in terms of books, she was doing fine

if you've ever watched a movie with your film buff friend and chatted about it afterwards, that friend might have pulled hours more of conversation out of the same 90 minutes of screentime, and wondered how the fuck they did that - it's not raw intelligence, it's a skill that's been honed. And I learned a lot about film from talking to friends who knew about film, and reading critique by film scholars

literature works exactly the same. so if you want to get more out of your reading, there are things you can do to train that. Find a book or short story you think you've got a pretty good grasp on, preferably from a widely read & respected author like Ursula K Le Guin or Ray Bradbury (if you're new at this don't swing for the Toni Morrison or the Samuel Beckett yet unless you feel very comfortable with the complexity of the text - the point is to develop a complicated new skill on good foundations). Then go to JSTOR, create a free account, and look up criticism on the story you've chosen. Find something that looks readable to you and at least somewhat interesting. Read that article, and look at what that writer got out of the same story you've read that you didn't get. Do you see the critic's points? Did they teach you something about the text? Go reread that story and see if the criticism has changed how you read it. Are you seeing more? Are you thinking about the implications of a line that you hadn't noticed before? Does the story feel richer now?

you don't have to read more deeply if you don't want to (but i'd recommend it, i genuinely think it makes you a better person)

if you want to learn to read more deeply, the resources are out there. try to find critical literature (that is, academic writing that analyzes the text) on works your familiar with so you can get a sense for how to do that analysis too

learning to deep read literature can help you deep read many areas of your life

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Understanding that this is a little before your primary era of research, would you recommend any particular scholars/authors on the subjects of the Merovingians or the Frankish Kingdom generally (Carolingians also welcome)? Or, for that matter, would you recommend any particular scholars/authors whose work focuses on the more general (and admittedly over-broad) subject of what the heck was going on in Europe between the fall of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Middle Ages? Puhak seems to have drawn most of her research from Gregory of Tours, and I certainly intend to get around to him eventually, but a less-biased and more modern take on this history would be very welcome, in the meantime!

(Also, setting aside the many issues I suspect you'd have with this book, you might still enjoy it very much for its focus on two historical figures who are credited repeatedly for inspiring characters ranging from the Brünnhilde of the Nibelungenlied and Wagner's Ring, to GRRM's Cersei Lannister...)

Hello friend! I confess that the author's claim (on her website) that her work is based on "rigorous historical research" made my eye twitch. Puhak, whose name I didn't know, is apparently an award-winning poet; the "Guinevere in Baltimore" collection sounds fascinating, and I plan to seek it out. I'm sure she's a compelling writer, but... I wish I could put the words "rigorous historical research" on the proverbial shelf. Reading Gregory of Tours -- who is great fun -- is not the same thing. Especially with no historical training. I note that she has also written a book called "The Blood Countess," and that Fredegund and Balthild, according to the publisher copy, were "vilified for daring to rule." ...No.

Anyway! I would argue that the Merovingians and Carolingians are very much part of the Middle Ages, but if you want the classic, field-forming argument that one can speak of an in-between time that includes the Merovingians, it's this:

Peter Brown is a wonderful author, both incredibly erudite and a beautiful prose stylist. If you ever meet a medievalist who claims not to admire and envy Professor Brown, I will suspect them of lying.

More recent is this extremely readable general history of early medieval Europe through the lens of -- wait for it -- pigs:

For juicy political scandal a couple of centuries later than Fredegund and Brunhild, see The Fall of a Carolingian Kingdom: Lotharingia, 855-869:

For more primary sources, from earlier in the Carolingian period, including some letters by a laywoman, Charlemagne's Courtier, which you may also be able to find via @jstor here:

I love Gregory of Tours, I really do; I cannot imagine trying to write history using him alone. (Pro tip: do not assume that a busy bishop with an elite family background and chronic headaches expresses normative attitudes about women, or for that matter that he is not crafting his narratives to convey important morals.) Here's the man himself, with the note that the original has been somewhat abridged here:

For more women wielding power in the 6th century, here's Radegund, writing letters:

I love Radegund. Like Brunhild, she made a political marriage, but her husband was really awful, so she left him, got ordained as a deacon, and formed a powerful community of nuns. Love that for her.

Oh! and here are some of Brunhild's own letters, and those to her! Note the warmth with which the pope writes to her:

...I just feel that when the pope is saying "we assert that the nation of the Franks is happy before others which has deserved to have a queen so endowed with all goods," it's at least a little disingenuous to say that queen was "vilified for daring to hold power." Still salty about that, sorry.

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