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Ivanhoe

Author	Sir Walter Scott
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Waverley Novels
Genre(s)	Historical novel
Publisher	A. Constable
Publication date	1819
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	NA
Preceded by	Rob Roy
Followed by	Kenilworth

Ivanhoe is a novel by Sir Walter Scott. It was written in 1819 and set in 12th century England, an example of historical fiction. Ivanhoe is sometimes given credit for helping to increase popular interest in the middle ages in 19th century Europe and America (see Romanticism).

Contents 1 Plot introduction 2 Plot summary 3 Characters 4 Allusions/references from other works 5 Allusions to real history and geography 5.1 Influence on Robin Hood 5.2 Historical accuracy 6 Film, TV or theatrical adaptations 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

Ivanhoe is the story of one of the remaining Saxon noble families at a time when the nobility was overwhelmingly Norman. It follows the Saxon protagonist, Wilfred of Ivanhoe, who is out of favour with his father owing to his courting of the Lady Rowena (promised to another man) and his allegiance to the Norman king Richard I of England, who is returning from the Crusades incognito amidst the plotting of Richard's brother, Prince John of England. The legendary Robin Hood, initially under the name of Locksley, is also a character in the story, as are his 'merry men,' including Friar Tuck and, less so, Alan-a-Dale. (Little John is merely mentioned). The character that Scott gave to Robin Hood in Ivanhoe helped shape the modern notion of this figure as a cheery noble outlaw.

Other major characters include Ivanhoe's intractable Saxon father, a descendant of the Saxon King Harold Godwinson; various Knights Templar and churchmen; the loyal serfs Gurth the swineherd and the jester or fool Wamba, whose not-so-foolish observations punctuate much of the action; and the Jewish moneylender, Isaac, who is torn between love of money and love of his beautiful and heroic daughter Rebecca, who, in turn, steals the story (and probably Scott's heart) from Ivanhoe and Rowena. The book was written and published during a period of increasing struggle for Emancipation of the Jews in England, and there are frequent references to injustice against them.

Wilfred of Ivanhoe was thrown out of his father's home when he fell in love with the beautiful and high-class noble Lady Rowena (the ward of his father Cedric), who his father had planned to marry off to the powerful Lord Athelstane, cementing a Saxon political alliance. Ivanhoe goes off to war (the Crusades, or Holy Wars) with King Richard (whom Cedric, a Saxon, sees as borderline enemy for being of Norman blood), and as the book opens, his whereabouts are unknown, and the author follows a series of characters, including Cedric and Rowena, as they attend a tournament that even Prince John attends.

The victor of the tournament, a mysterious masked knight, is soon revealed to be Ivanhoe himself, returned from the Crusades. He is wounded in the competition and, still estranged from his father, is taken into the care of Isaac the Jew (who provided him with an armor for the tournament after Ivahoe aided him) and his daughter Rebecca, a beautiful and skilled healer who develops a crush on Ivanhoe.

A series of events follow that result in the capture of Rowena, her guardian Cedric, her betrothed Lord Athelstane, Rebecca and the wounded Ivanhoe by agents of Prince John. King Richard, secretly returned to England and in disguise, solicits the aid of Robin Hood and Friar Tuck to free them. Richard's party is successful at rescuing Ivanhoe and Rowena, but Ivanhoe's friend Rebecca is carried away by Ivanhoe's old nemesis, the Templar Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert, who lusts after her and whom she has rejected several times. In the fighting, Athelstane is killed attempting to rescue Rebecca, who he mistakes for Rowena.

The Grand Master of the Templars is angry at de Bois-Guilbert for his sinful infatuation with Rebecca. He charges the young healer with sorcery and sentences her to death. Rebecca's only hope is that a knight will agree to be her champion, dueling de Bois-Guilbert (her accuser, despite his feelings for her) in a trial of combat.

Meanwhile, after Athelstane's funeral, King Richard calms Cedric and reconciles him to his son, convincing him to agree to the marriage of Ivanhoe and Rowena. Shortly afterwards, Athelstane appears -- not dead, but apparently having been buried alive by priests greedy for the funeral money. Rather than challenging Ivanhoe for Rowena, Athelstante steps aside chivalrously and wishes the couple the best. Meanwhile, Ivanhoe receives a message from Isaac the Jew and quickly leaves to save his friend Rebecca.

Ivanhoe defeats de Bois-Guilbert in combat, but does not kill him -- he dies "a victim to the violence of his own contending passions", which is pronounced as the judgment of God by the Grand Master, and proof of Rebecca's innocence. King Richard then arrives and arrests the agents of Prince John and dissolves the chapter of the Templars, condemning them to exile.

