Vili and Vé in the context of "Bestla"

Odin (/ˈoʊdɪn/; from Old Norse: Óðinn) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Empire's partial occupation of Germania (c. 2 BCE), the Migration Period (4th–6th centuries CE) and the Viking Age (8th–11th centuries CE). Consequently, Odin has hundreds of names and titles. Several of these stem from the reconstructed Proto-Germanic theonym Wōðanaz, meaning "lord of frenzy" or "leader of the possessed", which may relate to the god's strong association with poetry.

Most mythological stories about Odin survive from the 13th-century Prose Edda and an earlier collection of Old Norse poems, the Poetic Edda, along with other Old Norse items like Ynglinga saga. The Prose Edda and other sources depict Odin as the head of the pantheon, sometimes called the Æsir, and bearing a spear and a ring. Wider sources depict Odin as the son of Bestla and Borr; brother to Vili and Vé; and husband to the goddess Frigg, with whom he fathered Baldr. Odin has many other sons, including Thor, whom he sired with the earth-goddess Jörð. He is sometimes accompanied by animal familiars, such as the ravens Huginn and Muninn and the wolves Geri and Freki. The Prose Edda describes Odin and his brothers' creation of the world through slaying the primordial being Ymir, and his giving of life to the first humans. Odin is often referred to as long-bearded, sometimes as an old man, and also as possessing only one eye, having sacrificed the other for wisdom.

In Norse mythology, Ymir (/ˈiːmɪər/), also called Aurgelmir, Brimir, or Bláinn, is the ancestor of all jötnar. Ymir is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional material, in the Prose Edda, written by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century, and in the poetry of skalds. Taken together, several stanzas from four poems collected in the Poetic Edda refer to Ymir as a primeval being who was born from atter (Old Norse: eitr), yeasty venom that dripped from the icy rivers called the Élivágar, and lived in the grassless void of Ginnungagap. Ymir gave birth to a male and female from his armpits, and his legs together begat a six-headed being. The grandsons of Búri, the gods Odin and Vili and Vé, fashioned the Earth—elsewhere personified as a goddess named Jörð—from Ymir's flesh; the oceans from his blood; from his bones, the mountains; from his hair, the trees; from his brains, the clouds; from his skull, the heavens; and from his eyebrows, the middle realm in which humankind lives, Midgard. In addition, one stanza relates that the dwarfs were given life by the gods from Ymir's flesh and blood (or the Earth and sea).

In the Prose Edda, a narrative is provided that draws from, adds to, and differs from the accounts in the Poetic Edda. According to the Prose Edda, after Ymir was formed from the elemental drops, so too was Auðumbla, a primeval cow, whose milk Ymir fed from. The Prose Edda also states that three gods, the brothers Odin, Vili and Vé, killed Ymir, and details that, upon Ymir's death, his blood caused an immense flood. Scholars have debated as to what extent Snorri's account of Ymir is an attempt to synthesize a coherent narrative for the purpose of the Prose Edda and to what extent Snorri drew from traditional material outside of the corpus that he cites. By way of historical linguistics and comparative mythology, scholars have linked Ymir to Tuisto, the Proto-Germanic being attested by Tacitus in his 1st century CE ethnography Germania and have identified Ymir as an echo of a primordial being reconstructed in Proto-Indo-European mythology.

In Norse mythology, Borr or Burr(Old Norse: 'borer' sometimes anglicized Bor, Bör or Bur) was the son of Búri. Borr was the husband of Bestla and the father of Odin, Vili and Vé. Borr receives mention in a poem in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional material, and in the Prose Edda, composed in the 13th century by Icelander Snorri Sturluson. Scholars have proposed a variety of theories about the figure.

In Norse mythology, Auðumbla (Old Norse pronunciation: [ˈɔuðˌumblɑ]; also Auðhumla [ˈɔuðˌhumlɑ] and Auðumla [ˈɔuðˌumlɑ]) is a primeval cow. The primordial frost jötunn Ymir fed upon her milk, and over the course of three days she licked away the salty rime rocks and revealed Búri, grandfather of the gods and brothers Odin, Vili and Vé. The creature is attested solely in the Prose Edda, composed in the 13th century by Icelander Snorri Sturluson. Scholars identify her as stemming from a very early stratum of Germanic mythology, and ultimately belonging to larger complex of primordial bovines or cow-associated goddesses.