Scholarship & Editorial Work

Scholarly Publications

Edited Collections

Food and Feast in Premodern Outlaw Tales (Co-edited with Kristin Bovaird-Abbo ), New York: Routledge, 2021.

[Chapter: “Acting Out(law): Feasts, Outlawry, and Identity Construction in Two Shakespearean Comedies,” pp. 199-221.]

Publisher’s page: https://www.routledge.com/Food-and-Feast-in-Premodern-Outlaw-Tales/Elmes-Bovaird-Abbo/p/book/9780367224905

Reviewed in: Robin Hood Scholars: IARHS on the Web

Melusine’s Footprint: Tracing the Legacy of a Medieval Myth (co-edited with Misty Urban and Deva Kemmis), Leiden: Brill, 2017.

[Chapter: “The Alchemical Transformation of Melusine,” pp. 94-105.]

Publisher’s page: https://brill.com/view/title/32998?format=HC

Reviewed in: Medieval Feminist Forum, Mediaevistik, The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Preternature

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

“The Chaucerian Miscellany: A Practical, Hands-On Approach to Teaching Medieval Literature and Book Culture.” The Once and Future Classroom 17.1 (Spring 2021). Awarded the 2020 TEAMS Teaching Award. Available online: https://teams-medieval.org/melissa-ridley-elmes-teams-2020-essay-prize-winner-the-chaucerian-miscellany-a-practical-hands-on-approach-to-teaching-medieval-literature-and-book-culture/

“Failed Ritualized Feasts and the Limitations of Community in Branwen ferch Lŷr.” Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Studies Colloquium 38 (2018; pub. 2020). 201—215.

“Public Displays of Affliction: Women’s Wounds in Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur.” Modern Philology 116.3 (2019). 187-210. Winner of the 2019 Lone Medievalist Prize for Scholarship Honorable Mention.

“Compassion and Benignytee: A Reassessment of the Relationship Between
Canacee and the Falcon in Chaucer’s Squire’s Tale.” Medieval Feminist Forum 54.1 (2018)  50-64.

“He Dreams of Dragons: Alchemical Imagery in Arthur’s Dream Vision.” Arthuriana 27.1 (Spring 2017), 73-94.

“Conduct and Character: The Feast Scene and Characterization in A Lytell Gest of Robyn Hode.” Medieval Perspectives 31 (2016), 19-30.

“Prdn Me? Text Speak, Middle English, and Chaucer’s ‘Pardoner’s Tale.'” SMART: Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching 22.1 (Spring 2015), 75-85.

“From Propaganda to Product: The Arthurian Legend in Modern Tarot Decks.” Relegere: Studies in Religion and Reception 3:2 (2013), 381-406.
(Available online: https://relegere.org/relegere/article/view/579)

“Bridging the Gap: Using Young Adult Literature with the Classics in the Secondary Classroom.” Virginia English Bulletin. 56:2 (Fall, 2006), 19-29.

Peer-Reviewed Chapters and Essays

“Female Friendship in Late-Medieval English Literature: Cultural Translation in Chaucer, Gower, and Malory.” Women’s Friendship in Medieval Literature. Eds. Karma Lochrie and Usha Vishnuvajjala. Ohio State University Press, 2022. 135—154.

“Power: Patronage, Subversion, Seduction, and Challenge.” A Cultural History of Fairy Tales, Volume 2, The Middle Ages, ed. Susan L. Aronstein. Bloomsbury, 2021. 178-192.

“Treason and the Feast in Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur.” Treason: Medieval and Early Modern Adultery, Betrayal, and Shame, ed. Larissa Tracy. Leiden: Brill, 2019. 320-329.

“Author as Nation-Crafter: Teaching The Lord of the Rings in an Epic Course.”  Approaches to Teaching Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Other Works, Ed. Leslie A. Donovan. New York: MLA, 2015. 176-183. Finalist for the 2017 Mythopoeic Society’s award  for “Best Scholarly Book on the Inklings.”

