>> Well, those who experienced it would know. It seems
>> possible to me that it got down-graded in reports
>> back to the central Empire.
>
> Well, perhaps in reports, but on the whole, I
>disagree. I think that the fact that Fimbulwinter was
>happening/did happen would filter out. There would be
>emergency caravans of grain and livestock sent to
>loyalists, troops would spread the word when invalided
>or transferred back, etc. Graphic stories of the cold
>would be very likely to make the rounds of all the
>beer parlours returning soldiers stopped in. They may
>have bragged about it, they may have displayed their
>frostbitten stubs of fingers, but it would be a
>(pardon the pun) hot topic of conversation. And
>troops from all over the Lunar Empire were there for
>the final Fall of Whitewall.
>
> There would be the inevitable ponderings on the
>subject by the Lunar College of Magicians. You could
>probably slap an 'Official Secrets' seal on the mess
>for them, but not on the above-mentioned drunken
>soldiers.
But how many of those soldiers would know the winter was abnormal? Particularly those who's home is in the Heartlands? Then again how much offical credence will be given to soldiers' drunken tales. We live in a highly literate society with vast amounts of recorded history yet it's only in recent years that historians have started to record the life experiences of common people. Prior to the 20th Century there are more gaps than records of what was happening at that level. On the other hand records at higher levels are distorted by what the rulers want history to record.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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