An environmental history of the Middle Ages : the crucible of nature / by John Aberth.

'Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada'--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references(p. [235]-307) and index.

Part I. Air, Water, Earth -- In the Beginning... -- Worshipping the Elements -- The Medieval Warm Period -- Harnessing the Elements -- Collaboration, or Exploitation? -- The Little Ice Age -- Earth, Wind, and Death -- Environmental Causes of the Plague -- Man-Made Pollution of the Environment -- The Poison Thesis -- Weather Magic -- Part II. Forest -- Pre-Christian Tree Cults -- Surviving Wildwood at the Start of the Middle Ages -- The Early Medieval Woodland -- An Era of Great Clearances? -- A Brief History of the Royal Forest of England -- The Evidence of the Eyre Rolls -- Managing the King's Woods -- Disafforestment and the Rise of Private Woodland -- The Management of Woods Elsewhere -- Shaping the Idea of Wilderness -- A Renaissance in Regrowth of the Forest? -- Part III. Beast -- Animals on the Farm : The Early Middle Ages -- Animals on the Farm : The High and Late Middle Ages -- Animals as Pets and Companions -- Animals of the Hunt : Origins of Medieval Hunting -- Animals of the Hunt : Deer and Other Game -- Animals of the Hunt : Romance vs. Reality -- Animals of the Hunt : Falconry and Fishing -- Animals and Disease -- Animals on Trial -- Animals in the Bed -- Animals and Magic -- Afterword.