In 1897, Collingwood travelled to Iceland where he spent three months over the summer exploring the sites around the country in which the medieval Icelandic sagas are set.
Compared to music the visual arts had considerably deeper roots in Icelandic culture beginning with the brilliant illustrators of the medieval Icelandic sagas.
Thor adapted quickly to Iceland, learning Icelandic and reading medieval Icelandic sagas.
Also, the medieval sagas contain accounts of uniting petty kingdoms under a single king through actual combat.
He reproached Wagner for his conversion to anti-semitic Christianity, his glorification of medieval sagas and spiritual chastity, as the sign of a decadent, dying culture.
Hnefatafl was mentioned in several of the medieval sagas, including Orkneyinga saga, Friðþjófs saga, Hervarar saga, and others.
Hebbel had talent; Wagner had genius, and their versions of the medieval "Nibelungenlied" saga reaffirm that hierarchy.
Remembered as an aggressive missionary ruler in the medieval Icelandic sagas, in which the extent of his authority has almost certainly been grossly exaggerated.
"The Niebelungs" (1924), based on the medieval saga, was designed to bolster German morale; today it bolsters us esthetically, with its sculptural strengths.
Some letters recount stories reminiscent of the medieval Italian saga that scholars believe inspired Shakespeare.