Ivanhoe: A Romance ( ) by Walter Scott is a historical novel published in three volumes, in December 1819, as one of the Waverley novels. The Waverley novels are considered seminal to the genre of historical fiction, and Ivanhoe became by far the best-known entry in the whole cycle of nearly thirty books.
Ivanhoe marked a shift away from Scott's prior practice of setting stories in Scotland during centuries closer to the one from which he wrote his books (1814–1831). Whereas earlier numbers in the Waverley series take place in the 16th and 17th centuries, Ivanhoe is set in the high-medieval past during the 1190s. Over time it became Scott's best-remembered and most beloved novel, with many adaptations of the work in the twentieth century.Ivanhoe. Directed by Richard Thorpe, performances by Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, and Joan Fontaine, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1952Scott, Sir Walter. Ivanhoe. Illustrated by Edd Ashe, Classics Illustrated no. 2, Gilberton Publishing Company, 1941.Scott, Walter. Ivanhoe. Read by Anthony Quayle, Caedmon Records, 1968. LPIvanhoe. Directed by Douglas Camfield, performances by Anthony Andrews, James Mason, and Olivia Hussey, CBS, 1982Ivanhoe. Directed by Herbert Brenon, Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP), 1913Ivanhoe. [TV series] Performances by Roger Moore, Columbia Television, 1958–1968. [1, 2, 3]
Set in England in the Middle Ages, with colourful descriptions of a tournament, outlaws, a witch trial, and divisions between Jews and Christians, Normans and Saxons, the novel was credited by many, including Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin, with inspiring increased interest in chivalric romance and medievalism. As John Henry Newman put it, Scott "had first turned men's minds in the direction of the Middle Ages". It was also credited with influencing contemporary popular perceptions of historical figures such as King Richard the Lionheart, Prince John, and Robin Hood.
C.S. Lewis writes, "It was known that Adam went naked before till he fell. After that, people pictured the whole past in terms of their own age. [...] Milton never doubted that [the common English dish] 'capon and white broth' would have been as familiar to Christ and the disciples as it was to himself. It is doubtful whether the sense of period is much older than the Waverley novels. It is hardly present in Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, published 1776."Emphasis added. Quote from: C.S. Lewis. The Discarded Image. Cambridge, 1964. p. 182-183
Composition and sources In June 1819, Walter Scott still suffered from the severe stomach pains that had forced him to dictate the last part of The Bride of Lammermoor, and also most of A Legend of the Wars of Montrose, which he finished at the end of May. By the beginning of July, at the latest, Scott had started dictating his new novel Ivanhoe, again with John Ballantyne and William Laidlaw as amanuenses. For the second half of the manuscript, Scott was able to take up the pen, and completed Ivanhoe: A Romance in early November 1819.
For detailed information about the Middle Ages Scott drew on three works by the antiquarian Joseph Strutt: Horda Angel-cynnan or a Compleat View of the Manners, Customs, Arms, Habits etc. of the Inhabitants of England (1775–76), Dress and Habits of the People of England (1796–99), and Sports and Pastimes of the People of England (1801). Two historians gave him a solid grounding in the period: Robert Henry with The History of Great Britain (1771–93), and Sharon Turner with The History of the Anglo-Saxons from the Earliest Period to the Norman Conquest (1799–1805). His clearest debt to an original medieval source involved the Templar Rule, reproduced in The Theatre of Honour and Knight-Hood (1623) translated from the French of André Favine. Scott was happy to introduce details from the later Middle Ages, and Chaucer was particularly helpful, as (in a different way) was the fourteenth-century romance Richard Coeur de Lion.Ibid., 498–500. The figure of Locksley in the story and many elements of the tale are undoubtedly influenced by Scott's association with Joseph Ritson, who had earlier compiled Robin Hood: a collection of all the ancient poems, songs and ballads now extant relative to that celebrated English outlaw (1795).
Editions Ivanhoe was published by Archibald Constable in Edinburgh. All first editions carry the date of 1820, but it was released on 20 December 1819 and issued in London on the 29th by Hurst, Robinson and Co.. As with all of the Waverley novels before 1827, publication was anonymous. The print run was 10,000 copies, and the cost was £1 10s (£1.50, equivalent in purchasing power to £149 in 2021).William B. Todd and Ann Bowden, Sir Walter Scott: A Bibliographical History 1796–1832 (New Castle, Delaware, 1998), 502. It is possible that Scott was involved in minor changes to the text during the early 1820s but his main revision was carried out in 1829 for the 'Magnum' edition where the novel appeared in Volumes 16 and 17 in September and October 1830.
The standard modern edition, by Graham Tulloch, appeared as Volume 8 of the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels in 1998: this is based on the first edition with emendations principally from Scott's manuscript in the second half of the work; the new Magnum material is included in Volume 25b.
Plot summary Ivanhoe focuses on one of the remaining Anglo-Saxon noble families when the nobility in England was overwhelmingly Norman. Set in 1194, It follows the Saxon protagonist, Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, who is out of favour with his father for Sir Wilfred's allegiance to the Norman king Richard the Lionheart. After the failure of the Third Crusade, many Crusaders were still returning to their homes in Europe. King Richard, who had been captured by Leopold of Austria on his return journey to England, was believed to still be in captivity.
