.......In England in the summer of 1194, the Saxon natives bitterly oppose the policies of the Norman overlords descended from French nobles who settled England with William the Conqueror. (William, Duke of Normandy , sailed across the English Channel from France in 1066, defeated the English king in the Battle of Hastings, and seized the English throne.)  
.......The enmity William’s takeover engendered between the Saxons and Normans continues to fester after Richard I, the sixth King of England in the French line, assumes the throne in 1189, according to Scott’s account of the history of that period.  
.......After Richard (known popularly in history by his English name, Richard the Lion-Hearted, and French name, Richard Coeur de Lion) becomes king, his main interest lies in joining the Crusades to win back the Holy Land from the Muslims. Well suited to military life, he is bold, crafty, and highly skilled in swordsmanship. Shortly after his coronation, he gallops off to the Third Crusade to battle the Muslim leader, Saladin, for control of sacred territory. After seizing Cyprus, Richard confers with other Crusade leaders at the conquered city of Acre, not far from Jersusalem. When he quarrels with them over policy, Richard insults Leopold V, Duke of Austria, and rips down one of his banners.  
.......In 1192, after forging a truce with the Muslims, Richard sails for England but puts in at Venice during a storm. Henchmen of Leopold, still smarting from Richard’s offensive behavior at Acre, capture him and imprison him in a castle on the Danube. Later, Leopold turns him over to Henry VI, a German king of the Hohenstaufen dynasty and ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. A ransom frees Richard in 1194.  
.......While Richard makes his way to England, his ambitious and unscrupulous brother, John, controls the country as prince regent and plots to seize the throne. He and his fellow Normans have expropriated Saxon lands, bound many Saxons to feudal servitude, and denied Saxons the rights that Normans regularly enjoy. To John, the Saxons are pustules on the royal corpus; they must be squeezed and excised. 
.......In the forest district of the River Don, Normans on horseback approach a swineherd, Gurth, and a jester, Wamba, and ask directions to the hall of Cedric of Rotherwood, a Saxon lord. The Normans plan to request overnight lodging there before setting out the next day for a spectacular tournament at Ashby-de-la-Zouche in Leicestershire. There, knights in full battle armor will ride there horses to ring metal and draw blood.  
.......Gurth and Wamba, Saxons in the service of Cedric, give the Normans the wrong directions. Among these Normans are fierce warrior priests, members of a religious order called Knights Templars, who wielded mighty swords in the Crusades. One is the formidable Brian de Bois-Guilbert, who will take part in the tournament. Had it not been for a pilgrim newly returned from the Holy Land, the Normans would never have found Cedric’s hall. They encountered this pilgrim, called a “palmer” because of a palm leaf he carries as a symbol of a visit to the Holy Land, while attempting to follow the directions of Gurth and Wamba. The palmer leads them to the hall, where a feast progresses.  
.......It is an old Saxon custom to provide lodging to travelers, even despised Normans. Cedric–a proud and quick-tempered master but a fair man nonetheless–grants the Normans’ request and welcomes them to dine in his hall. With the Normans are Muslim captives brought to England as slaves. Not one of the Saxons or Normans recognizes the palmer, though the palmer well recognizes them. For he is Wilfred of Ivanhoe, the son of Cedric–in disguise because his father had disinherited and ostracized him. Why? First, he fell in love with Lady Rowena, Cedric’s beautiful Saxon ward and a descendant of Alfred the Great. Cedric had pledged her to Lord Athelstane of Coningsburgh, in whose veins runs the blood of another early Saxon king. Cedric believes the marriage will unite Saxon splinter groups into a unit that could restore Saxon hegemony in England. Second, Ivanhoe, a knight of uncommon skill and bravery, joined the hated Normans in the Crusades to win back the Holy Land.  
.......When Lady Rowena enters the hall, her beauty dazzles the Normans. Feeling the heat of their gazes, she draws a veil across her face. After Brian de Bois-Guilbert drinks a toast to her, she inquires about developments in the Holy Land. Guilbert says he has little to report except the truce effected with Saladin. 
.......During the feast, a Jew, Isaac of York, begs entry to the hall to sup at a table, and Cedric directs him to the lower end of a table. But no one makes room for him, out of loathing for his race and religion. Saxons and Normans alike ridicule him, and even the Muslim slaves shun him. However, the palmer yields his seat to Isaac, places food before him, and goes to the other side of the hall while Isaac–famished from traveling–heartily consumes the food. 
