In all my 18 years of education, I have only learned about Charlemagne once at the start of my history course (never even heard of him before then, and learning about him here was in the context of his mustache...), and I've only heard mentions of the Merovingians in the context of his empire.
This makes me wonder why not only the post-Roman period is so scarcely taught at any level before university, but also why it is so ignored in popular literature/media. There are many games, movies, and shows covering the Medieval period, but these usually only cover either the Vikings (understandable) or from the Norman invasion of Britain. The Romans obviously also get a lot of love in the public consciousness, and so do the Ancient Greeks to some extent.
Is it because of the lack of sources we have relating to this period for why it's so unexplored? Or is it because Charlemagne is the 'Father of Europe' and set the context for much of Europe's more recent history such as the crusades?
Hi there! You’ve asked a question along the lines of ‘why didn’t I learn about X’. We’re happy to let this question stand, but there are a variety of reasons why you may find it hard to get a good answer to this question on /r/AskHistorians.
Firstly, school curricula and how they are taught vary strongly between different countries and even even different states. Additionally, how they are taught is often influenced by teachers having to compromise on how much time they can spend on any given topic. More information on your location and level of education might be helpful to answer this question.
Secondly, we have noticed that these questions are often phrased to be about people's individual experience but what they are really about is why a certain event is more prominent in popular narratives of history than others.
Instead of asking "Why haven't I learned about event ...", considering asking "What importance do scholars assign to event ... in the context of such and such history?" - the latter question is often closer to what to what people actually want to know and is more likely to get a good answer from an expert. If you intend to ask the 'What importance do scholars assign to event X' question instead, let us know and we'll remove this question.
Thank you!