Robert Kay Gordon (1887–1973) was an English scholar of medieval and early modern English literature and administrator at the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a Public university, public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexande ...

in Canada. In 1913, having graduated from the Universities of

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

and

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 ...

, Gordon became administrator at the University of Alberta. In 1936 he was appointed as head of the Department of English and became a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada the same year. Between 1943 and 1945, he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science. He retired from the university in 1950. His colleagues included F. M. Salter, E. Sonet and D. E. Cameron. Gordon is quoted extensively in

The Book of Imaginary Beings The ''Book of Imaginary Beings'' was written by Jorge Luis Borges with Margarita Guerrero and published in 1957 under the original Spanish title ''Manual de zoología fantástica''. The subsequent English version contains descriptions of 120 myt ...

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...

. In the entry describing the Fastitocalon, Borges includes an extended quote from R.K. Gordon's Anglo Saxon Bestiary.

Selected works

Gordon published widely in his field of English literature, displaying a wide range of interest, from Old English poetry and

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

to the Scottish novelists Sir

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...

and

John Galt John Galt () is a character in Ayn Rand's novel ''Atlas Shrugged'' (1957). Although he is not identified by name until the last third of the novel, he is the object of its often-repeated question "Who is John Galt?" and of the quest to discover ...

. *1918 (ed. with E. K. Broadus). ''English Prose from Bacon to Hardy''. London. Anthology
available from the Internet Archive
*1920. ''John Galt''. Toronto
Available from the Internet Archive
*1922. ''The Song of Beowulf''. Translation into English prose. New York
Available from the Internet Archive
*1925. '' Scott's "Tales of a Grandfather"''. New York: Dutton. *1926. ''Anglo-Saxon Poetry''. London and New York. Translations of selected Old English poems
Gordon's translation of ''The Seafarer'' available online
*1964 (ed.). ''The Story of

Troilus Troilus ( or ; grc, Τρωΐλος, Troïlos; la, Troilus) is a legendary character associated with the story of the Trojan War. The first surviving reference to him is in Homer's ''Iliad,'' composed in the late 8th century BCE. In Greek myth ...

: as told by Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, Robert Henryson''. New York: Dutton. Versions of the Troilus legend by

Benoît de Sainte-Maure Benoît de Sainte-Maure (; died 1173) was a 12th-century French poet, most probably from Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine near Tours, France. The Plantagenets' administrative center was located in Chinon, west of Tours. ''Le Roman de Troie'' His 40,000 ...

, Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer and

Robert Henryson Robert Henryson (Middle Scots: Robert Henrysoun) was a poet who flourished in Scotland in the period c. 1460–1500. Counted among the Scots ''makars'', he lived in the royal burgh of Dunfermline and is a distinctive voice in the Northern Renai ...

References

Biography, University of Alberta
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, R. K. Canadian academics of English literature Anglo-Saxon studies scholars University of Alberta alumni Translators from Old English Alumni of the University of Oxford Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada 1887 births 1973 deaths 20th-century translators