Odin Origin

Then spoke Third: ‘Just as from Niflheim there arose coldness
and all things grim, so what was facing close to Muspell was hot
and bright, but Ginnungagap was as mild as a windless sky. And
when the rime and the blowing of the warmth met so that it
thawed and dripped, there was a quickening from these flowing
drops due to the power of the source of the heat, and it became
the form of a man, and he was given the name Ymir. But the
frost-giants call him Aurgelmir, and from him are descended
the generations of frost-giants, as it says in the Shorter Voluspa:

All sibyls are from Vidolf, all wizards from Vilmeid, all
sorcerers from Svarthofdi, all giants from Ymir come.

And here it is told by the giant Vafthrudnir

where Aurgelmir came from, together with the sons of
giants, first, that wise giant:

“When from Elivagar shot poison drops and grew until from
them came a giant in whom our ancestries all converge: thus
ever too terrible is all this.” ’

Then spoke Gangleri: ‘How did generations grow from him,
and how did it come about that other people came into being, or
do you believe him to be a god whom you have just spoken of?’

Then High replied: ‘Not at all do we acknowledge him to be a
god. He was evil and all his descendants. We call them frost-giants.
And it is said that when he slept, he sweated. Then there
grew under his left arm a male and a female, and one of his legs
begot a son with the other, and descendants came from them.
These are frost-giants. The ancient frost-giant, him we call Ymir.’

Then spoke Gangleri: ‘Where did Ymir live, and what did he
live on?’

‘The next thing, when the rime dripped, was that there came
into being from it a cow called Audhumla, and four rivers of milk
flowed from its teats, and it fed Ymir.’

Then spoke Gangleri: ‘What did the cow feed on?’

High said: ‘It licked the rime-stones, which were salty. And the
first day as it licked stones there came from the stones in the
evening a man’s hair, the second day a man’s head, the third day
there was a complete man there. His name was Buri. He was
beautiful in appearance, big and powerful. He begot a son called
Bor. He married a wife called Bestla, daughter of the giant
Bolthorn, and they had three sons. One was called Odin, the
second Vili, the third Ve. And it is my belief that this Odin and his
brothers must be the rulers of heaven and earth; it is our opinion
that this must be what he is called. This is the name of the one who
is the greatest and most glorious that we know, and you would do
well to agree to call him that too.’

Then spoke Gangleri: ‘How did they get on together, which
group was the more powerful?’


- Prose Edda, Gylfaginning