The Legend of Charlemagne in the Middle Ages: Power, Faith, and Crusade (The New Middle Ages)

These essays take advantage of a new, exciting trend towards interdisciplinary research on the Charlemagne legend. Written by historians, art historians, and literary scholars, these essays focus on the multifaceted ways the Charlemagne legend functioned in the Middle Ages and how central the shared (if nonetheless fictional) memory of the great Frankish ruler was to the medieval West. A gateway to new research on memory, crusading, apocalyptic expectation, Carolingian historiography, and medieval kingship, the contributors demonstrate the fuzzy line separating “fact” and “fiction” in the Middle Ages. This interdisciplinary collection uses the legend of Charlemagne to explore larger themes in the European Middle Ages, such as crusading, conceptions of kingship, and apocalyptic expectation