Excerpt from Wonder Tales From Wagner: Told for Young People Richard wagner, in constructing his music dramas, found his materials in the legends of all lands. The source, or more correctly the sources, of The Flying Dutchman essentially a sea-myth are to be traced to many countries. Tannhauser, the mediaeval tale of which has been recorded in poetry, and thus handed down to us from the past, is distinctly German. So, too, is Lohengrin, though the story of Cupid and Psyche, from which Wagner obtained part of the plot of this opera, is Greek. Tristan and Isolde is Celtic; and The Mastersingers has an historical foundation, and is peopled with real, not legendary, personages. It is my purpose to show, as simply as I can, the origin of the stories incorporated in the Master's works. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.