Ivanhoe Chapter Summaries

Analytical Overview

Ivanhoe is first and foremost an adventure novel. Its popularity and longevity have secured it a place as one of the great historical romances of all time. The main goal of the novel is to entertain and excite its readers with a tale of heroism set in the high Middle Ages, and any symbolic or thematic purpose Walter Scott might have is decidedly secondary to that goal. Still, Scott was too intelligent an author to have written a mindless book. In addition to evoking the atmosphere of a vanished era, Ivanhoe's adventure story makes some critical points about an important time in English history, the moment when King Richard the Lion-Hearted returned to England after four years spent fighting in the Crusades and languishing in Austrian and German prisons. The novel's main historical emphasis focuses on the tension between the Saxons and the Normans, the two peoples who inhabited England. As a matter of course, the novel proposes Ivanhoe, the hero, as a possible resolution to those tensions--not because of anything Ivanhoe does, for he is weirdly inactive for an action hero (he spends more than half the novel on the sidelines with an injury), but for what he is, a Saxon knight who is passionately loyal to King Richard, a Norman king. Structurally, Ivanhoe is divided into three parts, each of them centering around a particular adventure or quest. The first part involves Ivanhoe's return to England in disguise (disguise is a major motif throughout the novel: Ivanhoe, Richard, Cedric, Locksley, and Wamba each mask their identities at some point) and centers around the great jousting tournament held at Ashby-de-la-Zouche. The second part involves Sir Maurice de Bracy's kidnapping of Cedric's Saxon party out of lust for Rowena and centers around the efforts of King Richard (in disguise, of course) and Robin Hood's (Lockley's) merry men to free the prisoners. The third part involves Rebecca's captivity at the hands of the Templars and Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert, and centers around the trial-by-combat which is arranged to determine whether she will live or die. For a writer whose early novels were prized for their historical accuracy, Scott was remarkably loose with the facts when he wrote Ivanhoe. Historical errors plague the book, and in many cases (as in the depiction of Isaac, presented as the stereotypical literary Jew) the depictions reveal more about mores and attitudes when Scott wrote the book, in 1819, than when the story is supposed to have happened, in around 1194. This has led many contemporary critics, especially fans of Scott's popular Waverly novels, to criticize the book. But it is crucial to remember that Ivanhoe, unlike the Waverly books, is entirely a romance. It is meant to please, not to instruct, and is more an act of imagination than one of research. Despite this fancifulness, however, Ivanhoe does make some prescient historical points. The novel is occasionally quite critical of King Richard, who seems to love adventure more than he loves the well-being of his subjects. This criticism did not match the typical idealized, romantic view of Richard the Lion-Hearted that was popular when Scott wrote the book, and yet it accurately echoes the way King Richard is often judged by historians today.

Chapters 28-31

Summary After the tournament, the gravely wounded Ivanhoe was tended by Isaac and Rebecca; in fact, it was because Rebecca left the cover of her litter, giving it to Ivanhoe, that she caught Brian de Bois-Guilbert's eye. When Ivanhoe weakly regained consciousness, Rebecca promised him that she was a mistress of the healing arts and would restore his health in eight days. When the Saxons met the Jews in the forest before their capture, Rebecca and Isaac said that the litter carried a sick old man. In reality, it carried Ivanhoe, which is how the knight came to be a captive at Torquilstone. In the castle, Rebecca continues to minister to Ivanhoe. As the fighting breaks out in the castle, Rebecca stands at the window and describes the battle to the feeble knight. Rebecca is appalled at the bloodshed and criticizes the institution of knighthood; Ivanhoe defends chivalry as a code of honor and morality. Ivanhoe swoons back into unconsciousness, and Rebecca wraps herself tightly in her veil, attempting to shield herself from her awakening love for Ivanhoe. In the combat, Front-de-Boeuf leads the defenders of the castle against the yeomen of Locksley and the Black Knight. He receives a fatal wound, and as he slumps over in the castle, Ulrica jeers and taunts him, reminding him that he is guilty of his own father's murder. Madly, Ulrica sets fire to the castle, and the flames begin to spread through the hallways. The Black Knight has succeeded in capturing de Bracy; he valiantly charges into the burning castle to rescue Ivanhoe from the flames. The other prisoners manage to escape on their own; however, in the smoke, Rebecca is overtaken by de Bois-Guilbert, who makes off with her. Athelstane attempts to stop the Templar, who deals him a leveling blow on the head. As the mighty ramparts of Torquilstone are engulfed in flames, Ulrica sings an eerie death song. The fire at last swallows Front-de-Bouef, then swallows Ulrica. Commentary This chapter returns the focus of the novel to Ivanhoe, who has been entirely out of the spotlight since his victory at the tournament at Ashby. This section brings to a close the second structural phase of the novel, the phase revolving around the imprisonment at Torquilstone. The remaining chapters of the novel will focus on Rebecca's imprisonment at Templestowe, and on the circumstances of King Richard's return to England. Because it concludes a significant phase of the novel, the section ends in grand climactic style, with the battle raging around the burning castle of Torquilstone. Like the scene of combat at Ashby, it is not a section with a great deal of symbolic or thematic content; its emphasis, as with the novel as a whole, is squarely on action and excitement. One of the most curious aspects of Ivanhoe, particularly in this middle phase of the novel, is just how unimportant the hero of the book is to most of the action. As Chapter 28 opens, Ivanhoe has been out of action with his wound for the last eleven chapters--more than a third of the book so far--and even before then he was known to the reader only in disguise. Thus far, his only heroic deed has been winning the tournament, and he did that not as Ivanhoe but as The Disinherited Knight. In reality, Ivanhoe is actually fairly unimportant to much of the novel's action; he is never really developed as a character, but simply treated as the highest flower of chivalry, and we almost never see events from his perspective. His love affair with Rowena is a secondary plot theme at best, and the most affecting thing about Ivanhoe is the fact that Rebecca loves him--and that is affecting because we care about Rebecca, not because we care about Ivanhoe. Ivanhoe's importance, and the reason that he is the title character of the novel, is not so much in his heroic affect on the story (in that sense, King Richard is the real hero of the book), but rather on his symbolic role in representing the tensions between the Saxons and the Normans. Ivanhoe is a Saxon who has a close relationship with a Norman king; he suggests a different model of behavior from that proposed by the virulently anti-Norman Cedric. Scott's interest in history leads him to offer Ivanhoe as an example of the direction taken by English history after Richard's return from the Crusades, a way for the deeply conflicted population of England to unify--a unification that would eventually define the history of England. By the time Scott wrote his novel, there was nothing to distinguish Norman England from Saxon England

