DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Early Lives of Charlemagne by Eginhard and the Monk of St Gall edited by Prof. A. J. Grant" by Einhard, Balbulus Notker. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Charlemagne's impact on Europe -- on the world -- cannot be underestimated. He brought together diverse cultures in his empire, supported scholarship, and established the power of the Christian church. In Early Lives of Charlemagne, we receive two views of the emperor within a century of his death. According to translator and editor A.J. Grant, the differences are instructive. In the treatment by Eginhard, who was Charlemagne's personal secretary, we read a "restrained, positive, well-arranged narrative" that "distorts the facts of history wonderfully little." In contrast, the Monk of Saint Gall's version was written about seventy years after the emperor's death, when "the mist of legend and myth steamed up rapidly from the grave of a well-known figure." Taken together, these essays provide information not only about Charles the Great, but also about the task of writing history and biography.

"Asser's Life of King Alfred, written in 893, is a revealing account of one of the greatest medieval kings. Composed by a monk of St David's in Wales ... this life is among the earliest surviving royal biographies ... chronicling his battles against Viking invaders and his struggle to increase the strength and knowledge of this people, and to unite them at a time of conflict, uncertainty and war."--Publisher description