This book follows a new path of describing the Alps from the years 500 to 800. Instead of running through this mountain range from east to west (or reverse) and writing one local history after the other, relevant patterns were captured: patterns of control, borders, communication routes, Christendom, settlement, economy, local methods to establish power and traces of local identity. Comparing theses structures on an interregional level made it possible to establish a new view on the early medieval alpine regions.