Eric Valentine Gordon (14 February 1896 – 29 July 1938) was a Canadian

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

, known as an editor of medieval Germanic texts and a teacher of medieval Germanic languages at the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

and the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

Early life

Gordon was born on Valentine's Day, 1896, in

Salmon Arm, British Columbia Salmon Arm is a city in the Columbia Shuswap Regional District of the Southern Interior of the Canadian province of British Columbia that has a population of 17,706 (2016). Salmon Arm was incorporated as a municipal district on May 15, 1905. The c ...

; his mother was a Presbyterian Scot and a teacher. He was educated at

Victoria College, British Columbia Victoria College was an affiliated college based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1903, it was the first post-secondary institution established in British Columbia, and served as the predecessor to the University of Victoria. As a ...

and

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

. In 1915 he was one of the eight Canadian

Rhodes Scholars The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

, in his case studying at

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the univer ...

. He joined the Canadian Field Artillery in 1916 but was discharged for medical reasons. He worked for the rest of the First World War for the Ministries of National Service and of Food. Returning to Oxford in 1919, Gordon took a second-class BA in 1920, partly under the tutelage of

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philology, philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was ...

. He began a B Litt degree at Oxford. However, a job opportunity in the English Department at the

came up. As the head of department, George S. Gordon wrote to D. Nichol Smith on 18 October 1922, 'I am overwhelmed here with students, and have now an Honours School of nearly 120 ... A committee has been appointed to see what an be done to find me Seminar accommodation, and I am urged to an increase of staff'. On 29 October, he continued 'Tolkien suggested a graduate called Gordon,—at present B-Litting. His name is a disadvantage, but we could get over that'. E. V. Gordon abandoned his B Litt to take up the position at Leeds.

University of Leeds

Gordon worked at Leeds from 1922 to 1931, introducing first Old Norse and later modern Icelandic to the curriculum. While at Leeds, he wrote his ''

An Introduction to Old Norse ''An Introduction to Old Norse'' is a textbook written by E. V. Gordon, arising from his teaching at the University of Leeds and first published in 1927 in Oxford at The Clarendon Press. The Second Edition was revised (1957) by A. R. Taylor, Go ...

'' (first published 1927) and collaborated with Tolkien, who worked at Leeds from 1920 to 1925, particularly on their edition of ''

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'' is a late 14th-century chivalric romance in Middle English. The author is unknown; the title was given centuries later. It is one of the best-known Arthurian stories, with its plot combining two types of f ...

'' (first published 1925). After Gordon arrived at Leeds, Tolkien wrote in his diary "Eric Valentine Gordon has come and got firmly established and is my devoted friend and pal." Gordon was promoted to a Professorship of English Language in 1926 following Tolkien's departure and oversaw the University Library's acquisition of the library of

Bogi Thorarensen Melsteð Bogi Thorarensen Melsteð (born Klausturhólar 4 May 1860, died 12 November 1929) was an Icelandic historian. He wrote articles and books on Icelandic history. He was Member of the Icelandic Parliament (Althing) for Árnessýsla from 1892 to 189 ...

, establishing the library as one of the world's best Icelandic collections. Accordingly, for his services to Icelandic culture, Gordon was made a Knight of the Royal Icelandic Order of the Falcon in 1930. With Tolkien, Gordon also began the ''

Viking Club The Viking Club was a club for philologists and historians specializing in Germanic and Scandinavian studies. It was founded by E.V. Gordon and J. R. R. Tolkien when the two were professors at Leeds University in the 1920s. At meetings of the cl ...

''. In this club they would read

Old Icelandic Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

sagas is a series of science fantasy role-playing video games by Square Enix. The series originated on the Game Boy in 1989 as the creation of Akitoshi Kawazu at Square. It has since continued across multiple platforms, from the Super NES to the Play ...

