Editorial Content for The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
In THE DARK QUEENS, her nonfiction debut, Shelley Puhak pulls off a singularly difficult feat.
The critically acclaimed poet and writer manages to bring to life two women whose stories have genuinely been obscured by time and propaganda and polish them off, revealing the gleaming individuals beneath. She pushes aside the myth and theological agenda surrounding early medieval chronicles to create realistic and compelling stories of Merovingian queens Fredegund and Brunhild.
"THE DARK QUEENS is an intriguing look at a little-known period in history and is more than deserving of a wide readership."
In doing so, Puhak avoids the all-too-tempting trap of smothering their stories in dry facts or what-ifs and explanations that we don’t really know what happened. On the flip side, she doesn’t make too many massive leaps in logic, crediting her subjects with remarkable achievements but explaining what it is about these people and their extraordinary world that made their successes and failures possible.
The Merovingian period of early medieval Western Europe has long been shrouded in myth, so much so that it proved the backdrop to Pierre Plantard’s infamous and heinous Priory of Sion legend. Puhak barely nods to this pseudohistory and instead dives deep into the chaotic succession and politics of the dynasty. She even foreshadows the coming of the Carolingians in the Merovingian context and how the fascinating but infuriating “long-haired kings” both presaged future developments and proved to be their own worst enemies.
THE DARK QUEENS is an intriguing look at a little-known period in history and is more than deserving of a wide readership.
Teaser
In sixth-century Merovingian France, Brunhild and her sister-in-law, Fredegund, were iron-willed strategists who reigned over vast realms, changing the face of Europe. The two queens commanded armies and negotiated with kings and popes. They formed coalitions and broke them, mothered children and lost them. They fought a decades-long civil war --- against each other. With ingenuity and skill, they battled to stay alive in the game of statecraft, and in the process laid the foundations of what would one day be Charlemagne's empire. Yet after the queens' deaths, their stories were rewritten, their names consigned to slander and legend. In THE DARK QUEENS, Shelley Puhak sets the record straight.
Promo
In sixth-century Merovingian France, Brunhild and her sister-in-law, Fredegund, were iron-willed strategists who reigned over vast realms, changing the face of Europe. The two queens commanded armies and negotiated with kings and popes. They formed coalitions and broke them, mothered children and lost them. They fought a decades-long civil war --- against each other. With ingenuity and skill, they battled to stay alive in the game of statecraft, and in the process laid the foundations of what would one day be Charlemagne's empire. Yet after the queens' deaths, their stories were rewritten, their names consigned to slander and legend. In THE DARK QUEENS, Shelley Puhak sets the record straight.
About the Book
The remarkable, little-known story of two trailblazing women in the Early Middle Ages who wielded immense power, only to be vilified for daring to rule.
Brunhild was a foreign princess, raised to be married off for the sake of alliance-building. Her sister-in-law Fredegund started out as a lowly palace slave. And yet --- in sixth-century Merovingian France, where women were excluded from noble succession and royal politics was a blood sport --- these two iron-willed strategists reigned over vast realms, changing the face of Europe.
The two queens commanded armies and negotiated with kings and popes. They formed coalitions and broke them, mothered children and lost them. They fought a decades-long civil war-against each other. With ingenuity and skill, they battled to stay alive in the game of statecraft, and in the process laid the foundations of what would one day be Charlemagne's empire. Yet after the queens' deaths-one gentle, the other horrific-their stories were rewritten, their names consigned to slander and legend.
In THE DARK QUEENS, award-winning writer Shelley Puhak sets the record straight. She resurrects two very real women in all their complexity, painting a richly detailed portrait of an unfamiliar time and striking at the roots of some of our culture's stubbornest myths about female power. THE DARK QUEENS offers proof that the relationships between women can transform the world.
Audiobook available, read by Cassandra Campbell
