Besides, his style is that of the driest annalist.
He is always worth comparing with the extant English Chronicles; and from 1106 he is an independent annalist, dry but accurate.
Lastly, the annalist is a partisan.
Otto was also related to the great house of Hohenstaufen, a relationship which gave him access to sources of information usually withheld from the ordinary monastic annalist, and his work is very valuable for the earlier part of the career of Frederick I.
One annalist after another quietly adopted the established tradition, as it had been left by his predecessors, without any serious alterations of its main outlines.