E·V·戈登

艾瑞克·瓦伦丁·戈登（英语：Eric Valentine Gordon，简称E·V·戈登，1896年2月14日—1938年7月29日）是加拿大语言学家，曾于英国利兹大学与曼彻斯特大学任教。

生平

戈登曾就读维多利亚学院、麦吉尔大学及牛津大学大学学院。1922年，开始在利兹大学英文系担任讲师，他与另名讲师J·R·R·托尔金志同道合，两人都热爱古代语言，他们合作编纂的新版本《高文爵士与绿骑士》于1925年出版。戈登还与托尔金一同组建“维京俱乐部”，鼓励利兹大学的师生们研究古斯堪地纳维亚语等古代语言。

1930年，戈登与Ida Pickles结婚。1932年，他开始在曼彻斯特大学任教，直至1938年去世。

Eric Valentine Gordon (14 February 1896 – 29 July 1938) was a Canadian philologist, known as an editor of medieval Germanic texts and a teacher of medieval Germanic languages at the University of Leeds and the University of Manchester.

Early life

Gordon was born on Valentine's Day, 1896, on a frontier ranch in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, the third child of Annie McQueen Gordon, a Presbyterian Scot and a teacher, and her husband Jim; they nicknamed Eric "Dal".

At first, Dal was educated by his mother, but a move to Victoria at the age of eleven enabled him to attend Victoria College, British Columbia. In 1915 he was one of the eight Canadian Rhodes Scholars, in his case studying at University College, Oxford. He joined the Canadian Field Artillery in 1916 but was discharged for medical reasons (probably asthma). He worked for the rest of the First World War for the Ministries of National Service and of Food. He also attended McGill University.

Returning to Oxford in 1919, Gordon took a second-class BA in 1920, partly under the tutelage of J. R. R. Tolkien. He began a B Litt degree at Oxford. However, a job opportunity in the English Department at the University of Leeds 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 (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 (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." It appears he worked hard at Leeds: in termtime 1923 he was teaching around fifteen hours per week; in one letter of May 1930 he claimed to have worked one hundred and five hours in a single week (admittedly while excusing himself from taking on a new task).

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, 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. In this club they read Old Icelandic sagas (and drank beer) with students and faculty, and invented original Anglo-Saxon songs. A collection of these was privately published as the book Songs for the Philologists. Most of the printed copies were destroyed in a fire and only about 14 are said to exist.