Thomas Warton  

"Their religion, among other causes, might have contributed to keep this spirit alive; and to pre serve their original stock of images, and native mode of expression, unchanged and unabated by climate or country. In the mean time we may suppose , that the new situation of these people in Scandinavia, might have added a darker shade and a more savage complexion to their former fictions and superstitions; and that the formidable objects of nature to which they became familiarised in those northern solitudes, the piny precipices, the frozen mountains, and the gloomy forests, acted on their imaginations, and gave a tincture of horror to their imagery."--The History of English Poetry (1774-1781) by Thomas Warton

"It is an established maxim of modern criticism, that the fictions of Arabian imagination were communicated to the western world by means of the Crusades. Undoubtedly those expeditions greatly contributed to propagate this mode of fabling in Europe. But it is evident […] that these fancies were introduced at a much earlier period. The Saracens, or Arabians, having been for some time seated on the northern coasts of Africa, entered Spain about the beginning of the eighth century. Of this country they soon effected a complete conquest : and imposing their religion, language, and customs, upon the inhabitants, erected a royal seat in the capital city of Cordova."--The History of English Poetry (1774-1781) by Thomas Warton