Charlemagne's Mustache and Other Cultural Clusters of a Dark Age
presents the reader with seven engaging studies of cultural life and
thought in the Carolingian world: Why did Charlemagne have a mustache
and why did hair matter? Why did the king own peacocks and other exotic
animals? Why was he writing in bed and could he write at all? How did
medieval kings become stars? How were secrets kept and conveyed in the
early Middle Ages? Does the world age with the aged? And why did early
medieval peoples believe in storm- and hailmakers? The answers, Dutton
finds, are often surprising.