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The Code of the Harpers

book by Ed Greenwood

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionOct 4, 2025
Entity authorityQ7726592 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Code of the Harpers is an accessory for the fictional Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the second edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. The book was written by Ed Greenwood and was published by TSR. The module featured cover art by Jeff Easley and interior art by Scott Rosema.

Contents

According to John Selzer, the module is the "fourth of the FOR accessory line put out by TSR for the Forgotten Realms setting. The book explores the Harpers, a secretive force for good in the Realms. Along the way, quite a bit of Realm history is revealed, including notes on powerful people and organizations".

The 128-page book begins with a two-page prologue written from the perspective of a number of fictional characters including Storm Silverhand, Danilo Thann, and Elminster.

Page 5 is an introduction by Ed Greenwood explaining that this book is about the fictional Harpers organization, and thus begins with a story about them.

Pages 6–18, The Code of the Harpers, explains what a Harper is and what they do; they are a secretive organization, making them hard to define, most are bards or rangers, and most seek to thwart evil when they can, in their own small ways.

Page 19, Harper Runes, displays a number of runes used by Harpers to send messages to one another.

Pages 20–36, The History of the Harpers, is as detailed a history of the organization as possible, stating that their origins go back to the ancient days of Myth Drannor.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “The Code of the Harpers” as book by Ed Greenwood. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Code, Harpers and book.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current 253-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1993. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Code, Harpers and book providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “The Code of the Harpers”, the useful work is to connect “book by Ed Greenwood” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 4, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7726592. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Code of the Harpers”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Code of the Harpers primary sources, The Code of the Harpers archive and Code research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Code of the Harpers”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Code of the Harpers” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.