Annette Hoff examines agricultural information contained in the oldest Danish, Swedish, English, Irish and Frankish law books to present an important study of the development of cultivation systems, forms of settlement and land use in Northwestern Europe from about 600 - 1250. The insights gained from legal codes are compared with archaeological, cartographic and scientific sources.

The book deals with all aspects of rural society: the farmsteads with living accommodation, barns, animal sheds and mills, the use of common land and forest for animals, and the construction of roads...