Chapters 13-17

Summary In the tumult after the revelation of Ivanhoe's identity, as the name of the victorious knight spreads throughout the crowd, Prince John and his advisors hurriedly discuss the consequences of his reappearance. One problem is that John has granted Ivanhoe's castle to Sir Reginald Front-de-Boeuf. Maurice de Bracy and Waldemar Fitzurse insist that Front-de-Boeuf will have to vacate Ivanhoe's fiefdom. John suggests that perhaps his personal physician could "attend" the wounded knight, implying foul play, but Ivanhoe is already in the care of his friends. John's reverie is shattered when a messenger approaches with a hastily scrawled warning: "Take heed to yourself, for the Devil is unchained." John assumes that this means Richard is on his way back to England and panics; Fitzurse begins thinking of plans. They decide to hurry the tournament to a conclusion, then rally John's supporters in preparation for the king's return. The archery contest is the next order of the day. Here, a gallant yeoman named Locksley effortlessly defeats Hubert, the king's champion. Concerned about bolstering his support in the nation, John invites the Saxon nobles to his banquet that night. But at the banquet, held at the Castle of Ashby, the sophisticated Normans taunt the uncultured Saxons, provoking tensions between the two groups. To soothe the party, John has a goblet passed around, asking the Normans to drink to the Saxons and vice-versa. When his turn comes, Cedric, who has already refused to drink to Ivanhoe or to acknowledge him as his son, says that the only worthy Norman he can think of is King Richard. John blanches, but can do nothing but drink to his hated brother's name. After the banquet, Fitzurse makes the round of the powerful nobles, seeking to bolster John's support. While walking, he runs into de Bracy, who has become infatuated with Rowena's beauty. John has a plan to marry Rowena to de Bracy, but de Bracy is impatient; he has concocted a plan to kidnap her and her party as they ride home from Ashby. Fitzurse thinks that he is a fool and attempts unsuccessfully to dissuade him from his endeavor. Deep in the forest, the mysterious Black Knight who helped Ivanhoe win the tournament comes upon a hermitage. He asks the hermit, who names himself the Clerk of Compmanhurst, for directions. The two men get along, and when the friar produces a wineskin, they spend the rest of the day drinking and singing together in the forest. Commentary In these chapters, Scott shifts the emphasis of the novel away from the heroes (Ivanhoe, Rowena, Rebecca, Cedric, the Black Knight) to the villains (Front-de-Boeuf, de Bracy, Fitzurse, Prince John), many of whose personalities are thoroughly laid out for the first time here. The villains are, by and large, a group of stock characters. Like other villains in nineteenth-century romances, they are evil through and through, and like most of the other characters in Ivanhoe, they undergo no development during the novel. Prince John is a weakling, a hypocrite, and a coward who loves the acclaim and attention he gains while sitting on the throne; Fitzurse, de Bracy, and Front-de-Boeuf are disloyal advisors who have tied their loyalty to John simply because they believe they will have a great deal of power should he become king of England. This romanticized view of medieval history has been fairly consistent throughout English literature (as in Shakespeare's ##King John# As with the character of Isaac, Scott relies on standard literary attitudes and types. Another important development in these chapters is the continued foreshadowing of the impending appearance of Robin Hood: Locksley, the winner of the archery contest, should seem to the reader suspiciously like Robin, and the Clerk of Companhurst in the forest should seem suspiciously like Friar Tuck. At the time of Scott's writing, the Robin Hood legend had already been inscribed in English folklore for centuries; the long buildup to the eventual emergence of Robin Hood as a character in the story is done solely for the enjoyment of the reader, whose anticipation rises with each new instance of foreshadowing. As with the previous group of chapters, the conflict between Saxons and Normans is squarely in the background in this section, but Scott again provides a memorable moment to keep it in the reader's mind. After John, terrified by the news that Richard may be free, invites the Saxon nobles to his banquet, they are derided and mocked by the Norman nobles. The tensions mount, and the unsophisticated Saxons are the butt of a great many jokes. Just when they seem to have been thoroughly humiliated, Cedric decides to toast King Richard, a grand gesture that reduces Prince John to speechlessness. With broad strokes such as this, Scott is able to keep his focus on the adventure and romance at the heart of Ivanhoe without losing sight of his broader social themes.

