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.

Greatness Contested and Confirmed: The Raw Materials of the Charlemagne Legend; T. F. X. Noble KAROLVS MAGNVS or KAROLVS FELIX: The Making of Charlemagne's Reputation and Legend; P. E. Dutton Part One: Memories of Carolingian Kingship Al-Hakim, Charlemagne and the Destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem in the Writings of Ademar of Chabannes; D. F. Callahan Godfrey of Bouillon vs. Raymond of Saint-Gilles: How Carolingian Kingship Trumped Millenarianism at the End of the First Crusade; J. Rubenstein Charlemagne's Legacy and Anglo-Norman Imperium in Henry of Huntingdon's Historia Anglorum; W. M. Hoofnagle Part Two: Modeling the Man Charlemagne as Saint? Relics and the Choice of Window Subjects at Chartres Cathedral; E. Pastan Charlemagne as Crusader: Memory, Propaganda, and the Many Uses of Charlemagne's Legendary Expedition to Spain; J. Stuckey Charlemagne as Bungler: Requests for Visual Evidence in the Descriptio qualiter and the Voyage of Charlemagne; A. Latowsky

MATTHEW GABRIELE is Assistant Professor of Humanities and Coordinator of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA.
 
JACE STUCKEY is Assistant Professor of History, Louisiana Tech University, USA.