Fearing further persecution, Rebecca and her father leave England for Grenada; she comes to bid Rowena a fond farewell. Ivanhoe and Rowena marry and live a long and happy life together, though the final paragraphs of the book note that Ivanhoe's long service was cut short when King Richard met a premature death in battle.

• Wilfred of Ivanhoe – a knight and son of a Saxon family
• Rebecca – a Jewish healer
• Rowena – a noble Saxon Lady
• Prince John – the plotting regent of England
• The Black Knight or Knight of the Fetterlock – his brother, King Richard the Lionhearted, incognito
• Locksley – i.e., Robin Hood
• The Hermit or Clerk of Companhurst –– i.e., Friar Tuck
• Brian de Bois-Guilbert – a Templar Knight
• Isaac of York – the father of Rebecca; a money-lender
• Prior Aymer – a rich churchman
• Reginald Front-de-Boeuf– local baron who was given Ivanhoe's estate by Prince John
• Cedric the Saxon – Ivanhoe's father
• Lucas Beaumanoir – Grand Master of the Knights Templars
• Conrade of Montfichet – Templar
• Maurice De Bracy– Prince John's loyal minion
• Waldemar Fitzurse– Prince John's loyal minion
• Athelstane – last of the Saxon royal line
• Albert de Malvoisin – Templar
• Philip de Malvoisin – local baron (brother of Albert)
• Gurth – Cedric's loyal Swineherd
• Wamba – Cedric's loyal Jester

• In 1850, novelist William Makepeace Thackeray wrote a spoof sequel to Ivanhoe called Rebecca and Rowena.

• In Alfred Hitchcock's film Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Ivanhoe is read by the character Ann.

• In Maud Hart Lovelace's book Betsy in Spite of Herself (1946), the character Mr. Gaston, an English teacher, assigns the book to be read over the summer.

• Edward Eager's book Knight's Castle (1956) magically transports four children into the story of Ivanhoe.

• The band Dschinghis Khan had a song called Ivanhoe on the album "Helden, Shurken, und Der Dudelmoser".

• In To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by Harper Lee, Jem reads the book to Mrs. Dubose.

• In Slaughterhouse Five (1969), written by Kurt Vonnegut, Maggie White was said to have last read this story.

• In a 1992 episode of The Simpsons, Bart feigns getting sick several times to avoid taking a test (an allusion to The Boy Who Cried Wolf). When he finally takes the test, he writes "the story of Ivanhoe is about a Russian farmer and his tool".

• In the comic strip, Zits, protagonist Jeremy labors over Ivanhoe as assigned reading.

• In the British television series Life on Mars, Sam Tyler's childhood cat is called Ivanhoe, as witnessed in Episode 5, when he calls out to it. Later the cat snuggles up to his leg.

• Christopher Vogler wrote a sequel called Ravenskull (2006), published by Seven Seas Publishing.

• Pierre Efratas also wrote a sequel called Le Destin d'Ivanhoe (2003), published by Editions Charles Corlet. He replies this question : what happens with Ivanhoe when his enemy prince John becomes king ?

• Simon Hawke uses the story as the basis for The Ivanhoe Gambit the first novel in his time travel adventure series TimeWars.

• It is noted that the phrase "Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott" is an anagram of "A novel by a Scottish writer."

The location of the novel is centred upon South Yorkshire and North Nottinghamshire in England. Castles mentioned within the story include Ashby de la Zouch where the opening tournament is held (now a ruin in the care of English Heritage), York (though the mention of Clifford's Tower, likewise EH and still standing, is anachronistic, it having been built later) and 'Coningsburgh', which is based upon Conisbrough Castle near Doncaster (also EH and a popular tourist attraction). Reference is made within the story, too, to York Minster, where the climactic wedding takes place, and to the Bishop of Sheffield. These references within the story contribute to the notion that Robin Hood lived or travelled in and around this area.

The ancient town of Conisbrough has become so dedicated to the story of Ivanhoe that many of the streets, schools and public buildings are named after either characters from the book or the 12th-century castle.

The modern vision of Robin Hood as a cheerful, patriotic rebel owes much to Ivanhoe. "Locksley", although first mentioned as Robin's birthplace in 1600 and used as an epithet in one ballad, becomes Robin's title in this novel and hereafter: Robin Hood from Locksley becomes Robin of Locksley, alias Hood. The Saxon-Norman conflict first mooted as an influence on the legend by Joseph Ritson is made a major theme by Scott, and remains so in many subsequent retellings. Although Scott actually shuns the convention since the sixteenth century of depicting Robin as a dispossessed nobleman, Ivanhoe has contributed to this strand of the legend too: because subsequent Robin Hoods (e.g. in the 1922 Douglas Fairbanks film, and 1991's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) take on Wilfred of Ivanhoe's own characteristics - they are returning Crusaders, have quarrelled with their fathers, and so forth.