“Episodic Arthur: ‘Merlin,’ ‘Camelot,’ and the Medieval Literary Romance Tradition.” The Middle Ages on Television: Critical Essays. Eds. Carolyn Kinane and Meriem Pages. Jefferson: McFarland, 2015. 99-121.

“Species or Specious? Authorial Choices and the Parliament of Fowls.” Rethinking Chaucerian Beasts. Ed. Carolynn Van Dyke. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. 233-248.

Introductions

“Introduction to Special Issue: MEARCSTAPA: Ten Years of Teratology.” With Asa Simon Mittman and Thea Tomaini. Preternature : Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural  9.1 (2020): 1—10.

“Editor’s Note: New Feminist Voices in the Heroic Age.” With Carla María Thomas. The Heroic Age, Issue 19, Summer 2019. https://www.heroicage.org/issues/19/editorsnote.php

Signed Encyclopedia Articles

“Melusine.” Encyclopedia of British Medieval Literature, eds. Sian Echard and Robert Rouse. Wiley-Blackwell, 2017. 1316-1318.

“Biblical Reception in Spenser”. Encyclopedia of Biblical Reception. Brian Britt, subject editor. De Gruyter, 2013.

“Chronicon Elegiacum”. (Co-Authored with Edward Donald Kennedy.) The Encyclopedia of Medieval Chronicle. E.D. Kennedy, subject editor. Brill, 2010. 331-332.

“Compilatio de gestis Britonum et Anglorum”. The Encyclopedia of Medieval Chronicle. E.D. Kennedy, subject editor. Brill, 2010. 484-485.

“Charles Lamb.” Encyclopedia of Literary Romanticism. Andrew Maunder, Ed. Facts on File, 2010. 227-229.

“Essays of Elia.” Encyclopedia of Literary Romanticism. Andrew Maunder, Ed. Facts on File, 2010. 124-125.

“Leigh Hunt.” Encyclopedia of Literary Romanticism. Andrew Maunder, Ed. Facts on File, 2010. 189.

“Mary Lamb.” Encyclopedia of Literary Romanticism. Andrew Maunder, Ed. Facts on File, 2010. 229.

“Ode on a Grecian Urn.” Encyclopedia of Literary Romanticism. Andrew Maunder, Ed. Facts on File, 2010. 209-210.

“William Wordsworth.” Encyclopedia of Literary Romanticism. Andrew Maunder, Ed. Facts on File, 2010. 494-498.

“Memory in Literature.” General Themes in Literature. Jennifer McClinton-Temple, Ed. Routledge, September 2010.

“Ambition in Julius Caesar.” General Themes in Literature. Jennifer McClinton-Temple, Ed. Routledge,  September 2010.

“Guilt in Julius Caesar.” General Themes in Literature. Jennifer McClinton-Temple, Ed. Routledge,  2010.

” Iconography of the Virgin at Notre Dame, Paris.” The Encyclopedia of Medieval Pilgrimage. Rita Tekippe, subject editor. Brill, October 2009. 473.

“Astrophil and Stella #18.” The Facts on File Companion to  British Poetry Before 1600. Michelle M. Sauer, Ed. Routledge: 2008. 43.

“Astrophil and Stella # 33. The Facts on File Companion to British Poetry Before 1600. Michelle M. Sauer, Ed. Routledge: 2008. 48.

“Astrophil and Stella # 61.” The Facts on File Companion to British Poetry Before 1600. Michelle M. Sauer, Ed. Routledge: 2008. 56.

“Astrophil and Stella #64.” The Facts on File Companion to British Poetry Before 1600. Michelle M. Sauer, Ed. Routledge: 2008. 57-58.

“The Nightingale.” The Facts on File Companion to British Poetry Before 1600. Michelle M. Sauer, Ed. Routledge: 2008. 288-289.

“Spenser’s Amoretti IV.” The Facts on File Companion to British Poetry Before 1600. Michelle M. Sauer, Ed. Routledge: 2008. 13-14.

