The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World Hardcover – February 22, 2022

Great read about 2 little-known and unlikely medieval power brokers. I love how women’s voices and stories are literally rising from the sarcophagus to be heard. While I found the behavior of Fredegund repulsive, I could understand it. I cheered for Brunhild most of the time except when she “slid off the rails” and seemingly resorted to underhandedness similar to Fredegund’s. She would have been a more sympathetic character had she stayed up on the high road. However, one must give both of them their due: they took on men—and won!—when men were clamoring to steal what was theirs and what was their children’s birthrights. Recommended!

Puhak is an excellent writer, with a flair for story telling and detailed descriptions, she paints a vibrant picture of 6th century France and beyond, and tells the story of Fredegund and Brunhild incredibly well. I knew very little about either of the women, or the time period, going into the book, but I left with an excellence sense of both the queens and the brutal world in which they lived. While Puhak herself admits that she is not a historian, it is clear that she has researched extensively for the book and it pays off. There is a bit more conjecture than there normally would be in a historical biography, however I found that it added to the overall story and Puhak was careful to always qualify her assumptions and leaves the reader in no doubt as to what is fact and what is mere guesswork.I would highly recommend this book to anyone, history enthusiast or not, as it is so well written that it reads more like a novel than the true academic work that it is; I could hardly put it down. Both Fredegund and Brunhild led incredible lives and I wish these powerful women were more well known than they currently are. Although the lack of adequate firsthand sources sometimes hinders the flow of the story, I found that Puhak was more than up to the challenge, and succeeded in writing a book that gives these two queens the coverage they deserve.

This is the well-researched and beautifully told story of rival queens Brunhild and Fredegund. They are at the center of the time of transition from the fall of Rome to Medieval times, when the Merovingian Dynasty was ruling and wreaking havoc in what is today France. It's an era that is almost ignored in our study of history, and that's a shame. For anyone who enjoys filling in those gaps in knowledge and enjoys a story full of mayhem, intrigue, and lust for power, it doesn't get much better. No novelist could invent a story with such insight into the desire for power and legacy and all the dark paths that can lead to.

This book is well written, and the author tells a Dark Ages story with neutrality. I got half way through it and couldn’t continue. The constant wars, conspiracies and betrayals were really too much. The two queens were somewhat interesting, but one, Fredegund, commits so many atrocities that I really don’t want to know any more. If this is an example of female power, I shudder. The point is, the Dark Ages aren’t inspiring, so why read about them?

extremely well written

You know how sometimes when people are arguing about gender norms, and someone says that if women ruled there would be less war and violence? Well, Brunhild and Fredegund would like to have a word. Or maybe you would just be poisoned.It’s the 6th century in Europe and things are a little all over the place. Men are mostly in charge, but people keep dying. Then, like a miniseries, two women emerge. One is the rich, well educated and from royal stock. The other is a former mistress who has gotten to her position by nefarious means. They do not like each other, and neither will go down without a fight.I generally stay away from books which go too far back in time. Documentation gets spotty and authors are forced to make up large portions of the narrative. Luckily, Shelley Puhak is able to find way more documentation than I thought possible, and she is a great writer. Even when she does have to guess, she’s done enough of the research and presents it in a way that keeps you in the narrative without the need to make up scenes. (Full review posted to HistoryNerdsUnited.com)

Wow for subject matter, content, and readability! I read some history, especially European women's history, and I was amazed by this book.I had never heard of these queens, or had ever seen anything written about this time period. (I always get the impression European history started with Charlemagne, but maybe that's my ignorance showing.) I'm no scholar, but I'm interested in how women managed in such male dominated societies.This book is extremely easy to read and has an easy to follow narrative, even when everyone seems to have unpronounceable names, and the names are very similar. It's concise without feeling hurried. And, the author provides enough context for you to understand the events being described, without huge elaborate descriptions.It was a great read from beginning to end. The only negatives are how these women died, and what happened to their stories after their deaths. Kudos to Shelley Puhak for bringing their stories to life!

I knew nothing of Brunhild or Fredegund. I was hesitant to buy this book because usually history of this era is very dry due to the scarcity of sources. Not this book. Shelley Puhak brings the two women to life in a style that is almost like reading a good novel. She makes excellent use of her sources and truly restores these women to their rightful place in history. A great read.

I'd never heard of Brunhilde (outside of Wagner's Ring Cycle) and I'd definitely never heard of Fredegunde. On top of that, despite being an unashamed history nerd, I've never bothered with the Franks and Mérovingiens, preferring to stick to the history of the UK, and of the Church.This book has changed that.While it is not by any stretch of the imagination, an academic history - it relies in places on the author's imagination to suggest how events unfolded, given the careful destruction of contemporary sources practised by men of the time-it is nonetheless very well researched. The last 60 pages of the kindle edition contain the primary sources the author used, as well as her very extensive footnotes. As a launching text for investigating these wonderful women hidden in history this text is a good place to start. It also reminds me strongly of the very excellent Femina by Dr Janina Ramirez of Oxford University- which has been my number one read of 2022.I look forward to seeing more nonfiction from this author - perhaps she could do some work on the women who trod the halls of power after Brunhilde and Fredegund.

The narrative starts ok, but it practically describes history as if it was a talk between teenagers.All the promises about this book concerning plot and power games are just sort of speculation: it does not dare to cross the border to fiction storytelling, but it leaves several ways open to "what if" or sometimes not even this. Sometimes it just assumes that there would not be another way things would have had different stimuli to generate the outcome they had.Perhaps the author should have abandoned the historian POV and used history events to build fiction upon them.I believe the author did a great job promoting this book, but I would never again dare to buy from her.I am really sorry.

Shelley Puhak's meticulous work is an eye opener about the lives of Early medieval Europe and Brunhild & Fredergund in particular. I could not put this book down.

Good read historians of the period