SOURCE: An introduction to Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard’s Histories, translated by Bernhard Walter Scholz with Barbara Rogers, The University of Michigan Press, 1970, pp. 1-33.

In the following essay Scholz describes and discusses the importance of two Carolingian works: the Royal Frankish Annals (740-829), which reflects the King’s interest in keeping a record for posterity, and Nithard’s Histories, a mostly contemporary (840-43) and more objective history which includes an account of Charlemagne’s death.

One of the perennial obsessions of medieval authors was the suspicion that the past was superior to the present. In the preface to his Life of Charlemagne, Einhard of Seligenstadt expressed the fear that his work might offend the minds of those who despise everything modern. Yet he managed to overcome his scruples because he also knew of many “who do not consider everything done today as unworthy of...