This is the first general account of the history of the great hall in Britain and continental Europe from Anglo-Saxon times to the late middle ages. Using a wide range of literary and archaeological sources in combination with close examination of standing halls and remains, Michael Thompson describes and interprets the development of one of the dominant architectural features of medieval life. He also examines the social functions of the hall - the 'hall-culture', a way of life turning on the great room at the social and physical centre of secular and religious communities. This broad, well-illustrated and ambitious review will be of great interest to architectural historians, of course, but its social-cultural approach makes it equally valuable to students of medieval history and literature. It informs and is informed by studies of literary sources as diverse as Beowulf and Gawain, monastic rules and Arthurian poetry.