genre: history
This book is two different volumes written in the 800s about Charlemagne. The volume by Einhard is a more factual account of Charlemagne's life and experiences, especially important because Einhard was a contemporary and friend of the king, so he did have an eye on Charlemagne's inner world. Notker's volume is mostly full of anecdotes that even my brain had a hard time believing. Luckily, the scholarly introduction to the book even tells us that most of this stuff is made up. HOWEVER, even knowing it's made up, you DO get a pretty good idea of what life was like over 1100 years ago. The church was so vitally important. Red heads were feared. God and the universe always punished bad people in horrible ways (like a church bell falling on you and squishing you flat). Women were viewed as property but also, sometimes had a brain. This is a direct quote, translated from the Latin, by Notker the Stammerer, "It is the way of all women to want their own particular plan and solution to take preference over the decisions made by their menfolk." HELL YEAH, ha ha.
I do like that this book gives you an idea of Charlemagne as a person AND as the giant he became in the minds of future generations. He really was just a dude who was good with a sword and loved learning. THAT is a good thing to know. Also, this made me laugh. This was by Einhard, who would know, "Even then (Charlemagne) continued to do exactly as he wished, instead of following the advice of his doctors, whom he came positively to dislike after they advised him to stop eating the roast meat to which he was accustomed and to live on stewed dishes." It tracks that the Holy Roman Emperor would ignore his doctors if they told him to eat healthy. I just love that Einhard felt like this needed to be written down in this document that he was intentionally writing for posterity.
I feel like unless you are interested in the subject or in period literature in general, you should just not read this.
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