(and drink beer) with students and faculty, and invent original

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

songs. A collection of these was privately published as the book ''

Songs for the Philologists ''Songs for the Philologists'' is a collection of poems by E. V. Gordon and J. R. R. Tolkien as well as traditional songs. It is the rarest and most difficult to find Tolkien-related book. Originally a collection of typescripts compiled by Gordo ...

''. Most of the printed editions were destroyed in a fire and only 14 or so books are said to exist. Gordon was active in the

Yorkshire Dialect Society The Yorkshire dialect (also known as Broad Yorkshire, Tyke, Yorkie or Yorkshire English) is a dialect of English, or continuum of dialects, spoken in the Yorkshire region of Northern England. The dialect has roots in Old English and is influen ...

, and in 1930 he, with Leeds's Professor of French

Paul Barbier Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

, was a founder member of the

Yorkshire Society for Celtic Studies Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

, joining its executive committee and pledging £10 over ten years towards the endowment of a lectureship in Celtic Studies at Leeds University. On Gordon's departure from Leeds, he was succeeded by

Bruce Dickins Bruce Dickins, FBA (26 October 1889 – 4 January 1978), a graduate of Magdalene College, Cambridge, was Professor of English Language at the University of Leeds from 1931 to 1946 (where he succeeded E. V. Gordon), teaching medieval English and Ol ...

. Among Gordon's best Leeds students were the scholars

Albert Hugh Smith Albert Hugh Smith OBE (24 February 1903 – 11 May 1967) was a scholar of Old English and Scandinavian languages and played a major part in the study and publication of English place-names. Hugh Smith was the son of Albert John Smith, a butler ...

(whom Gordon gave his notes towards an aborted study of East Yorkshire place-names, which Smith went on to complete), J.A. Thompson, the translator of Halldór Laxness's classic novel ''

Independent People ''Independent People: An Epic'' ( is, Sjálfstætt fólk) is an novel by Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness, originally published in two volumes in 1934 and 1935; literally the title means "Self-standing .e. self-reliantfolk". It deals with the st ...

'', and Ida Lilian Pickles, whom he married in 1930. Together they had four children (the eldest of whom, Bridget Mackenzie, went on to lecture in Old Norse at Glasgow University); Tolkien composed them a long

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

praise-poem in the Old Norse '' drottkvætt''-metre, entitled ''Brýdleop'', as a wedding present.

University of Manchester, and death

In 1931, Gordon was made Smith Professor of English Language and Germanic Philology at the

where his research focused on Old and Middle English. Among his students was

A. R. Taylor Arnold Rodgers Taylor (1913–1993) was a scholar of medieval English, Old Norse, and modern Icelandic. Early life Taylor was the youngest of the four children of Arthur Harry Taylor, from Burnham in Norfolk, and Elizabeth Rodgers, from Stoc ...

, who later succeeded Gordon at Leeds. He died unexpectedly in 1938 of complications following an operation to remove gallstones. After his death, Gordon's widow Ida took on a number of his teaching duties at Manchester, finishing and posthumously publishing a number of his works, before retiring in 1968.

Select bibliography and archives

An extensive bibliography of Gordon's publications can be found in ''Tolkien the Medievalist'', edited by

Jane Chance Jane Chance (born 1945), also known as Jane Chance Nitzsche, is an American scholar specializing in medieval English literature, gender studies, and J. R. R. Tolkien. She spent most of her career at Rice University, where since her retirement she ha ...

(London: Routledge, 2003), pp. 273–74. In 2014, the estate of Gordon's eldest daughter Bridget sold a collection of letters to the Brotherton Library of the University of Leeds, written variously to Gordon and his wife Ida by

. Mackenzie passed Ida and Eric Gordon's books to St Andrews University Library.Gordon Collection

Books

* 1925 ''

'', co-edited with

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 211 pp.; Revised edition 1967,

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

Clarendon Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 232 pp. * 1927 ''

'', Revised edition 1956, revised by

; Reprinted 1981, Oxford University Press, USA; 2nd edition * 1937 ''

The Battle of Maldon "The Battle of Maldon" is the name given to an Old English poem of uncertain date celebrating the real Battle of Maldon of 991, at which an Anglo-Saxon army failed to repulse a Viking raid. Only 325 lines of the poem are extant; both the beginnin ...

