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Elspeth Mary Kennedy, MA, DPhil, FSA (1921 — March 10, 2006) was a British academic and a prominent medievalist.

Elspeth Kennedy's academic career was delayed by World War II, during which she worked for the government. A scholar at Somerville College, Oxford from 1945 to 1947, she went on to do research, and became a lecturer in French at the University of Manchester in 1953. Elspeth Kennedy became a Fellow of St Hilda's College in 1966 and remained there until her retirement in 1986. From then until her death she was an Emeritus Fellow of St Hilda's.

Elspeth Kennedy was President of the Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature (1984-88), President of the International Arthurian Society (1987-90), an editor of Medium Aevum (1990-2002). 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.

Elspeth Kennedy is best known as the editor and author of works on medieval French literature.

• A Knight's Own Book of Chivalry: Geoffroi de Charny (trans.; intro. Richard W. Kaeuper) (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005), ISBN 0-8122-1909-0
• The Book of Chivalry of Geoffroi de Charny: Text, Context and Translation (with Richard W. Kaeuper) (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), ISBN 0-8122-3348-4
• Shifts and Transpositions in Medieval Narrative: A Festschrift for Dr Elspeth Kennedy (ed. Karen Pratt) (Brewer, 1994), ISBN 0-85991-421-6
• Lancelot of the Lake (intro.; trans. and notes Corin Corley) (Oxford World's Classics, 1989), ISBN 0-19-281756-6
• Lancelot and the Grail: A Study of the Prose Lancelot (Clarendon Press, 1986), ISBN 0-19-815811-4
• Lancelot do Lac: The Non-cyclic Old French Prose Romance (2 vols., ed.) (OUP, 1980), ISBN 0-19-812064-8
• Social and Political Ideas in the French Prose Lancelot: A Note on The Breton Lays Mediumaevum Vol XXVI (with Rachel Bromwich) (Dawson, 1965)