Between its hours of glory and its times of atrocity, the Merovingian world remains for most of us reserved for a few figures, often embodied by Clovis, or by the good King Dagobert! Yet behind these familiar images lies a much richer and more vast world, an era of transition between Antiquity and the Middle Ages whose backstage remains obscure.With the aim of creating a detailed and recapitulative work, this book not only provides an in-depth account of the historical facts of the Merovingian era, but also includes numerous additional chapters designed to enrich the subject by returning to the context, society, anthropology, religion, medicine, law and symbolism of this little-reported period.Between legend and history, let's try to relive the great moments of the Merovingian past, through its apogees and declines, its victories and defeats, to give our heroes of yesterday their true faces. Let's embark on this formidable epic, so that our barbarian ancestors can finally shake off their reputation as schemers, in favor of a less dogmatic, more nuanced and fairer consideration!