Chapters 41-44

Summary Ivanhoe and Gurth approach Richard and his men in the forest; Richard tells Ivanhoe that all the men now know his identity. Ivanhoe criticizes the king for embarking on silly adventures when the nation desperately needs him, but Richard replies that he cannot yet reveal himself to the nation; he is waiting for his allies to raise a formidable force. The companions feast at Robin Hood's camp--for Locksley is now openly declared to be Robin Hood--and then hurry to Coningsburgh Castle for Athelstane's funeral. To the shock of all present, Athelstane himself appears at the castle, saying that he was only comatose, and not dead, after de Bois-Guilbert's blow. He relates the story of his escape from his own coffin and urges Cedric to grant Rowena to Ivanhoe, saying that he himself is unworthy of her. But as Athelstane tries to join Rowena's hand with Ivanhoe's, the whole assemblage is shocked to see that Ivanhoe and Richard have disappeared. At Templestowe, a large crowd has gathered for Rebecca's trial-by-combat. De Bois-Guilbert has, against his will, been made the champion of the Templars, so that he will have to fight against Rebecca's champion--if a champion for Rebecca even appears. Friar Tuck and Alan-a-Dale argue about the stories now surrounding Athelstane--he was buried, he rose from the grave--as the crowd waits breathlessly to see what will happen. At the last possible moment, as de Bois-Guilbert paces his horse impatiently, Ivanhoe charges onto the scene to defend Rebecca. He attacks de Bois-Guilbert, who is forced to defend himself even though if he wins, Rebecca will be killed. Ivanhoe is so exhausted from his hard ride that he falls from his horse at the very first pass. But de Bois-Guilbert tumbles to the ground as well. He is dead, having been killed by the intensity of his own conflicting passions. Ivanhoe wins a curious victory, and Rebecca is saved. Ivanhoe and Rowena are married at last. Rebecca visits Rowena to congratulate her and to thank her for Ivanhoe's role in saving her life. She and her father are leaving England forever; they plan to resettle in Granada. She does not visit Ivanhoe, who, Scott says, does not think of her more often than Rowena would find acceptable. Over the years to come, Ivanhoe distinguishes himself in the service of King Richard, but his career is cut short by the early death of the king in battle near Limoges, after which perish all the projects Richard had undertaken in his lifetime. Commentary To readers raised on conventional hero stories, the conclusion of Ivanhoe is very peculiar indeed. The beginning of the scene of Rebecca's trial-by-combat builds tension in a very familiar way, as the crowd waits to see whether a hero will arrive to save her, and de Bois-Guilbert begins to despair. At last, a heroic knight charges onto the scene to rescue Rebecca. This is where things become bizarre: When the combat begins, the hero is so tired from hurrying to the scene that he actually loses the fight, only to find himself suddenly victorious when his enemy spontaneously dies. This conclusion may seem unsatisfying to a reader today, and it certainly does not fit the pattern of most medieval stories otherwise similar to Ivanhoe. In fact, it is fairly safe to say that the conclusion of Ivanhoe would not have been possible in any period other than the Romantic era; as it often seems throughout the story, Ivanhoe is more a product of the time during which it was written (1819) than the time during which it is set (1194). Scott was tangentially involved in the Romantic school of writing that flourished in England during the early part of the nineteenth century, a school that emphasized transcendent passion as the most compelling human motivation. To Romantic-era readers, the scene of de Bois-Guilbert falling dead from his own conflicting inner passions (love of Rebecca, hatred of Ivanhoe, a desire to save his own life but also to save Rebecca's) may have seemed very affecting; in any case, it confirms the view that, apart from Rebecca, Brian de Bois-Guilbert is by far the most nuanced character in Ivanhoe. No other character can be said to experience any development during the course of the story, but de Bois-Guilbert goes from being a stock villain to being an object of at least some sympathy because of his admirable love of Rebecca. After his death, the rest of the story is inevitable: Ivanhoe marries Rowena, despite no compelling development of their romance throughout the book, and Rebecca is forced to withdraw. The other bizarre occurrence in this section is the reappearance of Athelstane, alive and well after having escaped from his own coffin. It is impossible to fathom why Scott would have chosen to include this passage in his novel, except perhaps that the recounting of the scene adds some broad comedy to the last few chapters of the book, and he may have needed Athelstane alive in order to persuade Cedric to bless the wedding of Ivanhoe and Rowena. In any case, Athelstane represents another one of Scott's historical blunders. Cedric wants Athelstane to marry Rowena because of his high birth. He is supposedly descended from Edward the Confessor, the Saxon king of England who reigned shortly before the Norman Conquest in 1066. But in 1194, there were no known surviving descendents of Edward the Confessor; Athelstane is merely a comical figure Scott conveniently imbues with a pedigree he could not possibly have had. Ivanhoe's failure to triumph convincingly in the climax of the novel that bears his name underscores the fact that Ivanhoe's importance to the book stems more from what he represents than from what he actually does. Ivanhoe, in contrast to Cedric, represents the model of a Saxon who can participate in, respect, and be rewarded by Norman society; he is not degraded by the Normans, but rather wins glory, favor, and privilege from the Norman king. He is not a servant of the Normans, but neither is he their enemy. As the tensions between the Saxons and the Normans play out throughout the novel, Ivanhoe is the only character who exists in both worlds; it is clear that Scott sees him as the future of England, and that fact--far more than his actual deeds in the book--places his name on the title page. After all, Ivanhoe is presented as the hero of a book in which he is inactive with an injury from Chapter 13 to Chapter 41, a span of more than 300 pages. And yet, because of his position as a Saxon fully and successfully acclimated to the Norman world, he is still the most important figure in the book.

