While we were in Oxford at the weekend, we went to the "Romance of the Middle Ages" exhibition at the Bodleian Library (of course!) It had a manuscript page from The Two Towers - and the original manuscript of Gawain and the Green Knight - and lots of other wonderful things. But possibly best of all, it had the Tolkien / Gordon edition of Gawain, annotated by CS Lewis! There's a picture here:
http://medievalromance.bodleian.ox.ac ... wain_and_the_Green_Knight

- wellinghall

Very nice. You've been a busy boy.

I have had for a long time a 2nd impression 1930 of the Tolkien/Gordon Gawain and the Green Knight which has tissue guards and untrimmed pages.

Deagol's website states the 1st and 2nd impressions had untrimmed pages and the 3rd 1936 had the top edges trimmed.

I have just bought another copy of the 2nd impression (it was just a few quid) which has the top edges trimmed. It also lacks the tissue guards on the plates (which Deagol says some of the 1st impression also lacked).

The untrimmed copy has an owners date of 1931 while the top-trimmed one has an owners date of 1930 (which suggests to me they are pretty simultaneous variants).

Just wondering if anyone else's 2nd imp has top edges trimmed and no tissue guards,.