The Appearance of Medieval Europe. European society in the Middle Ages was essentially rural, and most of its population made its living through agriculture. Beginning in the tenth century, as the worst of the Viking raids tapered off and the European population and economy began to rebound, medieval people started to clear land at a rate that had not been matched for centuries. The extent of these clearances has led some historians to talk about a "new rural landscape" developing in Europe by 1100. Villages —communities with populations of fifty to four hundred people—expanded all over Europe, even into areas that had not previously been populated. Despite these clearances, however, much of Europe was still unsettled. Peasants lived close to forests that could be mysterious and dangerous, and, when the sun set, darkness settled everywhere...