wagner's sources for the opera are spread over 600 year time span. in 1391, and again at the beginning of the 15th century, tales were in circulation about a paradise within a german mountain and a traveler who idles with a sybil before heading to rome for the pope's forgiveness. the "song of tannhäuser" of 1515 combines moralizing with the adventures of an historical minnesinger named danhuser, tanhuser, or tannenhauser. this minnesinger's songs told of erotic love and its opposite, holy love.