Chapters 9-12

Summary Prince John and his councilor Waldemar Fitzurse discuss the identity of the Disinherited Knight; they run down a list of candidates, but are unable to draw any conclusions. When the Knight is allowed to choose his Queen of Love and Beauty, he shocks the assembled Normans by selecting Rowena, a Saxon. He further surprises the company by declining to attend Prince John's banquet in celebration of the first day of the tournament. As the victor in five combats, the Disinherited Knight is allowed to take a horse, armor, or ransom money from the knights he has vanquished. He accepts ransom from four knights, but contemptuously refuses to accept anything from Brian de Bois-Guilbert. The Disinherited Knight sends Gurth to repay Isaac for the horse and armor he loaned him; unbeknownst to Isaac, Rebecca returns the money to Gurth, and actually gives Gurth a small sum for himself. On his way back to the Knight, Gurth strolls dreamily, thinking longingly of the day when he will be able to buy his freedom from Cedric. Suddenly, he is set upon by a group of robbers. The thieves ask him about himself and his master; they give him an opportunity to win his escape by fighting one they call the Miller with a quarterstaff. After an epic duel, Gurth defeats the Miller, and to his great surprise, the thieves honor their word and let him go uninjured without taking a single coin from his purse. PARGRAPH On the second day of the tournament, the knights who are opposed to the Disinherited Knight, including de Bois-Guilbert, Athelstane, and Reginald Front-de-Boeuf, all attack him at once. He fights valiantly, and with the aid of a mysterious warrior called the Black Sluggard (or Black Knight), he forces Athelstane and Front-de-Bouef from the fray. He charges de Bois-Guilbert and unhorses him, winning the tournament in grand fashion. When Rowena, as the Queen of Love and Beauty, steps forward to crown him, she removes his helmet. The Disinherited Knight's identity is revealed: he is Ivanhoe. Ivanhoe is triumphant, but he is also badly wounded. After being crowned champion, he loses consciousness, tumbling to the ground at Rowena's feet. Commentary These exciting and evocative chapters underscore the point that Ivanhoe is first and foremost a romance, an adventure novel. The dramatic combat scene in the tournament, in which the mysterious Black Knight saves the Disinherited Knight, is extremely cinematic in its presentation. And the scene in which the Disinherited Knight reveals himself as Ivanhoe, to the collective gasp of the crowd, is played for great dramatic effect (even though the reader is already certain of the identity of the Disinherited Knight). The other main scene in these chapters is a kind of comical version of the dramatic combat of the tournament. Gurth's quarterstaff duel with the Miller is quite humorous; it adds symmetry to these chapters, and it also serves an important purpose in the novel as a whole. The enigmatic group of honorable thieves who kidnap Gurth in this section represent the reader's first glimpse of Robin Hood's merry men, who make an extended cameo later in the book. The novel's main social theme--the conflict between the Normans and the Saxons--takes a backseat to the action in these chapters (and, indeed, throughout much of the rest of the book). But Scott does not let us forget the social context of his novel. The scene in which Ivanhoe chooses his Queen of Love and Beauty--the choosing of such a queen, a celebratory monarch chosen to "preside" over the next day of the tournament, was customary during twelfth-century combat tournaments--finds him bypassing the assembled Norman beauties in favor of Rowena, to the shock and displeasure of the Normans in the crowd. This is not only one of the only romantic scenes in the novel between its main love interests, it is also a subtle reminder of the tensions lurking beneath the surface of England as a whole.

Chapters 32-36

Summary The Saxons and their liberators now meet at Locksley's trysting place in the forest. Here, out of gratitude for his role in the battle, Cedric grants Gurth his freedom. When the spoils from the castle are divided, the Black Knight takes his due, but Cedric proudly refuses a share of his Norman captor's wealth. The Black Knight also frees de Bracy, though he warns him that if he does not behave more honorably in the future, a worse fate than captivity will befall him. The Friar arrives leading Isaac, whom he has "captured," by a rope; Isaac, the Friar, and Prior Aymer debate ransom payments for Isaac and the Prior. The Friar and the Black Knight argue, and good-naturedly exchange blows. When Isaac learns that Rebecca has been kidnapped by Brian de Bois-Guilbert, he is despondent; to secure his freedom, Prior Aymer agrees to write a letter to de Bois-Guilbert urging him to let the girl go. As Isaac sets out for the stronghold of the Knights-Templars, the Saxons bid farewell to Locksley and his merry men, preparing for the somber task of returning Athelstane's body to his castle. (De Bois-Guilbert's blow has apparently killed him.) De Bracy hurries to Prince John, to whom he declares that Richard has returned to England. He also tells him of Front-de-Boeuf's death and of de Bois-Guilbert's kidnapping of Rebecca. John is alarmed, but orchestrates a plot to attack Richard and take him prisoner: The Prince has no intention of relinquishing the throne. Isaac travels to Templestowe, the lair of the Knights-Templars. Here, he shows Prior Aymer's letter to Lucas Beaumanoir, the Grand Master of the knights. The letter casts aspersion upon de Bois-Guilbert's honor by asserting that he is keeping a Jewess at Templestowe, but it also heavily hints that Rebecca has somehow bewitched the Templar to make him fall in love with her. Albert Malvoisin, the ruler of the stronghold, furthers this claim, saying that Rebecca's witchcraft, and not de Bois-Guilbert's weakness, is to blame for her presence at Templestowe. For his part, de Bois-Guilbert has found himself increasingly in love with the indomitable Rebecca, who has continued to reject his advances. Malvoisin lectures him sternly on the error of his ways, reminding him that his conduct will be highly detrimental to his career in the order. He asserts that Rebecca must be "made to suffer" like a sorceress; de Bois-Guilbert insists that she will not, but Malvoisin caustically reminds him that he has no authority in the matter. Beaumanoir decrees that Rebecca will be immediately tried as a witch, and Malvoisin--who does not believe that Rebecca is really a sorceress, but who only wishes to save de Bois-Guilbert from disgrace within the order--begins to search for grounds on which to convict and execute her. Commentary The third phase of the novel, centering around Rebecca's captivity and trial at Templestowe, is also the most loosely organized; Scott builds gradually to the novel's climactic scene, with many of his main characters scattered in various locations rather than concentrated in the same place, as was the case at Ashby-de-la-Zouche and Torquilstone Castle. Isaac is near Templestowe, Rebecca and de Bois-Guilbert are at Templestowe, the Saxons are traveling to Athelstane's stronghold of Coningsburgh to bury him, Ivanhoe is in a priory being treated for his still-lingering injury, and Richard, still in disguise as the Black Knight, is about to begin traveling through the forest. Because of this dispersion, Scott is unable to build dramatic tension in a single location, and as a result the end of the novel feels somewhat unfocused. However, the evocation of the Order of the Templars at Templestowe provides an interesting new setting for the book. This arcane order of knights existed across Europe during the Crusades; they were founded in the early twelfth century, and by 1139 they had been placed directly under the rule of the pope, which meant that they were essentially free from any secular king, and from any save the highest religious authority. Originally designated to fight for the Christian cause in the Holy Land (the emblem on their tunics, a white field with a red cross, immediately identified them in combat), they quickly became a political and military force in Europe, with vast treasure and castles in every major European country. As the mission of the Templars shifted from religious to political goals, they began to incur powerful enemies; at the time of the setting of Ivanhoe, around 1194, they were near the height of their power, but by the early fourteenth century they faced substantial opposition from many of the kings of Europe. In 1314, the last Grand Master of the order, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake, effectively ending the Order of the Templars. Recent scholars have largely concluded that the persecution of the Templars in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was hugely unjust, but at the time of Scott's writing in 1819, the Templars were still viewed with suspicion and disdain by many writers and thinkers. Scott's portrayal of the Templar order as a den of cunning, manipulation, and greed therefore probably owes more to the conditions of Scott's own time than to the facts of history. Regardless, Templestowe serves its purpose in Ivanhoe as a hive of danger and villainy

