E.V. Gordon co-edited J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1925 edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Eric Valentine Gordon was a Canadian scholar of Old and Middle English who worked with Tolkien on a scholarly edition of the Middle English poem. The edition helped establish both scholars’ reputations in medieval literary studies and remains an important part of Tolkien’s academic career outside his fiction.
Tolkien later delivered influential lectures on the poem and translated Sir Gawain into modern English, but those activities should not be confused with the 1925 editorial collaboration. C.S. Lewis was Tolkien’s close friend and fellow literary scholar, yet he was not Gordon’s co-editor on that edition. The project reflects Tolkien’s specialist work with medieval language, textual interpretation, and literary history.