In a poem entitled Völuspá, we read how Odin conjures up the

spirit of a dead sybil commanding her to reveal the past and the future. She responds reluctantly: “What do you ask of me? Why tempt me?” And after each vision revealed, she taunts him: "Well, would you know more?" But Odin insists: if he is to fulfill his function as king of the gods, he must possess all knowledge.

In her song, the sybil describes Yggdrasill, the world-tree, and the three Norns spinning the threads of fate beneath it. Once the sybil has told all her secrets she falls back into oblivion: "I sink now".