Odin

In the mythic corpus summarized in the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda, Odin and his brothers Vili and Vé slay the primordial being Ymir and fashion the world from his body; Odin and his brothers also give life to the first humans, Ask and Embla. Odin occupies a central, kingship-like position among the Æsir and is tied to cosmogonic acts of creation and to the eschatological cycle culminating in Ragnarök, where he leads the einherjar and is fated to be killed by the wolf Fenrir.

Odin is commonly depicted in the sources as long-bearded and sometimes as an old man; he is characteristically shown or described as having only one eye, having sacrificed the other for wisdom. Prose Edda material associates him with a spear and with the gold ring Draupnir (in the corpus of stories summarized by the sources). He is frequently accompanied by animal familiars—two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, and two wolves, Geri and Freki.

Odin is portrayed as a seeker and dispenser of wisdom (notably sacrificing an eye for greater knowledge), a source of poetic inspiration and ecstatic/frenzied prophetic states (the theonym derives from Proto-Germanic *wōðaz 'possessed, inspired'), and as lord of warfare and of certain dead warriors whom he receives into Valhöll. He commands or is associated with Valkyries who choose the slain, leads the einherjar in the mythic final battle of Ragnarök, and participates in mythic rulership and legitimizing genealogies in later euhemerized texts. Historical and traveller accounts record cultic practices directed to him, including reports of human sacrifice.