in terms of books, she was doing fine

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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The Works of Vermin (Hiron Ennes)

This was hands down the best book I've read this year. I hope I can make a good case of why I think it's so great without spoiling it, because I think it deserves to be experienced directly, but here goes.

The Works of Vermin mainly follows two characters (in an exquisitely detailed and textured omniscient third person): Guy, who works as an exterminator, is riddled with debts, and trying to protect his little sister from getting swallowed up by poverty, and Asther, a perfumer contracted to the Marshall (who is essentially the second most powerful man in the city). The city of Tiliard is almost a character itself: it is socially stratified, it is rotting from the inside out, it craves beauty and theater and music, it gives birth to ginormous insects that in turn change the city itself. The magic in this book permeates things, from the insects and their exudates to the way perfumes can be used to bend the minds of those who smell it.

Those two perspectives are used delightfully to give insight on the politics of the city, and on the cycles of violence it goes through. There is so much worldbuilding woven into the story, and in a fashion that I adore (though I know can be an obstacle to some readers): Ennes does not hold anyone's hand, and trusts their readers to piece things out themselves.

Reading this book was a slow (to me) but extremely rewarding experience, the prose feels almost tactile with how vivid and atmospheric it is. Queerness and gender fuckery is woven throughout the plot, while avoiding making any romance the main focus: the politics of the city, and the brotherly relationship between Guy and his sister Tyro are front and center of the book. All the characters are morally complex, though somewhat emotionally obscure. Everything is evoked rather than outright stated.

I don't know how to conclude other than say this book was a treat to me, specifically <3 also it's a standalone which I love for a book that manages to pack so much in it!!

Bookish Resonances

The game is just to take one book, and give a few other books that I was reminded of while reading it. It does not mean that the books are necessarily super similar, but that one of the core elements of them resonated in my mind

So today my starting book is The Works of Vermin

And the resonances are as follow:

Books of 2025: THE WORKS OF VERMIN by Hiron Ennes.

Delighted and reeling to report that Ennes has Done It Again!! LEECH is one of my all-time favorite books, and I was so unbelievably stoked for VERMIN this year, which arrived in the mail right around when I needed to vanish for NaNo reasons. Displaying utterly herculean self-control, I managed to delay my gratification and not start this until this weekend! And!! Promptly binged it in like two sittings, despite what I feared was going to be a slower start.

Where LEECH is very Gothic and wintry and post-apocalyptic horror SF, VERMIN is much more immersive and richly woven fantasy, featuring a hell of a lot of bugs and other, well, vermin. Think VanderMeer's AMBERGRIS meets Kingfisher's PALADIN'S GRACE by way of METAL FROM HEAVEN--we've got the lush and sprawling and weird arts-oriented city, the heavy emphasis on perfumes and perfumers and politicking (and, yeah, assassination attempts), and the bizarre magic right at the confluence of recognizable technology. Like METAL, VERMIN is deeply queer, and I deeply love when that queerness extends to gender fuckery (as it does here!).