Audiobook · read by volunteers
Life of Charlemagne (Einhard)
Einhard (775–840)
Read by Sibella Denton, Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023), David Barnes, Lizzie Driver, ontheroad · 5 chapters · 1 h 14
About the book
Charlemagne, king of the Franks and emperor of the West, was one of the most powerful rulers of the early Middle Ages, and the man who knew him best wrote his life. Einhard was employed at the court of Charlemagne, and at the request of Louis the Pious, the emperor's son and successor, he composed this biography some years after Charlemagne's death. He describes the Frankish royal family, the great wars against the Lombards, the Saxons and others, the building of palaces and churches, and the emperor's private habits, from his dress to his appetite. The portrait is admiring but vivid, and it remains the main source for the ruler's personality. Read by five LibriVox volunteers in a little over an hour, it is a classic of medieval biography in Samuel Epes Turner's English.
Introduction
Einhard (c. 775-840) was a Frankish scholar who was brought up at the court of Charlemagne and served as a close adviser and a court historian. After the emperor's death in 814, he wrote the Vita Karoli Magni, or Life of Charlemagne, at the request of Louis the Pious, Charlemagne's son and successor. The work is usually dated between about 817 and 830. It is a first-hand source for the emperor's life and character, and for the events of his reign Einhard drew on the Frankish royal annals.
Einhard's literary model was the classical Roman biographer Suetonius, whose lives of the Caesars he clearly knew well. Like Suetonius, he divides his subject into themes: first the family and the rise to power, then the wars and conquests, then the emperor's character, habits, appearance and learning, and finally his death and will. The result is a short and well-organised work that has been read ever since as the best portrait of the ruler.
The English translation recorded here is by Samuel Epes Turner and dates from 1880. Chapter headings follow the divisions of the original, with titles such as Merovingian Family, Saxon War, Private Life, Personal Appearance, Dress and Habits. They show the author's method of treating each aspect of the career in turn. Modern historians recognise that Einhard wrote with admiration and with a political purpose, but his book remains an invaluable source.
This LibriVox recording is shared among five volunteers, among them Sibella Denton, Kara Shallenberg and David Barnes, and it lasts a little over an hour. It is an ideal introduction to the Carolingian world.
Public domain
Einhard died in 840: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text