The first site that I will review is Bulfinch Mythology; http://www.showgate.com/bulfinch/legends. This site is a historical overview of Charlemagne, Charles the Great king of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor, and his life and trials beginning with the death of his father and joint leadership of Challenge and his younger brother. After years of bickering between the two sons Carloman, the youngest of the two brothers, died. At his point Charles, who later in the history would be called Charlemagne, became sole monarch of the Franks. The site also includes a biography written by Thomas Bulfinch. Bulfinch's writings are based on primary and secondary sources.
The major primary source used by all accredited scholars is Einhard. Einhard was a writer during the time of Charlemagne who has written the most important biography used by scholars and writers of Charlemagne. This account by Einhard is the source used by Italian writers of the renaissance to write about Charlemagne. Bullfinch's site is biased of course towards his views. But while surfing and uncovering other Charlemagne sites I found that there aren't too many discrepancies to the historical accounts of Charlemagne. Scholars tend to agree with what he did, yet some can't agree on the type of man he was. Regardless of the type of man he was there is no argument about the type of respect he received.
This site was very easy to surf. There are many highlighted words to click and review. For example the site starts with the word Charlemagne in the Introduction. The account is of him being king. If you select the word Charlemagne in the paragraph it will send you to a basic history of Charlemagne beginning with his birth and his family to the rise of him as king of the Franks till his death. Then click back and start the introduction with a grasp of who Charlemagne was, this gives you a better grasp of what he did after reading into the biography. Another informative measure is notes he has taken and offers from the writings. Just click on notes at the bottom of each excerpt and it transports you to an area where notes he has collected on this subject are accessible. This also helps with the an overall understanding of what Bulfinch wants you to come out of the reading with in terms of actions and character.
This particular site had one attribute that I found interesting. Usually when I am reading and I come across a name of some country or some person I just wing the pronunciation, yet this site has a little voice box next to each word that loads up and actually verbally says the word. This lets you learn the right pronunciations, and makes you maybe sound a bit smarter if at all you are ever in a conversation in class about the subject. Overall this particular site is a first site. What I mean by this is that you should read this site first before getting to a larger more drawn out site like the Bulfinch site. This site does not add to much of an opinion to what kind of man Charlemagne was but more let you develop your own conclusion, not to give you to much information about any such subject. This site was definitely informative but in a summarizing manner and not as a primary source for a research project.
This site was a great one to see all though I have not had time to read the entire book I plan to finish it. It is by far the foremost primary source to use for a historical account of Charlemagne's life.
The site itself is wonderful, even though it is poorly configured. It could have more options to surf than just turning pages. One way to help would be to footnote difficult words or to highlight them so that one could understand the meaning of a writing in which the translation itself dates back to the 1800's. Another suggestion would be some images or color. it is definitely a dry site with really no character. As a hub site, I can understand why there isn't much fun to the site, as the writers have a lot more to do than to sit and add perks to it.
The Boise State site is just a summary and could maybe be built upon. The voice boxes are a good touch but the overall weakness was definitely in content.
Fordham has a wonderfully informative site with a very important source. There are no special aspects to the site. The table of contents navigates you to each chapter. Each section is lined up just below the other. This site is your basic scroll and read selection. A few suggestions that would make the site better t the reader is to ad color, or even an image or two. On the other hand it has all it needs to be a great informative site. This site was very simple yet very informative.
The three sites that I looked at were three great tools to writing a complete research project. Each site had its ups and downs, but at the same time they were compensated and complemented by one another. The first site to read is the Boise State site. This gives you the understanding you need to begin the other sites. The second site that should be read is the Einhard site by Fordham. This site gives you a strong primary source of what actually happened. Next, the biography by Thomas Bulfinch is a good finish. The reason is simple: anything that you didn't understand from the Einhard site you will be sure to in the Bulfinch site. The ability to research within the site aspects and people other than Charlemagne make it more complete. And finally the mythology that goes with the biography is important in order to get the full effect of the life and times of that era, as well as the mind frame of the people and the historical significance of Charlemagne.