Chapters 5-8

Summary The porter, Oswald, returns with the information that the man at the door is a Jew named Isaac; he asks whether he ought to admit a Jew into the house. Brian de Bois-Guilbert and Prior Aymer are disgusted at the thought, but Cedric gruffly asserts that his hospitality is not to be limited by their dislikes. He suggests that the Jew could perhaps be entertained with the Templar's Saracen slaves, but de Bois-Guilbert rejects the idea. Cedric declares that Isaac shall be seated with Wamba, the jester. The men discuss the Crusades, and the Templar declares that the English troops are second only to the Saracens. The palmer, who has largely been silent during the meal, interrupts, asserting that the English warriors are the most valiant of all. He lists the bravest English soldiers, beginning with King Richard. He says that the sixth-best soldier is a young Saxon named Ivanhoe. Brian de Bois-Guilbert jeers, saying that he could defeat Ivanhoe unarmed. The palmer says that if Ivanhoe ever returns to England, he will see to it that the Templar has an opportunity to test his assertion. De Bois-Guilbert and Prior Aymer are traveling to the great jousting tournament at Ashby-de-la-Zouche. In response to the Templar's harsh inquiries ("Unbelieving dog," he begins), Isaac acknowledges that he, too, is traveling to the tournament, hoping that some of his brethren there can help him with his debts. After the men retire, the palmer overhears de Bois-Guilbert's Saracen slaves conversing; he speaks their language and discovers that the Templar intends to rob the Jew of his possessions. The palmer helps Isaac evade de Bois-Guilbert's manipulations; in return for this aid, Isaac lends the palmer a suit of armor and a horse so that he, too, may participate in the tournament. As the day of the tournament dawns, Prince John is in attendance--the wretched Prince John who has, in his brother's absence, been party to the oppression of his people and who has done everything in his power to ensure that King Richard will remain in his Austrian prison and never return to England. But despite the miserable condition of the English, the tournament is still a festive and colorful occasion. Isaac attends with his beautiful daughter Rebecca; when he attempts to sit in an area reserved for prominent individuals--certain that John, who is in the process of seeking a large loan from the Jews, will not object--an argument breaks out. The Saxons, particularly Cedric and Athelstane, insist that an unbeliever should not be allowed the seats, while the Normans taunt them. The situation nearly boils over when John tells the Saxons that they are free to stop Isaac themselves. Cedric nearly attacks the Jew, but Wamba intervenes by chasing Isaac with a side of bacon. John takes a purse of gold from Isaac and forces him to sit with the common people, to the delight of the tournament crowd. On the first day of the combat, the palmer, fighting as the Disinherited Knight, defeats all who oppose him, including de Bois-Guilbert. After his sequence of triumphs, the Disinherited Knight is allowed to choose the Queen of Love and Beauty for the following day of the tournament. Commentary The introduction of Isaac and Rebecca introduces a third cultural element to the conflict between the Saxons and the Normans. In the religiously charged atmosphere of twelfth-century England, European Jews are in a terrible position; they are reviled by the Christians, abused and insulted by everyone around them, simultaneously blamed for their practice of "usury" (lending money and collecting interest) and coveted for their vast wealth. The nobility of Europe views the class of money-lending Jews essentially as an easy target, as is demonstrated at the tournament when John humiliates Isaac and then steals his purse of gold, and by de Bois-Guilbert's attempt to rob him. Isaac is often called a "dog" by those around him. Isaac is in debt because of a tax imposed upon all Jews by an English authority known as the Exchequer of the Jews. This tax is historically accurate: It was imposed on Jews in the twelfth century, ostensibly as a means of reprisal for their practice of usury. Scott, writing 700 years after the time of his story, is not afflicted by the same prejudices as his characters; at least part of his project with Ivanhoe is to present a sympathetic portrait of his Jewish characters. Rebecca, in particular, is one of the most sympathetic and nuanced characters in the novel, and has often been a favorite of readers, many of whom wish that Ivanhoe could marry Rebecca at the end of the novel instead of Rowena. This was true even during Scott's own lifetime; Scott actually issued a statement defending the plot of his novel as he wrote it, saying that, because of medieval social prejudice, it would have been impossible for a Christian knight to marry a Jew. He also acknowledged that Rebecca was the character most deserving of Ivanhoe's love, but wrote that in life, the people who deserve the most do not always get what they deserve. Interestingly, it is thought that the character of Rebecca is based on a real woman, Rebecca Gratz, who lived in Philadelphia, and whom Scott learned of from his literary acquaintance Washington Irving. But Scott's portrayal of Isaac is more problematic than his portrayal of Rebecca. Isaac is in every way a continuation of the English literary stereotype of the Jew concretized by Shakespeare in ##The Merchant of Venice# In fact, Isaac seems almost explicitly based on the character of Shylock* self-pitying, fearful, arrogant, and greedy, but ultimately kind-hearted. As with Shylock, Isaac's main redeeming quality is his love of his daughter, the only thing in the world he cares more about than money. Shylock's lamentation--"My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!"--expresses the core of Isaac's character as well. There is nothing really original or new in Scott's portrayal of Isaac, indicating that the attitudes of European Christians toward Jews in the early nineteenth century were not entirely equitable, though they had certainly come a great distance from the medieval attitudes depicted in Ivanhoe. Despite Scott's reputation as an author of great historical veracity, there are a number of significant historical errors in Ivanhoe. In the scene in which Isaac is humiliated at the tournament, Isaac is overconfident because he knows that Prince John is trying to procure a large loan from the Jews of York. In reality, according to A. N. Wilson, most of the Jews of York had been massacred on March 17, 1190; John could not have acquired a loan from them, because at that time, they were either persecuted or dead.

