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Title:
Ivanhoe
Author: Walter Scott
First Published in: 1819
Ivanhoe, a novel by Sir W. 'Scott, published 1819. This
was the first of the author's novels in which he adopted
a purely English subject. Wilfred of Ivanhoe, son of
Cedric, of noble Saxon birth, loves his father's ward,
the lady Rowena, who traces her descent to King Alfred,
and who returns his love. Cedric, who is passionately
devoted to the restoration of thc Saxon line to the
throne of England and sees the best chance of effecting
this in the marriage of Rowena to Athelstane of
Coningsburgh, also of the Saxon blood royal, has in anger
banished his son. Ivanhoe has joined Richard Coeur de
Lion at the crusade and there won the king's affection.
In Richard's absence, his brother John has found support
among the lawless and dissolute Norman nobles for his
plan to depose Richard, a design favoured by Richard's
imprisonment in Austria on his return from Palestine. The
story centres in two chief events: a great tournament at
Ashby de la Zouch, where Ivanhoe aided by Richard, who
unknown to all has returned to England with Ivanhoe,
defeats all the knights of John's party, including the
fierce Templar Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert and Sir
Reginald Front-de-Boeuf; and the siege of Frontde-Boeuf's
castle of Torquilstone, whither Cedric and Rowena, with
the wounded Ivanhoe, Athelstane, thejew Isaac, and his
beautiful and courageous daughter Rebecca, have been
carried captives by the Notman nobles. After an exciting
fight, the castle is carried by a force of outlaws and
Saxons, led by Locksley (otherwise Robin Hood) and King
Richard himself. The prisoners are rescued, with the
exception of Rebecca whom the Templar carries off to the
Preceptory of Templestowe. Here the unexpec ted arrival
of the Grant Master of the order, while relieving Rebecca
from the dishonourable advances of Bois-Guilbert, exposes
her to the charge of witchcraft, and she escapes sentence
of death only by demanding trial by combat. Ivanhoe
appears as her champion, and in the encounter between him
and Bois-Guilbect the latter falls dead, untouched by his
opponent's lance, the victim of his own contending
passions. Ivanhoe and Rowena are united; Rebecca,
suppressing her love for Ivanhoe, leaves England with her
father. Among the many characters in the story, besides
Robin Hood and Friar Tuck, are the poor fool Wamba, who
imperils his life to save rhar of his master Cedric;
Gurth, the swineherd; and Isaac the Jew, divided between
love of his shekels and love of his daughter. Thackeray's
Rebecca and Rowena is an amusing sequel to, and critical
reinterpretation of, Scott's tale.
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