In this article, Ong addresses the confusion over how to translate references to deer in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.  Ong argues that while editions from before the turn of the century translate references to deer too generally (not distinguishing between different kinds of deer), editions from the 1940s more correctly translate references to deer by making a distinction between a hart (male red deer) and a buck (male fallow deer) and between a hind (female red deer) and a doe (female fallow deer).  The problem with later editions, however, is that they do not explain the rationale for translating references to deer more specifically.  It is necessary to translate more specifically, Ong asserts, because the poem actually suggests three kinds of deer (red, fallow, and roe), which is overlooked when references to deer are translated too generally.