wagner was an insatiable reader, always on the alert for material that could be adapted to an opera. for "tannhäuser", he combined elements not only from traditional tales but material from c. j. l. lukas's "essay" (1838) on the character of tannhäuser and ludwig tieck's "faithful eckart" (1799). ludwig bechstein's "thuringian legends" (1835) included the story of the song contest. wagner was familiar with the song contest through e. t. a. hoffmann's "serapion brothers", friedrich de la motte-fouque's drama "the singers dispute in the wartburg" (1828), and wagensil's "nuremberg chronicle"."