Chapters 37-40

Summary The trial of Rebecca begins with a list of charges read against Brian de Bois-Guilbert--charges which are read and then dismissed on the grounds that Rebecca is truly to blame for the Templar's misdeeds. Supposed "witnesses" drummed up by Malvoisin testify that Rebecca possesses supernatural powers of healing; another witness paints a strange scene of her appearing on the parapet during the fight at Torquilstone. She seems certain to be found guilty, and de Bois-Guilbert urges her to ask for a champion in trial by combat. She does so, and the Templars dispatch a messenger to Isaac so that he may find a champion for her. De Bois-Guilbert believes that no champion may step forward, simply because knights are Christians and Rebecca is a Jew, and urges her to elope with him. Malvoisin is disgusted by his knight's obdurate affection for Rebecca, and again lectures him about his impropriety, demanding that he stay true to the course of his career as a Templar. Wamba and the Black Knight travel through the forest, while Ivanhoe, recovering from his wounds in the priory of St. Botolph, struggles with the prior to be allowed to follow them. At last Ivanhoe sets out, having borrowed the prior's own horse to do so. Exchanging riddles, songs, and jests, Wamba and the Black Knight continue on their way; suddenly, a hail of arrows whizzes by them, and they are attacked by a large group of men-at-arms crying "Die, tyrant!" The Knight and Wamba defend themselves, and they are aided by Locksley's outlaws. They rout the men-at-arms and discover that they are led by Waldemar Fitzurse. Fitzurse calls the Black Knight "Richard," and the Knight in turn removes his helmet and declares to all that he is King Richard, returned to England at last. Richard declares that Fitzurse is banished from England, but orders that Prince John not be held guilty for the attack. The Friar, dismayed that he unwittingly punched the king, is contrite, but Richard makes light of incident. As the men prepare to disperse, two travelers ride toward them in the forest. Commentary This section features two dramatic scenes that involve little in the way of thematic exploration. Rebecca's trial at Templestowe is carried out in such a way as to emphasize the horrible injustice of the proceeding, with manufactured witnesses and anti-Semitic vitriol completely obscuring the truth of Rebecca's innocence. (Keep in mind that the Templars are essentially attempting to burn Rebecca at the stake for being guilty of the kidnapping de Bois-Guilbert carried out against her.) This scene is Scott's most powerful statement in the novel against the medieval prejudice toward the Jews, a moral indictment designed to appeal to his reader's sense of enlightenment and fairness. The scene is played for maximum effect, with the beautiful, admirable, helpless Rebecca being threatened from all sides by hulking and immoral warriors, her closest ally being de Bois-Guilbert, the man who kidnapped her in the first place. The second scene in this section, Richard's fight with Fitzurse and the revelation of his identity, recalls the earlier scene in which Ivanhoe made a similarly dramatic announcement after the tournament at Ashby-de-la-Zouche. Though Scott has not explicitly announced Richard's identity, he telegraphed it heavily during the fight at Torquilstone; the reader has almost certainly come to the conclusion that Richard is the Black Knight. But the drama of the battle in the forest plays perfectly into the romantic adventure of the novel. The scene is a fascinating blend of history (Richard really did make a dramatic return to England in 1194 and was forced to seize power from John and the nobility; he was actually re-crowned in April 1194) and fiction (Richard certainly did not participate in a forest battle in which Robin Hood saved his life). The blend is quite typical of Ivanhoe, which spins a fanciful adventure romance around a real historical occurrence and ultimately proposes its own story as a metaphor for a moment in English history. Scott's historical judgment falls rather hard on Richard throughout this section, as his rule of England is contrasted with Robin Hood's rule of the forest. Richard is a valiant and brave man, but he is a fairly awful king, given that he has abandoned his subjects to pursue his dreams of victory in the Crusades. Robin, on the other hand, is a thief, not a king, but he has appointed himself a protector of the downtrodden Saxons, and he makes the well-being of the country his business. Part of the problem may be a tension between the code of chivalry, the honor code for medieval knights, and the code of behavior that determines a good king. As Ivanhoe explains it to Rebecca in Chapter 29, The love of battle is the food upon which we live—the dust of the melee is the breath of our nostrils! We live not--we wish not to live--longer than while we are victorious and renowned. Such, maiden, are the laws of chivalry to which we are sworn. But for a king, the matter of personal behavior requires far more temperance than this reckless code can comprehend. Ivanhoe is presented throughout the book as the epitome of the chivalric code, but in fact Richard perhaps embodies it even more successfully than Ivanhoe. Unfortunately, the proper behavior for Richard would be to restrain his own desire for excitement and tend to the well being of his subjects; his failure to do so earns him Scott's (and Ivanhoe's) criticism, though his courage is clearly the stuff of legend