Opening
Protagonist Wilfred of Ivanhoe is disinherited by his father Cedric of Rotherwood for supporting the Norman King Richard and for falling in love with the Lady Rowena, a ward of Cedric and descendant of the Saxon Kings of England. Cedric planned to have Rowena marry the powerful Lord Athelstane, a pretender to the Crown of England by his descent from the last Saxon King, Harold Godwinson. Ivanhoe accompanies King Richard on the Third Crusade, where he is said to have played a notable role in the Siege of Acre.
The book opens with a scene of Norman knights and prelates seeking the hospitality of Cedric. They are guided there by a pilgrim, known at that time as a palmer. That same night, Isaac of York, a Jewish moneylender, seeks refuge at Rotherwood on his way to the tournament at Ashby. Following the night's meal, the palmer observes one of the Normans, the Templar Brian de Bois-Guilbert, issue orders to his Saracen soldiers to capture Isaac.
The palmer then assists in Isaac's escape from Rotherwood, with the additional aid of the swineherd Gurth.
Isaac of York offers to repay his debt to the palmer with a suit of armour and a war horse to participate in the tournament at Ashby-de-la-Zouch Castle, on his inference that the palmer was secretly a knight. The palmer is taken by surprise, but accepts the offer.
The tournament The tournament is presided over by Prince John. Also in attendance are Cedric, Athelstane, Lady Rowena, Isaac of York, his daughter Rebecca, Robin of Locksley and his men, Prince John's advisor Waldemar Fitzurse, and numerous Norman knights.
On the first day of the tournament, in a bout of individual jousting, a mysterious knight, identifying himself only as "Desdichado" (described in the book as Spanish, taken by the Saxons to mean "Disinherited"), defeats Bois-Guilbert. The masked knight declines to reveal himself despite Prince John's request, but is nevertheless declared the champion of the day and is permitted to choose the Queen of the Tournament. He bestows this honour upon Lady Rowena.
On the second day, at a melee, Desdichado is the leader of one party, opposed by his former adversaries. Desdichado's side is soon hard-pressed and he himself beset by multiple foes until rescued by a knight nicknamed Le Noir Faineant ('the Black Sluggard'), who thereafter departs in secret. When forced to unmask himself to receive his coronet (the sign of championship), Desdichado is identified as Wilfred of Ivanhoe, returned from the Crusades. This causes much consternation to Prince John and his court who now fear the imminent return of King Richard.
Ivanhoe is severely wounded in the competition yet his father does not move quickly to tend to him. Instead, Rebecca, a skilled physician, tends to him while they are lodged near the tournament and then convinces her father to take Ivanhoe with them to their home in York when he is fit for that trip. The conclusion of the tournament includes feats of archery by Locksley, such as splitting a willow reed with his arrow. Prince John's dinner for the local Saxons ends in insults.
Capture and rescue
In the forests between Ashby and York, Isaac, Rebecca and the wounded Ivanhoe are abandoned by their guards, who fear bandits and take all of Isaac's horses. Cedric, Athelstane and the Lady Rowena meet them and agree to travel together. The party is captured by de Bracy and his companions and taken to Torquilstone, the castle of Front-de-Bœuf. The swineherd Gurth and Wamba the jester manage to escape, and then encounter Locksley, who plans a rescue.
The Black Knight, having taken refuge for the night in the hut of local friar, the Holy Clerk of Copmanhurst, volunteers his assistance on learning about the captives from Robin of Locksley. They then besiege the Castle of Torquilstone with Robin's own men, including the friar and assorted Saxon yeomen. Inside Torquilstone, de Bracy expresses his love for the Lady Rowena but is refused. Brian de Bois-Guilbert tries to rape Rebecca and is thwarted. He then tries to seduce her and is rebuffed. Front-de-Bœuf tries to wring a hefty ransom from Isaac of York, but Isaac refuses to pay unless his daughter is freed.
When the besiegers deliver a note to yield up the captives, their Norman captors demand a priest to administer the Final Sacrament to Cedric; whereupon Cedric's jester Wamba slips in disguised as a priest, and takes the place of Cedric, who escapes and brings important information to the besiegers on the strength of the garrison and its layout. On his way out, Cedric meets the Saxon crone Ulrica, who vows revenge on Front-de-Bœuf and advises Cedric to tell the besiegers. The besiegers storm the castle. The castle is set aflame during the assault by Ulrica, the daughter of the original lord of the castle, Lord Torquilstone, as revenge for her father's death. Front-de-Bœuf is killed in the fire while de Bracy surrenders to the Black Knight, who identifies himself as King Richard and releases de Bracy. Bois-Guilbert escapes with Rebecca while Isaac is captured by the Clerk of Copmanhurst. The Lady Rowena is saved by Cedric, while the still-wounded Ivanhoe is rescued from the burning castle by King Richard. In the fighting, Athelstane is wounded and presumed dead while attempting to rescue Rebecca, whom he mistakes for Rowena.
Rebecca's trial and Ivanhoe's reconciliation