Reviews

“Review: The Mélusine Romance in Medieval Europe: Translation, Circulation, and Material Contexts, by Lydia Zeldenrust.” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 32. (2022): 277—279.

“Review: A landscape of words: Ireland, Britain and the poetics of space, 700-1250, by Amy Mulligan.” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 121.1 (2021): 134—136

“Review: Affective Medievalism, by Thomas Prendergast and Stephanie Trigg.” Arthuriana 31.3 (2021): 92—94.

“Review: The Book of Llandaf as a Historical Source, by Patrick Sims-Williams.” The Medieval Review  21.10.32. Available online: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/33494/37060

“Review: Arthur in the Celtic Languages, eds. Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan and Erich Poppe.”  Journal of British Studies 60.4 (2021): 961—962.

“Review: The Dynastic Drama of Beowulf, by Francis Leneghan.” Apardjón Journal for Scandinavian Studies 2 (2021): 91—95. Available online: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/sdhp/documents/Apardjon%20Vol%202%20-%20Book%20Review%20-%20Leneghan%202020.pdf

“Review: Fantasy in Greek and Roman Literature, by Graham Anderson.” Bryn  Mawr Classical Review, 13 November 2020. Available online: https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2020/2020.11.23/

“Review: Classic Readings on Monster Theory: Demonstrare, Volume One and Primary Sources on Monsters: Demonstrare, Volume Two, by Asa Simon Mittmann and Marcus Hensel.” Medieval Speaking, 25 June 2020. Available online: https://medievallyspeaking.blogspot.com/2020/06/mittman-and-hensel-demonstrare-classic.html?fbclid=IwAR2V6nyoNc4R_dOaQRV0WA34rba_WxwPFlLzARTO8QoFzqAHBA-SwRFBOJY

“Review: Revenge and Gender in Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance Literature, by Lesel Dawson and Fiona McHardy.” Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2019.07.64, 31 July 2019. http://www.bmcreview.org/2019/07/20190764.html

“Review: Popular Romance in Iceland: The Women, Worldviews, and Manuscript Witnesses of Nitiða Saga, by Sheryl McDonald Werronen.” Sixteenth-Century Journal 50.2 (2019), 522—524.

“Review: Emotion in Old Norse Literature: Translations, Voices, Contexts, by Sif Rikhardsdottir.” The Medieval Review, 25 October 2018. https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/25858?fbclid=IwAR36L3pa0LL0EZVv70qDW8S_1ifxK5pxbG_LCd1Kwr-4-MR0WA88NJVKd_k

“Review: Middle English Marvels: Magic, Spectacle, and Morality in the Fourteenth Century, by Tara Williams.” Preternature 8.1 (2019), 148—151.

“Review: Political Appetites: Food in Medieval English Romance, by Aaron  Hostetter.” The Heroic Age 19 (2019). https://www.heroicage.org/issues/19/reviews.php#elmes

“Review: The Critics and the Prioress: Antisemitism, Criticism, and Chaucer’s Prioress’s Tale, by Heather Blurton and Hannah Johnson.” Medieval Feminist Forum 55.1 (2019), 301-303.

“Review: Savage Economy: The Returns of Middle English Romance, by Walter Wadiak.” The Sixteenth-Century Journal 49.2 (Summer 2018), 635.

“Review: Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Religion, 700-1100, by Max Dashu.”  Medieval Feminist Forum 53.2 (2018), 129-131.

“Review: Elf Queens and Holy Friars: Fairy Beliefs and the Medieval Church, by Richard Firth Green.” Arthuriana 27.4 (Winter 2017), 80-82.

“Review: Simple Forms: Essays in Medieval English Popular Literature, by Douglas Gray.”  Reviews From the Greenwood for the International Association of Robin Hood Studies. http://robinhoodscholars.blogspot.com/2017/07/reviews-from-greenwood-melissa-ridley.html

“Review: Medieval Science Fiction, Carl Kears and James Paz, Eds.” The Heroic Age 17 (2017): http://www.heroicage.org/issues/17/reviews.php#kears-paz

“Review: Mermaids and the Production of Knowledge in Early Modern England, by Tara E. Pedersen. Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 27.2 (2016), 321-324.

