Charlemagne-Stream-of-consciousness  --  Einhard.... missi dominici.... Alcuin.... monasticism .... Peter of Pisa.... Merovingians.... Roland.... War(s)..... Education ..... Harun al-Rashid..... capitularies ...... Franks.... bishops..... Verden..... Empire moving toward order and peace.... Moors on the attack.... an ideal..... twitching cadaver/Chevy Vega..... influence..... Henri Pirenne..... church.... activity..... Renovatio..... Bede and Vikings and the north shore..... Aachen.... Italy, Rome, Pope, Coronation, HRE..... active..... over-managed.... tragic fall (Beowulf).... tall.... tragic(?) Treaty of Verdun... literacy..... Richer..... Hope..... Europe.

       Some useful questions for discussion:

What does Einhard really think of himself? (individualism, education)

Why did Charlemagne treat people around him in the manner he did, e.g., not allowing his daughters to marry, giving phony names to his court advisers?

Consider the personality that Einhard describes of Charlemagne: is this an individual or a type?   (a question that divides scholars/students)

Culture here is interesting and diverse, e.g., that the Song of Roland is based on ¶ 9.

How did Einhard present Chalemagne's wars? Just wars? Expediency? Survival? Empire-building? Saving Europe? Glory?

How did Einhard present religion and the church? Does Charlemagne or Einhard come across as true believers? What does your conclusion on this mean for the Empire?

What sort of King was Charlemagne?

Consider the Coronation of Christmas Day, 800: What was behind it? What did participants seem to think of it? What did it mean?  (Of course, it became huge but no one could know that then.)

What themes of Reform or Renovatio or Progress etc. appear in Einhard and/or in the other sources we have before us from the Carolingian Period?

Given Charlemagne's life and struggles and given his results (which in many ways are represented by the bridge near Mainz in ¶32 or his coastal defenses near the end of ¶17, is Charlemagne a type of Beowulf (reality represented by art -- or reality imitating art?) in Tolkien's interpretation? Why, or why not?

Is this reading just another chapter in the theme of Bede? Or is there a significant set of differences between Bede's Historia and Einhard's Life?

So in the end, how do you evaluate the Carolingian Empire -- important? significant? pivotal? influential?

Now to the myth: What heroic qualities in this Carolingian context do you see? Who? Why?