Enheduanna’s Song from the Sands, Excerpt by Ellen Rachlin

Discover the untold story of Enheduanna, the world’s first named author, as she navigates power, betrayal, and divine destiny in ancient Mesopotamia. A mesmerizing fusion of history, myth, and female leadership that challenges how we see the past—and ourselves.

A high priestess dethroned. A rebel with a dangerous plan. One empire hanging by a thread.

When Enheduanna is named High Priestess of Ur, her connection to the gods makes her a target. Lugalanne’s coup strips her of robes, power, and home, casting her into the perilous underworld. There, amid forests of shadows and treacherous trials, she discovers that divine favor alone won’t save her—only cunning, courage, and a willingness to embrace the ruthlessness of her enemies can restore her.

Drawing on history and myth, Enheduanna’s Song From the Sands follows the world’s first named author as she fights to reclaim her voice and her destiny. Political intrigue, betrayal, and divine tests collide as Enheduanna must decide whether to forgive, to fight, or to harness the power that could shake the foundations of an empire. For readers who love The Song of Achilles’s intimate heroism, Circe’s mythic depth, or The Daughters of Sparta’s fierce women, this is a mesmerizing dive into ancient Mesopotamia where courage and cunning are the only paths to survival.

Excerpt:

I crawl forward before I can stand, stumbling to my feet. My legs struggle to catch up to my body. I pray this dark passageway rises to Earth back to Nanna’s throne room. Then the stench of sweat, blood, and crushed incense hits my nostrils before I grasp the chaos that caused it. Nanna’s divine instruments lay strewn about and broken. Spread across the floor, meat, barley, and wine are spilled and spoiled. From the upper windows, dawn’s grey, murky light penetrates his room.

I drag my eyes towards Nanna. The magnificent Nanna has been attacked. Axes and lances tried to break apart his body. There are hundreds of gouges and pits. Even his beautiful face wasn’t spared. Part of his beard is missing. From somewhere deep inside me, sounds come like roars as I kneel and plant my fists on the floor.

I stagger out past Nanna’s throne room to find the perpetrators. I make my way around the crushed pieces of his supreme ceremonial chariot. Even the purification water in the anteroom is fouled! In succession, I scream out, “Etana, Darda, Udama!”

But they can’t answer me. They’re north in Uruk, dealing with the rebel attack at the Temple of Inanna. The small forces that remained here were easily overpowered. I cry out again: “Uanna, Nidintu, Sagadu!” I rush to the small armory in the hallway off Nanna’s quarters to grab a broad battle axe and shield. I have no idea how many rebel perpetrators remain here.

I can’t count the number of fallen bodies strewn across the ziggurat grounds. Dawn has barely begun, but I spot the shadowy forms of five lagging rebels zig-zagging through the fallen. I will not allow them to leave. They glance at me and continue running.

They attacked Nanna, and there will be no mercy. They aren’t familiar enough with the ziggurat to escape me.

I shout at them: “You have not attacked the Akkadian King or those that serve the gods, but the gods themselves. I am their messenger. You will receive Nanna’s justice!”

They trap themselves at the ziggurat wall, failing to find the steps on their first try. I approach them, swinging a battle axe, which I drive through the face of one of the five rebels crowded there. Two of them run. There is no one to chase them, so they escape. Another freezes in his place for a moment before daring to advance on me.

I drop to the ground, roll towards him, pull a knife from under my sash, and plunge it into his throat. Then the last one charges at me, his raised short sword trembling. I step sideways and plant my axe deep into his chest.

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Meet Ellen Rachlin

Ellen Rachlin’s poetry has appeared in American Poetry Review, Comstock Review, Granta, Court Green, Literary Imagination, and various anthologies. She has published two collections of her poems, Until Crazy Catches Me (Antrim House, 2008) and Permeable Divide (Antrim House, 2017), winner of the 2018 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Silver Award.

She has a historical fiction novel, Enheduanna’s Song From the Sands, based on the life of Enheduanna, the Akkadian high priestess and world’s first-named author, forthcoming from Histria Books and a collection of poems, At the Big Bang Resort, forthcoming from Red Hen Press.

She is also the author of two chapbooks, Waiting for Here (Finishing Line Press, 2004), a finalist in the New Women’s Voices series, and Captive to Residue (Flarestack Publishing, 2009). She received her MFA from Antioch University. She serves as Treasurer of The Poetry Society of America and is a partner at Blue Leaf Ventures.

Other writing genres include numerous textbook and journal articles on the subject of finance and investing with various publishers including Wiley.