Write the Life
Tomás Mario Kalmar
Historians have been baffled by the way Asser interlaces allusions to Einhard, echoes of his own words, and hagiographic clichés. Reading Vita Alfredi as literature advances current paradigm shift in our attitudes towards Asser, allowing us appreciate rhetoric imagination that inform imitatio Einhard’s Karoli. Thomas Greene on literary imitation, Walter Berschin Carolingian life-writing, Christopher Ricks poetics allusion, Erich Auerbach prefiguration fulfillment, David Howlett chiasmus, John Hollander self-echoing illuminate game plays with clichés, echoes, allusions. By condensing modus Alfred’s life into a childhood fable, figura, he invites see him succeed where Einhard failed.
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