History of the Fellowship of the Dragon
Volumes One to Five
Published by fotd-publishing

Original front cover of Volume One, adapted from the Fellowship's first letterhead design

The "History of the Fellowship of the Dragon" (originally known simply as "the History", but with the subsequent addition of other writings now referred to as "Volume One") was written as an account of the beginnings of the Fellowship (1979) right through to 1989.

The intention of preparing such an account was to provide a means whereby newcomers could learn of how the Fellowship came into being, what its activities were, and the effects participation could have upon the participants' lives.

Volume One was not written for, and never intended to be made available to, the public at large; principally because it too precisely identifies specific places and people, and also because of its revealing of deeply intimate thoughts and emotions - matters that should only ever really be shared with those to whom one is closest.

Declaration appended to Volume One

Consequently, given that it was required reading for all potential new participants as a preliminary to final commitment, its manner of production was simply to photocopy the original typescript, which copy would be retained by the potential new participant. Either they would then keep the copy on acceptance of the full commitment, or return it if they decided that the Fellowship was not for them.
Thus, extant unedited copies of Volume One are extremely rare.

That at least was the Fellowship's policy before the concept of Labyrinth came into being, and certainly before the Fellowship had established a web presence.

But the WorldWideWeb has opened up a new dimension in the Fellowship's thinking, and given a new persepective to concepts that it was believed had already been fully explored.

Consequently, work is now in progress to make available, through the Web, both Volumes One and Three in a suitably edited form (principally the masking of names to protect individual identities).

The naming of the Volumes

Statement appended to Volume One by the chronicler

The first volume of the History was originally intended as a stand-alone work with no subsequent additions anticipated and, written between November '90 - May '91, it covered the period 1979 to 1989.
However, in 1998 work started on what was to become Volume Three; initially intended as a 12-page (or thereabout) essay it just "grew and grew", finally consuming over 500 pages and even then not completely finished - it stops in mid-sentence on the 534th page!

The events to which it refers generally span the period 1996 to 1998/9 although its scope is far more comprehensive than just a chronological record, essentially representing an assimilation of all that had occurred throughout the life of the Fellowship to that point.
Such a weighty tome naturally had to be referred to by a comparably weighty title and thus was born Volume Three of the History.

The elusive Volume Two is of course the not-yet-written account of the period 1989 - 1996.
Volume Four, also as yet unwritten, should theoretically embrace the period between the conclusion of Volume Three and commencement of the work on the finalised form of our web presence which, much to our surprise, we eventually realised - given its nature and scope - must of course be the next volume in the series: Volume Five!