“Review: Disknowledge: Literature, Alchemy, and the End of Humanism in Renaissance England, by Katherine Eggert.”  Sixteenth Century Journal 47.4 (2016), 1106-7.

“Review: Romancing Treason, by Megan G. Leitch.” Hortulus: The Online Graduate Medieval Studies Journal 12:1 (Spring, 2016). https://hortulus-journal.com/journal/volume-12-number-2-2016/melissa-ridley-elmes/

“Review:  The Wake, by Paul Kingsnorth.” International Association of Robin Hood Studies Bulletin (Spring 2016). http://robinhoodscholars.blogspot.com/2016/04/reviews-from-greenwood-melissa-ridley.html

“Review: Medieval Tastes: Food, Cooking and the Table, by Massimo Montanari.” Sixteenth Century Journal 47.1 (2016), 178-179.

“Review: Verse and Transmutation: A Corpus of Middle English Alchemical poetry, by Anke Timmermann. Hortulus: The Online Graduate Medieval Studies Journal 11.2 (Fall, 2015). Jenny Catherine Bledsoe and Melissa Ridley Elmes, Eds. Web. https://hortulus-journal.com/elmes/

“Review: The Modulated Scream: Pain in Late Medieval Culture, by Esther Cohen.” Hortulus: The Online Graduate Medieval Studies Journal 7:1 (Spring, 2013) Meghan Glass and Beth Fischer, Eds. Web. https://hortulus-journal.com/journal/volume-9-number-1-2013/ridley-elmes/

“Review: Malory: The Life and Times of Arthur’s Biographer (Christina Hardyment)”. Hortulus: The Online Graduate Journal in Medieval Studies, Grace Windsor, Ed. (2011) Available Online. https://hortulus-journal.com/journal/volume-6-number-1-2010/elmes/

“Review: Of Giants: Sex, Monsters & The Middle Ages, by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen.”  Hortulus: The Online Graduate Medieval Studies Journal. Grace Windsor, Ed. Available online: http://www.hortulus.net/~hortulus/index.php/Of_Giants:_Sex%2C_Monsters%2C_and_the_Middle_Ages_by_Jeffrey_Jerome_Cohen

“Review: Magic in the Middle Ages, by Richard Kieckhefer.” Hortulus: The Online Graduate Medieval Studies Journal. 4:1 (2008). Karina Ashe, Ed. Available online: http://www.hortulus.net/~hortulus/index.php/The_Book_Review

“Review: At Large and At Small, by Anne Fadiman.” Ink Quarterly. 2:3 (Summer 2007).  7-9. Available on-line: http://members.gcronline.com/writersstudio/Summer%202008.pdf

Editorial Work

Series Editor: Monsters, Prodigies, and Demons, Medieval Institute Publications (2020-present)

Associate Editor, The Heroic Age (2018-2023)

Guest Editor, Preternature special issue, “Ten Years of Teratology: A MEARCSTAPA Retrospective” (2018)

Guest Editor, The Heroic Age Special Issue, “New Feminist Voices in the Heroic Age” (2018).

Book Reviews Editor, Medieval Feminist Forum (2017-2023)

Book Reviews editor, College Literature (2018-2020)

Senior Editor 2015-2016; Junior Editor (2014-2015); Assistant Editor (2012) of Hortulus, The Online Graduate Journal of Medieval Studies. http://hortulus-journal.com/

Co-editor (with Abigail Browning) of Lenses: Approaches to Literature, Second Edition (Hayden McNeill, 2014).

Edited annotations for the updated Mary Hays Female Biography, Gina Luria Walker, ed., Chawton House, 2012-2013. (Elizabeth I, Anne Boleyn, Margaret D’Anjou, Elizabeth Lucar, Lady Arabella Seymour, Countess of Desmond).

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