Charlemagne, King of Beasts

Abstract

O n the cold and freshly cut edge of a new millennium Otto III, that most precocious of Ottoman emperors, opened Charlemagne’s tomb, refreshed his Carolingian predecessors body with oil, and clothed it in white vestments. Before closing the sarcophagus, he wrapped the corpse in a purple cloth decorated with elephants. 1 Otto knew what we, who have been too influenced by Einhard’s confining categories, have forgotten: that Charlemagne was also king of the beasts. He was “the lion who reigns over all living creatures and wild beasts.” 2 When encountering hyperbolic praise, as we do in Alcuin’s animal boast, we should try not to hurry past the obvious: here that Charlemagne’s power was thought to extend over both the human and animal worlds. Otto’s elephantine winding-sheet said the same, if more softly. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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