The perception of Old Norse literature in post-medieval times moves between an aesthetically motivated international interest and its constriction initially to national and then nationalistic concerns. The article examines this development by analyzing how Old Norse material is used for the construction of a German national consciousness from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th. It compares the German reception of Old Norse mythology to that of the Icelandic sagas, focusing on the question of why the mythology was considered a common Germanic heritage and came to be viewed in Germany as German cultural property, whereas the sagas were regarded as Germanic as well as Icelandic. This paved the way for viewing Iceland as an antithesis of the modern world and therefore the ideal landscape of a Germanic antiquity regarded as classical.