E.V. Gordon
Eric Valentine Gordon (14 February 1896 – 29 July 1938) was a Canadian philologist who worked alongside J.R.R. Tolkien on various scholastic works and published books.
Early life
Gordon was educated at Victoria College and McGill University. He also attended University College at Oxford University (1920), and later taught at Leeds University (1922-1931).
Works with Tolkien
While Tolkien was teaching at Leeds University, Gordon had come to Leeds and Tolkien wrote in his diary "Eric Valentine Gordon has come and got firmly established and is my devoted friend and pal." Gordon worked with him on A Middle English Vocabulary and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
The two also began the Viking Club where they would read Old Icelandic sagas (and drink a lot of 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.
In 1930, he married Ida Pickles, a former student and fellow philologist and later he taught at Manchester University (1932-1938).
While Gordon died in 1938, yet another two works, to which Tolkien contributed, were published posthumously by Ida, who completed and revised them. The first was Pearl (1953; Tolkien contributed to this book with a section, "Form and Purpose", in the introduction) and the second was The Seafarer (1960).
Bibliography, selected
Books
- 1925: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (co-editor with J.R.R. Tolkien)
- 1927: An Introduction to Old Norse
- 1937: The Battle of Maldon (editor)
- 1953: Pearl (editor, later edited by I.L. Gordon)
- 1960: The Seafarer (editor, reworked by I.L. Gordon)
Poems
- 1936: "Su Klukka Heljar" and "When I'm Dead", in Songs for the Philologists
As contributor
Referencias
1. Esta ficha se ha importado inicialmente de TolkienGateway.net el día 25/05/2026.
