Early Lives of Charlemagne by Eginhard and the Monk of St Gall edited by Prof. A. J. Grant

Transcriber’s Note
The notes, keyed to line numbers in the source edition, have been converted to footnotes. Their position has been corrected as necessary. Minor emendations have been made to punctuation and spelling. Running heads and the publisher’s catalogue have been omitted.
THE KING’S CLASSICS
EARLY LIVES OF CHARLEMAGNE
Charlemagne
From a bronze statuette in the Musée Carnavalet. Paris
EARLY LIVES OF CHARLEMAGNE BY EGINHARD AND THE MONK OF ST GALL EDITED BY PROF. A. J. GRANT
ALEXANDER MORING LIMITED THE DE LA MORE PRESS 32 GEORGE STREET HANOVER SQUARE LONDON W 1905
A lui finit la dissolution de l’ancien monde, à lui commence l’édification du monde moderne. Lavallée
And so it is that, whereas through Eginhard’s narrative we look at the life of the great Charles in a clear white light, through a medium which, despite a few inaccuracies, distorts the facts of history wonderfully little, when we take up the narrative of the Monk, on the other hand, we are at once among the clouds of dreamland; and only occasionally does the unsubstantial fabric fade, and allow us to get a glimpse of reality and actual occurrence. But now each of these narratives demands a somewhat more careful scrutiny.
The Writings of Eginhard that have come down to us are—(1) the Life of Charlemagne; (2) the Annals; (3) Letters; (4) the History of the Translation of the Relics of Saint Peter and Saint Marcellinus; (5) a short poem on the martyrdom of these two saints. These writings are all, with the possible exception of the last mentioned, of high value and interest, but the Life of Charlemagne is by far the most celebrated and important.
It is in works such as these (to mention no others) and not in Eginhard that the real historical significance of Charlemagne’s life-work appears. Eginhard stood too near to his hero, and had too little sense of historical perspective to realise the abiding greatness of what Charles accomplished. It is the lapse of 1100 years that has brought into increasing clearness the importance of those years which lie like a great watershed between the ancient and the mediæval world. Of him, as of most great rulers, it is true that he “builded better than he knew.” His empire soon became a tradition, his intellectual revival was eclipsed by a further plunge into the “Dark Ages,” but all that he did was not swept away. With him ends the ruin of the ancient world, and with him begins the building up of the mediæval and modern world.