Review of 'People and space in the middle ages 300–1300', ed. by Wendy Davies, Guy Halsall and Andrew Reynolds (Studies in the Early Middle Ages 15) (Turnhout: Brepols 2007)

In this volume ‘space’ and ‘place’ are discussed taking examples from central Europe, Iceland, Anglo-Saxon England and northern Spain. A main theme is how social groupings were formed and how they functioned, and how space became territorialised and divided. The ambition is commendable, but unfortunately the cases presented are not always compatible since, although the terminology and concepts used are the same, their semantic content differs in various ways, depending on natural preconditions in the environment and the underlying political and social organisations....