Odin was important in Norse myths about creation. He and his brothers, Vili and Ve, were said to have killed the frost giant Ymir. From its body they made all the different areas of the world, including the sea and the sky. The three brothers then created the first human beings, called Ask and Embla.

Stories tell of Odin's many sons, including Thor, the god of thunder. Second in importance to Odin, Thor was also the subject of many myths. Odin's other children included his daughters, the Valkyries. According to legend, the Valkyries met fallen heroes on the battlefield and escorted them to Valhalla, which was a grand banquet hall in Odin's palace, Asgard.

From the watchtower in Asgard, thought to be in heaven, Odin could see anything that happened in the universe. Stories tell how each day he would send two ravens, named Thought and Memory, out into the world. The birds would return to Odin, perch on his shoulders, and whisper into his ears all they had seen during the day. For that reason Odin was called the raven god. Odin was also believed to travel the world himself, disguised as a bird, a snake, a fish, or other beast. Sometimes he traveled as a gray-bearded man with only one eye. According to legend, he had given up the other eye in exchange for wisdom.

In writing and art, the Scandinavians depicted Odin as an older, handsome man who rode into battle wearing a golden helmet. Poems in The Elder (Poetic) Edda, a book written in Iceland in the 13th century, include wise sayings and advice supposedly given by Odin. In the 1800s the German composer Richard Wagner made Odin the subject of a series of operas. Called The Ring of the Nibelung, those operas are still performed today.