E.V. Gordon
Eric Valentine Gordon (February 14, 1896 – 1938) was a Canadian philologist who worked alongside J.R.R. Tolkien on various scholastic works and published books. Gordon was educated at Victoria Victoria College and McGill University. He also attended University College at Oxford University (1920), and later taught at Leeds University (1922-1931) and Manchester University (1932-1938).[1]
Works with Tolkien on Middle English
While Tolkien was teaching at Leeds University, Gordon worked with him on A Middle English Vocabulary and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. After Gordon had come to Leeds, Tolkien wrote is his diary "Eric Valentine Gordon has come and got firmly established and is my devoted friend and pal." [2]
Gordon died in 1938, but a third joint publication concerned with Middle English came in 1953, when Ida, Gordon's wife and a philologist as well, revised and completed the Pearl edition for publication. [3] Tolkien contributed to this book with a section in the introudction.
The Viking Club
Gordon also began the Viking Club with Tolkien. In this club they would read Old Icelandic sagas (and drink beer) with students and faculty, and invent original Anglo-Saxon songs. A collection of these was privately published as the book Songs for the Philologists.
Bibliography, selected
- 1922: A Middle English Vocabulary
- 1925: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, co-edited with J.R.R. Tolkien
- 1936: Songs for the Philologists, with J.R.R. Tolkien et al.
- 1953: Pearl
References
- ↑ Chance, Jane (2003). Tolkien the Medievalist.
- ↑ Carpenter, Humphrey (2000). J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Houghton Mifflin, page 111.
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Houghton Mifflin, page 145.