.......Normans and Saxons debate the merits of their languages. Those fluent in Norman French and Saxon English understand everything. Others converse in pidgin, stringing together motley phrases, or rely on translators. When the subject turns to the valor of the knights in the Holy Land, Brian de Bois-Guilbert extols the prowess of the Normans compared with the English. Rowena asks whether any English knights distinguished themselves. De Bois-Guilbert concedes that certain English knights fought with spirit, but declares they were second to the Norman knights. 
.......“Second to none,” the palmer rejoins. He describes a tournament in the Holy Land in which English knights defeated Normans. He says that if one of those English knights, Wilfred of Ivanhoe, were present, he would challenge de Bois-Guilbert in the lists. The palmer offers an ivory box containing a fragment of the cross of Christ as surety against such a match, and de Bois-Guilbert flings a gold chain onto the table as his pledge.  
.......After the banquet, Rowena questions the palmer about Ivanhoe–whether he will encounter problems returning home, whether he enjoys good health. The palmer tells her Ivanhoe well knows the customs in foreign lands, enabling him to travel safely. As to his health, the palmer says Ivanhoe is darker and thinner than when he arrived in Cyprus and that “care seemed to sit heavy on his brow.” 
.......The next morning, the palmer enters Isaac’s room and advises him to leave immediately and travel hastily. When Isaac asks why, the palmer says he overheard de Bois-Guilbert instructing his Muslims to rob Isaac on the road. The palmer then quietly departs with Isaac, who plans to conduct business in the region and attend the tournament, guiding him through secret passes in the forest to the home of friends in Sheffield. Grateful, Isaac, says he will get the palmer what he most wants: a horse and armor for the tournament. Isaac explains that he knows the palmer is really a knight because of the words he spoke the previous evening. Like “sparks from flint [they] showed the metal within,” Isaac says. Moreover, Isaac says, when the palmer bent over, his cloak opened to reveal a knight’s chain and spurs of gold. Isaac then obtains from a fellow Jew everything Ivanhoe needs to compete.  
.......So it is that Ivanhoe is able to enter the tournament and joust against the best of the field before a crowd of Saxons and Normans, including Prince John. 
.......In the first event of the tournament, Brian de Bois-Guilbert and other Normans gain the upper hand–to the dismay of Cedric and his supporters–by unhorsing one Saxon after another. It appears that no one can stand up to them. Then, at the sound of a trumpet, Ivanhoe takes the field disguised as the “Disinherited Knight.”  
.......Ivanhoe first rides against de Bois-Guilbert. The Norman’s lance strikes Ivanhoe’s shield squarely, nearly knocking Ivanhoe out of his saddle. At the same time, Ivanhoe’s lance strikes Guilbert’s helmet, and “saddle, horse, and man rolled on the ground in a cloud of dust.” The victorious Ivanhoe drinks from a bowl of wine, saying: “To all true English hearts, and to the confusion of foreign tyrants.” Next, he defeats a ruthless, battle-scarred giant, Reginald Front-de-Boeuf, then completes the rout by dispatching Sir Philip Malvoisin, de Grantmesnil, and Ralph de Vipont. Amazed spectators wonder, “Who is this Disinherited Knight?”  
.......As the victor, the Disinherited Knight’s retains the right to designate the the Queen of Beauty and Love. Riding up to the royal seating area, he uses his lance to take up the crown and place it at the feet of Lady Rowena, conferring upon her complete royal authority in the realm for the following day. Prince John confirms the Disinherited knight’s victory, reluctantly, and Rowena receives the crown.  
.......Isaac and his daughter, Rebecca, who are lodging at an Israelite’s house near Ashby, receive a visitor, Gurth, who has come on Ivanhoe’s behalf to repay Isaac eighty zecchins for the armor. Later, however, when Rebecca is alone with Gurth, she gives back the money and tells Gurth to return it to Ivanhoe.  
.......On the second day of the tournament, fifty Norman warriors and fifty Saxon warriors assemble for a battle royal. Athelstane, angry that the Disinherited Knight chose his fiancée as the Queen of Beauty and Love, fights on the Norman side. During the bloody free-for-all, de Bois-Guilbert, Front-le-Boeuf, and Athelstane close in on Ivanhoe. Then a mysterious Black Knight rides into the lists and evens the odds by defeating Athelstane and Front-le-Boeuf. Ivanhoe, heartened, again unhorses de Bois-Guilbert.  
.......In the end, four men lie dead, thirty others nurse wounds, and Ivanhoe again emerges victorious, earning the right to receive the Chaplet of Honor from Lady Rowena. When Rowena reaches down to place the chaplet on the knight’s helmet, marshals declare that the knight must receive the chaplet on his bare head. Removing his helmet, they reveal the pale, blood-streaked face of Ivanhoe. He kisses Rowena’s hand, then collapses at her feet. Removal of his armor reveals a lance wound in his side. 
