Durin flipped through the book and found that the annals of the Dual Mothers documented primarily the famines.
Copenhagen belonged to the North, a land more bitterly cold than the Western Lands of history, where heavy snowfalls often delayed spring planting, leading to tragedies that compounded like snowballs. In this era, the idea of 'freemen' simply didn't exist in the villages of the Northern Kingdom and its neighboring smaller countries.
Poor harvests, harsh seasons, anything could turn a freeman into a serf, just like the three Ganai Durin had encountered, who were growing rapeseed.
When the lords couldn't collect rent, they straightforwardly sold the daughters of the serfs; those who rebelled were either killed or hanged, leaving flight as the only option.
What to do when a village is left with no one?
The masters naturally had ways—luring jobless city dwellers with a few words was enough to trick them into coming.
