E. V. Gordon

Eric Valentine Gordon (1896–1938) was a philologist who is known for his compiling of many Germanic texts in their original language into book format. He was born on Valentine's Day, 1896, in Salmon Arm, British Columbia.^[1]

He was educated at Victoria College and McGill University.^[2] He was also one of the eight Rhodes Scholars of Canada, and attended University College at Oxford University (1920), and later taught at Leeds University (1922–1931) and Manchester University (1932–1938). One of his prime works, published first in 1927 and then frequently reprinted over the years, was "An Introduction to Old Norse." Gordon worked with J. R. R. Tolkien several times on various scholastic works and published books, including A Middle English Vocabulary and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, while Tolkien was teaching at Leeds University. After Gordon came to Leeds, Tolkien wrote is his diary "Eric Valentine Gordon has come and got firmly established and is my devoted friend and pal." ^[3]

The Viking Club and other things

Gordon also began the Viking Club with J. R. R. 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. Most of the printed editions were destroyed in a fire and only 14 or so books are said to exist.^[4]

In 1930 Gordon married Ida Pickles, and together they had four children. After Gordon died in 1938 it was Ida, who was a philologist as well, that revised and completed the Pearl edition for publication.^[5]

In 1938 Gordon had joined George Leslie Brook (1910–1987) for an edition of Layamon's Brut for the Early English Text Society, but Gordon died that year.

Bibliography

• 1922 A Middle English Vocabulary
• 1925 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, co-edited with J.R.R. Tolkien, Oxford University Press, 211 pp.; Revised edition 1967, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 232 pp.
• 1927 An Introduction to Old Norse, Revised edition 1956, revised by A.R. Taylor; Reprinted 1981, Oxford University Press, USA; 2nd edition
• 1936 Songs for the Philologists, with J.R.R. Tolkien et al.
• 1937 The Battle of Maldon
• 1953 Pearl

See also

• Songs for the Philologists
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• Philology
• J.R.R. Tolkien
• An Introduction to Old Norse

References

1. ^ Chance, Jane (2003). Tolkien the Medievalist. New York: Routledge, page 15. ISBN 0415289440.
2. ^ Chance, Jane (2003). Tolkien the Medievalist. New York: Routledge, page 15. ISBN 0415289440.
3. ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (2000). J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Houghton Mifflin, page 111. ISBN 0618057021.
4. ^ TolkienBooks.net - Songs for the Philologists
5. ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (2000). J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Houghton Mifflin, page 145. ISBN 0618057021.