'' * 1953 ''

Pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

Articles and notes

* 'Scandinavian Influence in Yorkshire Dialects', ''Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society'', 4.24 (1923), 5-22 * 'Philology: General Works', in ''The Year's Work in English Studies, 1922'', ed. by Sidney Lee and F. S. Boas (London: Oxford University Press, 1924), 18-24 * 'The Date of Hofuðlausn', ''Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society: Literary and Historical Section'', 1 (1925), 12-14 * and A. H. Smith, 'The River Names of Yorkshire', ''Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society'', 4.26 (1925), 5-30 * 'Old English Studies', in ''The Year's Work in English Studies, 1924'', ed. by F. S. Boas and C. H. Herford (London: Oxford University Press, 1926), 66-77 * 'Middle English', in ''The Year's Work in English Studies, 1924'', ed. by F. S. Boas and C. H. Herford (London: Oxford University Press, 1926), 78-98 * 'Scarborough and Flamborough', ''Acta Philologica Scandinavica'', 1 (1926–27), 320-23 * 'Old English Studies', in ''The Year's Work in English Studies, 1925'', ed. by F. S. Boas and C. H. Herford (London: Oxford University Press, 1927), 67-82 * 'The Traditions of ''Kormáks saga''’, ''Transactions of the Philological Society'' (1931-32), 39-67 * 'The University of Iceland', ''Universities Review'', 5 (1932), 26-30 * 'Introduction', ''The Saga of Hrolf Kraki'', trans. by Stella M. Mills (Oxford: Blackwell, 1933), vii-xii * and C. T. Onions, 'Notes on the Text and Interpretation of ''Pearl''’, ''Medium Ævum'', 1.2 (September 1932), 126–36, 2.3 (October 1933), 165-88 * ‘''Wealhþeow'' and Related Names', ''Medium Ævum'', 4.3 (September 1935), 169-75 * 'The Date of Æthelred's Treaty with the Vikings: Olaf Tryggvason and the Battle of Maldon', ''Modern Language Review'', 32.1 (January 1937), 24-32 * and Eugène Vinaver, 'New Light of the Text of the Alliterative ''Morte Arthure''’, ''Medium Ævum'', 6.2 (June 1937), 81-98 * 'On ''Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða''’, ''Medium Ævum'', 8.1 (February 1939), 1-32

Creative writing and translations

* 'The Lay of Attila', ''Microcosm'', 7.4 (Winter 1922), 22-25 *'A Ballad of Tristram', ''Gryphon'', 4.3 (December 1922), 94 (repr. in ''Leeds University Verse, 1914-1924'', ed. by the English School Association (Leeds: Swan Press, 1924) * 'The Lay of Thrym', ''Microcosm'', 7.3 (autumn 1922), 3-5 * 'The Lay of Wayland', ''Microcosm'', 8.3 (autumn 1923), 20–23. * 'A Skald's Impromptu', in ''A Northern Venture: Verses by Members of the Leeds University English School Association'' (Leeds: Swan Press, 1923), 6 * 'They Sat There', in ''A Northern Venture: Verses by Members of the Leeds University English School Association'' (Leeds: Swan Press, 1923), 7 * 'Sú klukka heljar' and 'When I'm Dead', in ''

'', with

et al. (London: Department of English and University College, 1936), pp. 16, 26. * trans., ''Scandinavian Archaeology'', by Haakon Shetelig and Hjalmar Falk (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1937)

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, E. V. 1938 deaths 1896 births Canadian Rhodes Scholars Canadian philologists Old Norse studies scholars Germanic studies scholars Linguists of Germanic languages People from Salmon Arm Victoria College, British Columbia alumni Academics of the University of Leeds Alumni of University College, Oxford McGill University alumni Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester 20th-century philologists Canadian expatriates in the United Kingdom