Chapters 18-22

Summary Though Cedric has been unable to bring himself to forgive Ivanhoe for leaving England to fight in the Crusades with Richard, he is nevertheless worried about his son's injury. He dispatches Oswald to check on him. Cedric, in turn, discovers Gurth, who has been serving Ivanhoe in disguise and takes him captive. But Gurth escapes and flees into the forest, telling Wamba to tell Cedric that he will never serve him again. The Saxons mount up and prepare to ride home from Ashby. In the forest, they meet Isaac and Rebecca, accompanying a very sick old man on a litter. Rebecca asks to travel with the Saxons for protection, and Rowena implores her guardian to agree. He does, and the group continues on its way. Suddenly, de Bracy and his men, disguised as forest outlaws, fall upon the party. In the chaos that follows, Wamba escapes, but the rest of the Saxons, as well as Isaac and Rebecca, are taken prisoner. Stumbling through the forest, Wamba encounters Locksley, the real outlaw of the forest. But Locksley's band is honorable--they are the men who earlier declined to rob Gurth--and offer to help free the Saxons from de Bracy. Gurth blunders into the party and is recruited to help. Locksley takes them to the Friar's chapel, where they discover the Friar in the company of the Black Knight, still drinking and singing. Both the cleric and the knight enthusiastically agree to help rescue the prisoners. De Bracy's men take the prisoner's to Torquilstone, the castle of Reginald Front-de-Boeuf. Isaac is thrown into a grim dungeon and given an ultimatum: either hand over a thousand pieces of silver to Front-de-Boeuf or undergo a painful torture. Isaac pleads for Rebecca to be allowed to travel to York to secure the money, but he is told ominously that Rebecca now belongs to the Templar, Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert. Front-de-Boeuf's Saracen slaves tear Isaac's garment and prepare him for the torture, but the sound of a bugle at the gates, followed by voices anxiously demanding Front-de-Bouef, brings the proceedings to a temporary halt. Commentary With these chapters, the novel shifts into the second of its three large stages. Structurally, the three stages of Ivanhoe revolve around a particular adventure or quest: The first involves the tournament at Ashby-de-la-Zouche, the second involves the captivity at Torquilstone, and the third involves Rebecca's trial at Templestowe, the stronghold of the Knights-Templars. The second stage of the novel begins suddenly, when the lustful de Bracy kidnaps the Saxon party and imprisons them at Torquilstone, a Saxon stronghold now held by the Norman Front-de-Boeuf. This literally has the effect of jolting the main social theme of the novel back into prominence, as the imprisonment involves a group of Saxons and Jews unjustly subjugated by a group of Normans--just as was the case in England as a whole. The character of Cedric undergoes some interesting augmentation at the beginning of Chapter 18, when Scott describes his anxiety after Ivanhoe is wounded: This is the first sign we have that Cedric cares at all about his disinherited son. Cedric is an interesting character in Ivanhoe; a flawed, passionate man, he is desperate to restore the Saxons to power in England. A minor country franklin, but one of the most powerful Saxons in the land, he has pinned his hopes upon the marriage of Athelstane and Rowena, both of whom are of very high birth. His reason for disinheriting Ivanhoe stems directly from his prioritizing of the Saxon cause above all other things: Ivanhoe is loyal to King Richard, a Norman Plantagenet. Even though Cedric loves Ivanhoe (as we see in this chapter) and respects King Richard, he cannot abide by Norman rule, and he cannot abide by his son's acceptance of a Norman king

Chapters 23-27

Summary While Isaac is being threatened with torture, Rowena is imprisoned elsewhere in Torquilstone. De Bracy demands her hand in marriage, saying that if she does not consent, he will kill both Cedric and her beloved Ivanhoe. Rowena, who did not know that Ivanhoe was also De Bracy's prisoner, begins to weep. De Bracy is troubled to find that he is moved by her tears; he awkwardly attempts to comfort her, arguing with himself as he does. Suddenly, the bugle call sounds through the castle, and De Bracy storms out of the room. In still another prison in the castle, Rebecca is tossed in with a wretched Saxon crone named Ulrica. Brian de Bois-Guilbert tells her that she now belongs to him, and moves to take her; she threatens to leap from the high castle turret if he does not withdraw. Impressed, he attempts to soothe her; she says that she will be his friend "but with this space between." Then the bugle blows, and de Bois-Guilbert also hurries from the room. The bugle that has interrupted each of these scenes heralds the arrival of a letter, written by Locksley and the Black Knight but bearing the signatures of Wamba and Gurth, declaring the intention of the party outside the castle to free the prisoner, either by siege or by combat. Front-de-Boeuf sends a missive to the besiegers asking that they send a priest to hear the last confessions of the prisoners--his plan is to then send the priest for reinforcements, for there are 200 yeomen now besieging the castle. Wamba, dressed as a priest, sneaks into the castle and changes clothes with Cedric. Now disguised as a priest, Cedric wanders through the castle halls, hoping that no one will ask him to speak any Latin. He meets Rebecca, who has been tending to the wounded Ivanhoe, and Ulrica, who tells him about her life. After the Normans took the castle from her Saxon forebears, she became their consort to save her own life. Now that she is old and ugly, she is kicked and reviled. Cedric approaches Front-de-Boeuf, who gives him a message for his ally Philip Malvoisin; he also gives him a gold coin for his trouble. Enraged, Cedric hurls the coin at Front-de-Boeuf and stomps out of the castle. When the Norman knights realize what has happened, they brace for the outlaw band's attack. Commentary We have seen that the villains of Ivanhoe are, by and large, fairly static characters, entirely evil and with no redeeming qualities. This is certainly true of John, Fitzurse, Front-de-Boeuf, and most of the Templars in the later chapters of the novel. However, in this section, both de Bois-Guilbert and de Bracy experience strangely humanizing moments while trying to pressure women into submitting to them. Rowena's tears move de Bracy to a strange moment of sympathy and uncertainty, while Rebecca's threat to leap of the parapet if de Bois-Guilbert tries to rape her moves him to a kind of amazed admiration. In the case of de Bracy, the moment is temporary, and he soon resumes his customary villainishness, but in the case of de Bois-Guilbert, the change seems to be permanent--in any case, his feelings for Rebecca quickly deepen into a passionate love. He certainly does not become a hero--after the battle at Torquilstone, he kidnaps Rebecca--but he experiences a kind of complication and does his best to help Rebecca after the Templars place her on trial. The disturbing character of Ulrica, the Saxon crone who has spent her life as a courtesan to her Norman overlords, emerges in this section as a metaphor for the ugliness and injustice of the relations between Saxons and Normans as a whole. In this way, she becomes a powerful contrast with the character of Ivanhoe, who will, as we shall see, become a metaphor for the reconciliation of the tensions between the two peoples by the end of the novel. However, Ulrica also embodies another historical error on the part of Scott. According to the Victorian historian E. A. Freeman, who attacked the historical basis of Ivanhoe savagely in an 1876 publication, Ulrica was not a name given to Englishwomen in the twelfth century. Neither, for that matter, was Rowena--Scott simply interpolated the names because they seemed to fit the characters and the mood of the story. Because some of his other novels are extraordinary for their historical veracity, Scott is often judged harshly for his mistakes in Ivanhoe. But it is important to remember that Ivanhoe is, first and foremost, a historical romance: Above all else, it is an adventure story, not a painstaking attempt to recreate another era with perfect accuracy. The most important criterion by which the novel should be judged is whether or not it succeeds as a compelling adventure story, and generations of readers have agreed overwhelmingly that it does.

