Odin
Odin, first among the gods, or the "Father of All Things", together with his brothers Vili and Ve, created the world from the body of the first living creature, the ice giant Ymir, whom they slew.
Ymir had been created when the scorching sparks of the warm land of Muspell, to the south, had met the thawing ice of Niflheimr, the cold land of the north.
When Odin and his brothers killed him, Ymir’s blood drowned all the ice giants except Bergelmir and his wife, who would later beget a race of giants, eternally at enmity with the Norse gods.
Once he was dead, the brothers used Ymir’s bones to make the mountains, his skull to make the vault of the sky, and his blood to make the seas. They then set the stars, the sun and the moon in the firmament.
One day, as they walked along the shore, they found two tree trunks: an ash and an elm. From these they made the first man and the first woman: Askr and Embla. Odin breathed into them the spirit of life, Vili granted them thought and feeling, and Ve gave them hearing and sight. They were given the realm of Midgard (Middle Earth) in which to dwell. The gods resided in the realm of Asgardr.
There were two divine races: the Aesir and the Vanir, who waged war against one another until they agreed upon a truce.