.......Before the Disinherited Knight’s fate is known, word spreads through the crowd that he is none other than the valiant Wilfred of Ivanhoe, Cedric’s son, returned from the Holy Land.  
.......Rumor has it that King Richard, too, is on his way back to England after his detention in central Europe. This news prompts Prince John and his unscrupulous adviser, Waldemar Fitzurse, to further their plans to overthrow Richard, using a mercenary warrior, Maurice de Bracy, along with Brian de Bois-Guilbert and Reginald Front-de-Boeuf. 
.......Richard is in fact in England. He was the mysterious knight who helped Ivanhoe in the lists. After the tournament, he galloped off, lodged for the night at a wayside inn, then rode into the forest. In the remains of an old chapel, a monk, Friar Tuck, gives him food and drink and they sing songs. 
.......Ivanhoe, meanwhile, is under the care of Isaac of York’s beautiful daughter, Rebecca, who is skilled in the healing arts. She is much taken with the Christian knight, and he is not averse to her attentions. After the tournament, Isaac and Rebecca take Ivanhoe with them on a horse litter and enter the forest. 
.......Later, Cedric, Athelstane, Rowena, and a company of men also enter the forest on their return to Rotherwood. Along the way, they encounter Isaac and Rebecca. Isaac tells Cedric the bodyguard he hired to accompany him ran away after learning there were outlaws in the forest. While fleeing, these men took with them mules Isaac rented to haul an ailing friend (Ivanhoe) on a litter. When Isaac asks to travel under Cedric’s protection, Athelstane calls him a dog and tries to turn him away. However, Cedric decides to leave Isaac two men and two horses, a decision that Rowena praises. Rebecca kneels and kisses Rowena’s dress in a gesture of thanks, then renews the plea to travel under Cedric’s protection for the sake of the sick person on the litter. After Rowena importunes Cedric on Rebecca’s behalf, Cedric accedes to Isaac’s wishes.  
.......Unfortunately, de Bois-Guilbert, the mercenery Maurice de Bracy, and Reginald Front-de-Boeuf lead a Norman ambush against the Saxon travelers, capturing them and imprisoning them in Front-de-Boeuf’s castle, Torquilstone. The three Normans are acting partly to execute Prince John’s scheme–he wants de Bracy to marry Rowena for political reasons–and partly to realize their own selfish goals: First, de Bois-Guilbert wants to seduce Rebecca. Second, Front-de-Boeuf wants to tap into Isaac’s money. Third, de Bracy wants Rowena for his own lustful reasons besides John’s political reasons. Cedric is held for ransom.  
.......At the forest chapel, the leader of the forest outlaws, Robin of Locksley (Robin Hood) bursts in on King Richard and Friar Tuck, a member of Robin’s gang, and informs them of the Norman abduction of the Saxons. Richard and Locksley, along with Locksley’s band of outlaws, storm the castle. Front-de-Boeuf dies but de Bois-Guilbert escapes with Rebecca. All the other Saxon captives are freed, and Richard allows de Bracy to ride away. While the castle burns, de Bois-Guilbert takes Rebecca to Templestowe, the abode of the Knights Templar. 
.......Lucas de Beaumanoir, the grand master of the Templars, is shocked that one of his priest-knights has fallen in love with a Jewish woman. But he rationalizes de Bois-Guilbert’s behavior by declaring Rebecca a witch who cast a spell on the knight. After de Beaumanoir sentences her to death, Rebecca asserts her right under English custom to have a knight defend her in a fight to the death. If the knight wins, Rebecca goes free. If he loses, Rebecca dies. The grand master then names de Bois-Guilbert as the Templars’ champion–an impossible position for him. On the one hand, if he defeats Rebecca’s champion, Rebecca dies. If he loses, he himself dies.  
.......At the last minute, Ivanhoe–still weak from his wounds–arrives to fight for Rebecca. After the match begins, de Bois-Guilbert falls from his horse, without suffering a blow from Ivanhoe, and dies–apparently of a heart attack. King Richard, who assumes the throne that is rightfully his, forces de Beaumanoir from Templestowe. Athelstane relinquishes his claim on Rowena, and she and Ivanhoe marry in York Cathedral in a lavish ceremony attended by the king. Cedric reconciles with his son and pledges allegiance to the fair-minded Richard. De Bracy, who escapes England, enters the service of the French king. Two Norman Templars–Malvoisin and his brother–are hanged, and Prince John’s adviser, Waldemar Fitzurse, is banished. Isaac and Rebecca leave England for southern Spain, where Isaac’s brother is a friend of the king of Granada. 

