The story behind this project begins with my arrival at Wellesley College in 1986. I found the Society for Creative Anachronism almost immediately; they were a lot like the fandom friends I had just left behind. I went to Falling Leaves with the other newly-recruited Wellesley students, did all the stupid things novices do at their first event, and loved it.
I was part of an influx of new Feldings who arrived just in time to save the borough from dormancy. The previous year there had been but one Felding, Cynthia, who was busy completing her senior year at the same time that we were all mucking our way through the first-year writing requirement. In 1987 Felding was turned over to a bunch of enthusiastic but largely inexperienced sophomores. We thereby inherited a number of items which had obviously been around for a number of years, but we weren't quite sure where they had come from. There was this banner, a pretty green-and-silver one with a vixen on it. Somebody had taken great pains to make it, but we had no idea who. Then there was this mysterious "Felding Song" we'd heard of, for which we had the chorus and a couple of verses. Lord Tibor was holding the Felding Favor, whatever that was.
In the spring of 1988 I tried to write a handout for new Feldings to explain our traditions, and discovered that I couldn't because I didn't know them myself. It occurred to me and my roommate Siubhan that we could interview some people and put together a sort of Felding History. It sounded like a fun project, and we figured it could be finished by the May council meeting.
Ha! Ha!
It's 1990, and I'm still writing. I have a week and a half until I graduate, and I have sworn that this project WILL BE FINISHED before I go! Obviously, it's grown much bigger than what I originally had in mind. The general concept is that the History contains stories of things that happened at Felding and/or happened to Feldings. It is by no means complete, and I invite the Borough of Felding to continue to add to it for as long as Feldings continue to be interesting people who do interesting things!
In Service to the Borough of Felding,
Radegund von der Feuchtenstadt