Chapters 1-4

Toward the end of the reign of King Richard I, England is in the grip of turmoil. The king is far from the country, having been imprisoned by the rulers of Austria and Germany on his way home from the Crusades. In his absence, the throne is held by Prince John, but the real authority lies in the hands of the nobles, who have used Richard's absence as an excuse to fortify their own power at the expense of the monarchy's. This state of affairs has aggravated relations between the two groups of people who inhabit England: the Saxons, who ruled England until 1066, and the Normans, a French people who conquered the island under William the Conqueror. The nation's powerful nobles are all Normans, and the Norman nobles have been seizing the lands of less powerful Saxon nobles, forcing many Saxons to become serfs. The remaining Saxon lords are tense and angry. The division between the two peoples is so great that even though a common English language exists between them, they generally speak their own native tongues--French for the Normans, Anglo-Saxon (sometimes called Old English today) for the Saxons. In a forest near Sheffield, a Saxon swineherd named Gurth discusses the state of the country with his companion, a clown named Wamba. They note that pigs are called by their Saxon name (swine) when they are alive and a source of endless labor for Gurth, but that once they are slaughtered to become feasts for the nobles, they go by their Norman name (pork). Gurth and Wamba are in the service of Cedric, a Saxon lord whose son Ivanhoe has been fighting in the Crusades, to his father's great displeasure. Ivanhoe has been disinherited. Cedric also has a ward, Rowena, who, though not his natural daughter, is renowned for her beauty. A storm is coming, and the men begin to gather the swine. Suddenly, they hear the thunder of approaching hooves: A group of horsemen is riding toward them. The horsemen, a party of about ten men, are led by Brian de Bois-Guilbert and Prior Aymer. De Bois-Guilbert is a powerful warrior of the Knights-Templars, a military/religious fellowship dedicated to the conquest of the Holy Land, which often indulges in secular politics as well. Prior Aymer is the Abbot of Jorvaulx. His disposition seems to indicate that, despite his holy orders, he covets pleasure and good food. The riders declare that they are looking for the home of Cedric the Saxon; resentful of their Norman imperiousness, Wamba intentionally steers them the wrong way. As the Templar and the prior ride on, they discuss the beauty of Rowena; at a crossroads, they meet a palmer--a religious pilgrim wearing palm leaves as a sign of his trip to the Holy Land. The palmer says that he is native to this area of the country, and leads the men to Cedric's hall, Rotherwood. Here, in the rough, rustic, but well-appointed keep, the men are greeted by Cedric, who prepares a feast for them. However, like his jester Wamba, the Saxon lord prickles at the Norman arrogance of the men and refers to William the Conqueror--the Norman duke who led the conquest of England--as "William the Bastard." When Rowena enters, de Bois-Guilbert is struck powerfully by her beauty: he stares at her audaciously, much to Cedric's displeasure. In the midst of the feast, a page enters, saying that there is a stranger at the gate. Cedric orders that the stranger be admitted, saying that the stormy night is no place for a weary traveler. Commentary The simple opening chapters of Ivanhoe efficiently present the main social conflict of the novel (the tensions between the Saxons and the Normans), the situations of the main characters (Ivanhoe's loyalty to Richard, his father's hatred of all Normans, Rowena's marriageability), and the personalities of much of the cast. Wamba and Gurth, as slaves to Saxons, represent the lowest of the low in terms of social class. The Templar, the prior, and the palmer represent various facets of the medieval church: The Templar belongs to its military wing, the prior to its monastic wing, and the palmer to its secular wing. (Palmers were individuals whose faith prompted them to make pilgrimages to the Holy Land during the time of the Crusades; to signify their position, they wear an emblem of crossed palm leaves.) But each of the three religious characters is in some way a sham: The Templar, supposedly a holy knight, is an outright villain; the prior, supposedly a monastic ascetic, is addicted to food, wine, and pleasure; and the palmer, supposedly a gentle pilgrim, is not a palmer at all--he is Ivanhoe in disguise, as becomes obvious when he claims to be "native" to these parts. A subtle, understated criticism of the medieval church runs throughout Ivanhoe and stands as one of the book's important secondary themes. But most of the thematic content of Ivanhoe is anything but understated. The main project of the book is to illustrate the gradual erosion of the conflict between the Saxons and the Normans, and the story itself, as we shall see, ultimately proposes itself as a metaphor for the resolution of their conflict. These early chapters do not explicitly introduce this theme, but they establish the situation in which it can emerge: a socially divided nation whose problems are aggravated by an absent king (Richard) and a Saxon lord (Cedric) who has disinherited his son (Ivanhoe) for being loyal to a Norman monarch (Richard). This situation sets the stage for the return of Richard and for the capacity of Ivanhoe to herald a new kind of relationship between Saxon and Norman.