Novel: Ivanhoe

Overview
"Ivanhoe" is a chivalric historical romance by Walter Scott, set in 12th-century England at the close of the Crusades. The novel follows the disinherited Saxon knight Wilfred of Ivanhoe as personal loyalties, national identity, and feudal power collide in a country torn between Norman rulers and Saxon natives. Adventure, tournaments, outlaw bands and courtroom drama are woven together with Scott's vivid sense of period to create a foundational work of medieval historical fiction.

Setting and context
The story unfolds against the backdrop of Richard the Lionheart's absence and Prince John's machinations, when Norman aristocrats dominate England and Saxon nobles nurse grievances. Scott imagines a romanticized, tumultuous England where castles, baronial rivalries and forest life coexist with legal and religious institutions. The novel popularized the medieval past and helped fix enduring images of knighthood, chivalry and outlaw heroism in the modern imagination.

Plot summary
Wilfred of Ivanhoe returns home from the Crusades loyal to King Richard but is disinherited by his father, Cedric the Saxon, for his support of the Norman king and his favoring of the Norman heiress Rowena. Disguised and determined to restore his honor, Ivanhoe rides to the great tournament at Ashby, where he and other knights, among them the mysterious Knight Templar Brian de Bois-Guilbert, contest for glory and prize. The tournament scenes establish rivalries and alliances that ripple through the narrative.
Wounded and unrecognized after the jousts, Ivanhoe is tended by Rebecca, the beautiful and intelligent Jewish daughter of Isaac of York, whose skill and compassion play a key role. Conflict escalates when Norman lords led by the brutal Front-de-Bœuf seize prisoners and lay siege to a castle, bringing into play the forest outlaws led by Robin Hood (Locksley) and his band. The novel culminates in courtroom and convent drama when Rebecca, already vulnerable because of her Jewish faith, faces grave accusations and peril. Heroism, sacrifice and unexpected loyalties surface as identities are revealed, honor contested, and the balance of power shifts.

Main characters
Wilfred of Ivanhoe embodies martial virtue and personal courage while also navigating the painful reality of family estrangement. Rebecca stands as one of Scott's most striking creations: noble, learned, and unhappy in a society that mistrusts her religion. Cedric personifies Saxon pride and resistance to Norman rule, while Rowena represents the Saxon-Norman union that Scott frames as England's future. Brian de Bois-Guilbert and Front-de-Bœuf provide contrasting pressures of religious zeal and brutal feudal force. Robin Hood and his forest companions introduce a populist, quasi-legendary counterweight to aristocratic power.

Themes and legacy
"Ivanhoe" examines chivalry, national identity, religious intolerance and reconciliation. Scott probes the cost of rigid honor codes and the ways personal loyalty and political expediency can clash. The novel is sympathetic to figures across ethnic and social divides, yet it also exposes the prejudices of medieval society, particularly toward Jews, through Rebecca's trials. Scott's romanticized depiction of the Middle Ages and his dramatization of tournaments, outlawry and royal intrigue left a deep imprint on later literature, stage and film, and helped shape the popular image of Robin Hood, chivalric adventure and the medieval world.