SOURCE: Dutton, Paul Edward. “An Introduction to Einhard.” In Charlemagne's Courtier: The Complete Einhard, pp. xi-xli. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 1998.

In the following excerpt, Dutton explores the characteristics of Einhard the man, not limited only to his writing of the Life of Charlemagne, and considers him as courtier, poet, theologian, and the author of Translation and Miracles.

Einhard and Charlemagne have traveled through history together, at least as we have always imagined them, the little biographer and his towering subject. Their relationship has always struck observers, including Einhard himself, as that of a nurturing father and his adopted son. But it would do no harm for us to scratch a little at the varnish that lies thick and yellowing over this familiar portrait. Beneath it the searcher may come upon another image, the one that too often lies hidden behind the figure of Charlemagne himself, even in the...