead pipe.

One hell of a first post. Good job, it all makes sense.

Well, yes. But I do like the Charcoal references set forth by another poster and how it related to Mercury.
That has been the explanation that has tied up everything the neatest thus far.

quote:

Originally posted by Saraphina:
Well, yes. But I do like the Charcoal references set forth by another poster and how it related to Mercury.
That has been the explanation that has tied up everything the neatest thus far.

I liked the charcoal bits of that theory the least. Many substances other than charcoal can absorb or contain mercury so the link is kind of tenuous... but the Cernunnos theory doesn't really address the charcoal references at all. The peat link is dodgy too - mercury isn't a byproduct of peat, it just accumulates there along with just about every other contaminant in the water that flows through the bog.

The Mercury explanation also doesn't answer the question of the identity of the woman/goddess the forgotten god is looking for - the one who is thought to have died or gone away 200 years ago.

And of course there's the problem of all of us remembering his name.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Paul Duncanson,

I posted this on another board, but this one seems to have a lot more activity on it.....

I just finished American Gods, and I've been scouring the internet looking for some information on the forgotten God. I found this site, which was very interesting, but nothing has given me the feeling that it is the correct answer. Why would Neil Gaimen have created such a buzz around this god if the answer was as mundane as "Luck" or "Hades" or "Mercury?" I think the truth is much more shocking.

If America was a bad land for gods, then this would include ALL gods. No matter what pantheon they come from. Wednesday would, of course, have wanted to get the most powerful god in America on his side. Which pantheon/god would have the most power in America? The Judeao-Christian God. This is the god with the most believers in the country. This is the god with the most power.

Some questions:

Why could no one remember what he looked like, or even see him?

There are several instances in the bible that answer this question, but the first one I found was from Exodus 33:

18 Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory."
19 And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 20 But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live."
21 Then the LORD said, "There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. 22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen."

Why could no one remember his name?

Mortals are not allowed to know God's name. That is why we call him "God" or "Lord" or even "Yahweh" which simply means "I am." It is not the true name of God. Before you say, "wait, what about "Jehovah?" Jehovah was a mistranslation of Yahweh. It is not the name of God.

From Exodus 3:

13 Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"

14 God said to Moses, "I am who I am . [b] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' "

Anyway, that's all I've got so far. It may not be the best Theory, or the most well thought out (I haven't figured out yet why he is in Vegas, or who he is looking for), but it rings truer for me than any of the other suggestions so far. I just don't know why Neil would have created such a mystery if it was just another god.

Let me know what you guys think of this. It just makes sense to me.

I think its not GOD for a few reasons...

1 they make reference to jesus not being part of their group because he has his own loop hole with christianity not being weakened like the other anceint gods and cracks a joke about jesus in the middle easnt not even being able to get picked up as a hitchhiker. If they wanted GOD they would have courted Jesus...

They would have had to TRICK god into going along with it and if God is 'all knowing', he obviously wouldnt fall for it. Would he?

quote:

Originally posted by Lan Martak:
Ok what about this. The casino that the man in the charcoal suit comes out of could be the Luxor.The book states "the man in the charcoal suit walks, unnoticed, through the doorway, and saunters up the ramp, out onto the sidewalk. He does not even glance up to see the imitation of New York on his left." I have never been to Las Vegas but a map I was looking at

http://www.prairienet.org/~scruffy/e.htm

suggests to me that the New York New York
casino would be on your left if you were coming out of the Luxor casino. The Luxor Temple was where Amen-Ra was worshiped in ancient Thebes.
Amen-Ra is A dual deity devised to merge the worship of Amen with the older solar
cult of Ra. This would explain why an aspect of Amen or Amen-Ra is in Las Vegas.
And, (This is a big stretch) "Why can't he be you" could refer to the Egyptain's habit of combining their gods aspects together at times. Even the several Elvis impersonators could represent different aspects of the "King"?
What do you think?
Or maybe I have been thinking about this too long

Totally cool - I also just got on the Amen bandwagon for exactly the same reason - he ought to have a Temple and Vegas is such a natural because of the Luxor! Glad you looked at the map! Here's a more info on Amen link:

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/amun-re.htm

also on Luxor (the original!)
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/luxortemple.htm