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.