Elspeth Mary Kennedy, MA, DPhil, FSA (6 August 1921 – 10 March 2006) was a British academic and a prominent

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

ist. She is best known as the editor and author of works on medieval

French literature French literature () generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than Fr ...

Early life and education

Elspeth Kennedy was born in

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Be ...

. Her academic career was delayed by

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, during which she worked for the government — in 1940, while still 18 years of age she began working for

MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Go ...

, domiciled initially at

Wormwood Scrubs Wormwood Scrubs, known locally as The Scrubs (or simply Scrubs), is an open space in Old Oak Common located in the north-eastern corner of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London. It is the largest open space in the borough, ...

and later at

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...

. Because the work, though essential, was repetitive, Kennedy studied

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

in her spare time, and initially laid plans to become a Russian historian. However, when she engaged a tutor to prepare her for entrance to Oxford, the tutor's enthusiasm for French

medieval history In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

swayed Kennedy in that direction. Kennedy attended

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

, from 1945 to 1947 on a scholarship. She went on to do research, and 1948 embarked on her life's main theme, the Lancelot en prose.

Academic career

Kennedy became a lecturer in French at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The university owns and operates majo ...

in 1953. She became a Fellow of St Hilda's College in 1966 and remained there until her retirement in 1986. She was an Emeritus Fellow of St Hilda's until her death in 2006. "Her undergraduates loved her, and many became her research students; in French departments across the world there are professors and lecturers who are medievalists because they were inspired by Elspeth's tutorials." Kennedy was President of the Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature (1984–88), President of the International Arthurian Society (1987–89), and editor of the international journal ''Medium Aevum'' ("Middle Ages") from 1990 until 2002. She was a member of the Lancelot committees of the Royal Academy of the Netherlands and of the Huygens Instituut of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

. Kennedy received the French Prix Excalibur.

Bibliography

*''A Knight's Own Book of Chivalry:

Geoffroi de Charny Geoffroi de Charny ({{circa, 1306 – 19 September 1356) was the third son of Jean de Charny, the lord of Charny (then a major Burgundian fortress), and Marguerite de Joinville, daughter of Jean de Joinville, the biographer and close friend of Fra ...

'' (trans.; intro. Richard W. Kaeuper) (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005), *''The Book of Chivalry of Geoffroi de Charny: Text, Context and Translation'' (with Richard W. Kaeuper) (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), *''Shifts and Transpositions in Medieval Narrative: A Festschrift for Dr Elspeth Kennedy'' (ed. Karen Pratt) (Brewer, 1994), *''

Lancelot Lancelot du Lac (French for Lancelot of the Lake), also written as Launcelot and other variants (such as early German ''Lanzelet'', early French ''Lanselos'', early Welsh ''Lanslod Lak'', Italian ''Lancillotto'', Spanish ''Lanzarote del Lago' ...

of the Lake'' (intro.; trans. and notes Corin Corley) (Oxford World's Classics, 1989), *''Lancelot and the Grail: A Study of the

Prose Lancelot The ''Lancelot-Grail'', also known as the Vulgate Cycle or the Pseudo-Map Cycle, is an early 13th-century French Arthurian literary cycle consisting of interconnected prose episodes of chivalric romance in Old French. The cycle of unknown author ...

'' (Clarendon Press, 1986), *''Lancelot do Lac: The Non-cyclic Old French Prose Romance'' (2 vols., ed.) (OUP, 1980), *''Social and Political Ideas in the French Prose Lancelot: A Note on The Breton Lays Mediumaevum Vol XXVI'' (with

Rachel Bromwich Rachel Bromwich (30 July 1915 – 15 December 2010) born Rachel Sheldon Amos, was a British scholar. Her focus was on medieval Welsh literature, and she taught Celtic Languages and Literature in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at ...

) (Dawson, 1965)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Elspeth 1921 births 2006 deaths British medievalists Women medievalists Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Fellows of St Hilda's College, Oxford Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Arthurian scholars British women historians