Characters 
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Wilfred of Ivanhoe Heroic Saxon knight who vanquishes Norman enemies and restores Saxon pride. 
Cedric of Rotherwood Ivanhoe’s father. Cedric is gruff and full of loathing for the Normans. He disinherits Ivanhoe after the young man falls in love with his ward, Rowena, and joins the hated Normans in their Crusades in the Holy Land. 
Rowena Ivanhoe’s beautiful and compassionate beloved. 
Brian de Bois-Guilbert Villainous Norman knight who opposes Ivanhoe. 
King Richard I Rightful King of England and a bold and skillful warrior. Though French blood runs in his veins, he proves himself a just and worthy king. 
Prince John Richard’s evil brother who plots to seize the throne of England. 
Athelstane Mediocre Saxon lord engaged to Rowena. 
Isaac of York Despised Jew who helps Ivanhoe. 
Rebecca Isaac’s beautiful and selfless daughter. For her nobility and strength of character, she is perhaps the most admirable character in the novel. 
Reginald Front-de-Boeuf Gigantic warrior, ally of John, and enemy of Ivanhoe. 
Maurice de Bracy Mercenary knight in the service of John. 
Philip Malvoisin Evil Templar knight. 
Locksley Robin Hood, leader of a band of forest outlaws who help Richard and Ivanhoe. 
Friar Tuck Member of Locksley’s band. 
Waldemar Fitzurse John’s advisor. 
Gurth Swineherd in the service of Cedric. 
Wamba Cedric’s jester. 
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Background and Themes 
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Author Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), a popular Scottish novelist, historian, and poet. Scott pioneered the development of the historical romance novel, in which he created fictional characters and situations to react to, and interact with, real-life historical events and personages. 
Setting England in the summer of 1194. In that year, according to Scott, animosity between England’s native Saxons and the French nobles (descended from William the Conqueror–the Norman duke who became King of England in the previous century) remained intense. Other historians maintain that the Saxon-French rivalry had died down by 1194. 
Year of Publication 1819. 
Type of Work Historical romance novel. Romance here refers as much to derring-do and intrigue as to courtship and love. 
Structure and Style Scott was an outstanding storyteller known for constructing exciting, action-driven plots rich with period atmosphere and colorful descriptions of heraldic and chivalric customs. In Ivanhoe, the characters tend to be either virtuous or villainous, with few streaks of gray in their souls. For example, the hero and heroine–Ivanhoe and Rowena–are thoroughgoing exemplars of chivalric ideals: They are faithful, compassionate, dignified, and morally incorruptible. That is not to say, however, that all the characters are static and unchanging. Cedric, for example, undergoes a rending internal conflict. After disowning his son, Ivanhoe, and declaring him a persona non grata, his long-dormant feelings for his son come alive when Ivanhoe suffers a wound in the tournament. In that moment, love and hate war in him for dominance. Eventually, Cedric reconciles with Ivanhoe and swallows his fierce Saxon pride to accept the rule of King Richard. The dialogue attempts to capture regional speech eccentricities, as well as the courtesies used to address royals, nobles, and knights. 
Theme 1 Good ultimately triumphs over evil. All of the virtuous and upright characters in the novel prevail; all of the villainous and wicked characters die, suffer physical injury or humiliation, or fail to achieve their goals. 
Theme 2 Colonialism promotes injustice and foments social upheaval. After the Normans conquer England, they and their descendants–drunk with power–succumb to their baser instincts, unjustly taking Saxon lands and humiliating the Saxons with unfair policies. The Saxons retaliate. Unrest ensues. 
Theme 3 National unity requires compromise. The Normans and Saxons both learn this lesson the hard way. After using sword and arrow in attempts to vanquish each other, they end up at an impasse. In the end, reason prevails: Cedric the Saxon accepts the king of the French line, Richard. 
Theme 4 True love conquers all. Ivanhoe and Rowena–unwavering in their love for each other–overcome seemingly impossible obstacles to become man and wife. 
Theme 5 A society divided by classes is destined for trouble. Norman aristocrats and nobles lord it over Saxon commoners, even limiting  them to inferior seats at the tournament. This policy only inflames the Saxons and stiffens their resistance. 
Theme 6 Anti-Semitism is widespread and deeply entrenched. Normans and Saxons alike scorn Isaac the Jew, although they use Isaac for financial gain and attempt to exploit his beautiful daughter, Rebecca, sexually. Only Ivanhoe and Rowena treat Isaac and Rebecca with compassion and respect. As the omniscient narrator, Scott appears to support fair treatment of the Jews, but his descriptions of Isaac contain many negative stereotypes of Jews that render his position ambiguous. 
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