Two Lives of Charlemagne - Paperback

by Einhard (Author), Notker the Stammerer (Author), David Ganz (Translator)

Two revealingly different accounts of the life of the most important figure of the Roman Empire

Charlemage, known as the father of Europe, was one of the most powerful and dynamic of all medieval rulers. The biographies brought together here provide a rich and varied portrait of the king from two perspectives: that of Einhard, a close friend and adviser, and of Notker, a monastic scholar and musician writing fifty years after Charlemagne's death.

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Author Biography

Einhard was born of noble parents in the Main valley around A.D. 770. He became a friend of Charlemagne and his family, and was chosen to invite Charlemagne to crown his son as his successor in 813. After Charlemagne's death he was a loyal servant of Louis the Pious, and he died in 840.

Notker the Stammerer (A.D. 840-912), also called Notker I, Notker the Poet or Notker of Saint Gall, was a musician, author, poet, and Benedictine monk at the Abbey of Saint Gall in modern Switzerland.