ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the different accounts of dunes that can be found in the historical sources. While the dominant and most accessible narratives tend to depict them as dreary places, this was not the only view of such environments. Those who lived near to the dunes saw them as a familiar landscape offering a variety of resources, which were exploited to supplement the meager domestic economy. Using several examples of the uses of dunes in Europe over the centuries, this chapter shows how people coped with the drifting sand by protecting the vegetation cover of the dunes, recognizing the key role of certain plants in this respect. Arguably, those who advanced the idea of dunes as nothing but wastelands were strangers to these regions and may have been writing with a purpose.