Robin's feat of splitting his competitor's arrow in an archery contest appears for the first time in Ivanhoe.

Although the general political events depicted in the novel are relatively accurate – it tells of the period just after King Richard's imprisonment in Austria following the Crusade, and of his return to England – the story is heavily fictionalised.

There has been criticism, as unsupported by the evidence of contemporary records, of the enmity of Saxon and Norman, represented as persisting in the days of Richard I, which forms the basis of the story.^[1] Most historians have assumed that there was substantial intermarriage between the Normans and the English, but genealogical analyses of the 11th Century Domesday Book and 12th Century manuscripts have shown that this was not the case. In fact, the Normans considered themselves to be socially and ethnically élite, and operated a medieval version of apartheid.^[2] Scott's depiction of late 12th century society fits well with this research.

One inaccuracy in Ivanhoe created a new name in the English language: Cedric. The original Saxon name is Cerdic but Sir Walter committed metathesis. The satirist H. H. Munro, with his typical caustic wit, commented: "It is not a name but a misspelling."

A major inaccuracy is that it would be quite impossible for Rebecca to be sentenced to burn for witchcraft in England in 1194. The Church did not undertake the finding and punishment of "witches" until the 1250s, and death did not become the usual penalty until the fifteenth century; even then, the form of execution used for witches in England (unlike Scotland and Continental Europe) was hanging, burning being reserved for those also convicted of high or petty treason.

The novel's references to the Moorish king Boabdil are also anachronistic, since he lived about 300 years after Richard.

The novel has been the basis for two movies, each also entitled Ivanhoe;

• The 1913 film : Directed by Herbert Brenon. With King Baggot, Leah Baird, Brenon. Filmed at Chepstow Castle, Wales
• The 1952 MGM Technicolor film Ivanhoe was directed by Richard Thorpe and starred Robert Taylor as Ivanhoe, Elizabeth Taylor as Rebecca, Joan Fontaine as Rowena, George Sanders as Bois-Guilbert, Finlay Currie as Cedric, and Sebastian Cabot. The film has a notable jousting scene as well as a well choreographed castle siege sequence. The visual spectacle is given more attention than the dialogue and underlying story, though the main points of the plot are covered. The film was nominated for three Oscars:
  • Best Picture - Pandro S. Berman
  • Best Cinematography, Color - Freddie Young
  • Best Music Score - Miklós Rózsa

There is also a Russian movie The Ballad of the Valiant Knight Ivanhoe (Баллада о доблестном рыцаре Айвенго) (1983), directed by Sergey Tarasov, with songs of Vladimir Vysotsky, starring Peteris Gaudins as Ivanhoe.

There have also been many television adaptations of the novel, including:

• Late 1950s: A television series based on the character of Ivanhoe starred Roger Moore as Ivanhoe.
• 1970: A TV mini series starring Eric Flynn as Ivanhoe.
• 1982: A television movie starring Anthony Andrews as Ivanhoe, Michael Hordern as his father, Cedric, Sam Neill as Sir Brian, Olivia Hussey as Rebecca, James Mason as Isaac, Lysette Anthony as Rowena, Julian Glover as King Richard, and David Robb as Robin Hood. In this version, Sir Brian is a hero. Though he could easily have won the fight against the wounded and weakened Ivanhoe, Brian lowers his sword and allows himself to be slaughtered, thus saving the life of his beloved Rebecca.
• 1997: Ivanhoe the King's Knight a televised cartoon series produced by CINAR and France Animation. General retelling of classic tale.
• 1997: This version of Ivanhoe was released as a 6-part, 5-hour series, a co-production of A&E and the BBC. It stars Steven Waddington as Ivanhoe, Ciarán Hinds as Bois-Guilbert, Susan Lynch as Rebecca, and Victoria Smurfit as Rowena.
• 2000 A Channel 5 adaptation entitled Dark Knight attempted to adapt Ivanhoe for an ongoing series. Ben Pullen played Ivanhoe and Charlotte Comer played Rebecca.

An operatic adaptation by Sir Arthur Sullivan (see Ivanhoe) ran for over 150 consecutive performances in 1891. Other operas based on the novel have been composed by Gioachino Rossini (Ivanhoé), John Parry, Otto Nicolai (Il Templario), Heinrich Marschner (Der Templer Und Die Jüdin), and Michael William Balfe (Il Talismano).

• Trysting Tree - several reference are made to these trees as agreed gathering places.

1. ^ ”Ivanhoe”, page 499. The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 1989
2. ^ Keys, D: Normans practised apartheid on English”, The Independent (London) 13.3.1999

• Ivanhoe, available at Project Gutenberg.
• Online edition at eBooks@Adelaide
• Dark Knight at the Internet Movie Database
• The Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.