Spoiler Alert: Plot Summary
Ivanhoe is a tale of loyalty, patriotism, knighthood, and England. Scott takes us back to medieval England and casts some familiar faces (Richard the Lion-Heart, Robin Hood, Friar Tuck) and some new ones (Ivanhoe, son of Cedric, a Saxon lord; Rowena, Cedric's ward and Ivanhoe's forbidden love; Athelstane, the last Saxon who could claim a right to the throne). For good measure, he tosses some bad guys into the fray (De Bracy, Bois de Guilbert, Front de Boeuf), all knights who are on their worst knightly behavior in this novel, and a father-daughter pair who are maligned for being Jews. We start with Ivanhoe in exile, fighting with Richard the Lionheart in the crusades because Cedric banished him for expressing his undying love for Rowena, his ward. As with any good exile, it doesn't stick, and good ole' Wilfred (Ivanhoe) makes his way back to merry ole' England. He enters a tournament in disguise and declares Rowena the 'Queen of Love and Beauty', but the gig is up and his identity is revealed, much to everyone's (but not our) surprise. Ivanhoe was severely wounded in the tournament, though he was the clear winner and beat all the nasty knights. The nasty knights decide they're going to get their due and they kidnap Rowena and Rebecca (along with Ivanhoe, who is under Rebecca's care) and Cedric and Athelstane. Robin Hood and Richard the Lionheart (also both in disguise - it's a running theme in this book) help to launch a counterattack and save Rowena and Rebecca from De Bracy's castle. De Bracy is burned alive, and we think Athelstane has died (but, amusingly enough, he was just unconscious. Story to come.) Otherwise everyone's hunky dory. Well, everyone but Rebecca, who gets tooken encore une fois by Bois de Guilbert. She gets tried for sorcery (some serious anti-semitic vibes) and declares a champion (you guessed it, it's Ivanhoe) and even though Ivanhoe isn't really all better he bests BdG, who promptly dies on the spot (like you do). Ivanhoe gets back with Rowena, Richard makes Cedric forgive his son, Athelstane withdraws his claim to the throne and swears allegiance to Richard, and everyone lives happily ever after (except for the Jews who leave England for ever). I know, serious bummer.
Spoiler Over: Continue Here
This book was lots of fun. My mom recommended it, as it's one of her favorite books and she read it in France, where they pronounce it Ee-Van-Oh-Ay (lolz). It was super different from The Left Hand of Darkness, but a rollicking good ride. The anti-Jew theme was tough to stomach, especially given the recent rise of anti-semitism in America and other countries, but I guess it illustrates how deep-seated the prejudice is and how systemic.
Don't worry Scotland, we can care about England, too
Apparently, Scott was super famous for writing about Scotland, and this was his first book venturing into new territory. Considering that I don't think of Scotland and England as so different as, say, Ghana and Sweden, it was pretty funny to read his long introduction where he assures his readers that England has a pretty interesting history, also.
#Saxonsforever
If this book had a hashtag, it would definitely be #Saxonsforever. Not knowing much about English history, I was fascinated and taken by this idea that there were warring clans that fought aggressively before we came to this present-day concept of English and England. Here are a few of my favorite lines (all about Cedric, of course, since he's the real die-hard Saxon):
Say to them, Hundebert, that Cedric would himself bid them welcome, but he is under a vow never to step more than three steps from the dais of his own hall to meet any who shares not the blood of Saxon royalty. haghaghahghaghg
The restoration of the independence of his race was the idol of his heart, to which he had willingly sacrificed domestic happiness and the interests of his own son. yep, you read that right. Cedric is rooting for Athelena (Athelstane and Rowena are betrothed, which would ignite Cedric's dream for a Saxon throne takeover), so he has no problem kicking out Ivanhoe when he gets in the way.
I will die a Saxon - true in word, open in deed.Wamba the Wonderful
When I was starting this book, my mother told me, "There's a character called Wamba..." And is there ever! Wamba is Cedric's jester, but, through some beautifully constructed literary irony, he is no one's fool. Here are some of my favorite Wamba moments:
Of all the train none escaped except Wamba, who showed upon the occasion much more courage than those who pretended to greater sense.
When Wamba ends up riding with Richard the Lionheart: On horseback, [Wamba] was perpetually swinging himself backwards and forwards, now on the horse's ears, then anon on the very rump of the animal, -now hanging both his legs on one side, and now sitting with his face to the tail, moping, mowing, and making a thousand apish gestures, until his palfrey took his freaks so much to heart, as fairly to lay him at his length on the green grass - an incident which greatly amused the Knight, but compelled his companion to ride more steadily thereafter.
When Robin Hood & company have come to save them, but Wamba is prisoner because he saved Cedric by changing places with him: When the noise of the conflict announced that it was at the hottest, the Jester began to shout, with the utmost power of his lungs, 'Saint George and the dragon! - Bonny Saint George for merry England! - The castle is won!' And these sounds he rendered yet more fearful, by banging against each other two or three pieces of rusty armour which lay scattered around the hall. The guard is so frightened that he leaves them unguarded and they make their escape! Go, Wamba!Some things never seem to change (like anti-Semitism)
As I've mentioned already here, there's a lot of anti-Semitism in this book. A good deal of the book is spent sort of questioning that hatred, and I think the whole point of including Isaac and Rebecca as side characters/love interests was to humanize the 'jew and jewess', but it mostly just made me really sad that humans have such a long-burning capacity for hatred and mistreatment and unkindness.
Subtitle suggestions for this novel
- Ivanhoe (who's out of commission for like a third of the book)
- Ivanhoe (More like IvanWHO)
I have to admit that I was a little let down by Ivanhoe as the titular hero. He gets injured and then just LAYS AROUND for most of the epic battle scene, and I didn't really feel like he was anywhere near as cool as some of the other characters (like, ahem, Rowena, or Rebecca, neither of whom this book is named for).
Speaking of badass ladies
My favorite one is Ulrica. She has a whole backstory, but the most important thing is that she was a Saxon, but she's been forced to live here at De Bracy's castle and assimilate as a Norman and has had all kinds of terrible things done to her. She leads a SECRET COUNTERATTACK and sets the castle on fire (with De Bracy locked in it) and the scenes of her at the end of the battle are my favorite in the book:
The fire was spreading rapidly through all parts of the castle, when Ulrica, who had first kindled it, appeared on a turret, in the guise of one of the ancient furies, yelling forth a war-song, such as was of yore raised on the field of battle by the scalds of the yet heathen Saxons. Her long dishevelled grey hair flew back from her uncovered head; the inebriating delight of gratified vengeance contended in her eyes with the fire of insanity; and she brandished the distaff which she held in her hand, as if she had been one of the Fatal Sisters, who spin and abridge the thread of human life.
The maniac figure of the Saxon Ulrica was for a long time visible on the lofty stand she had chose, tossing her arms abroad with wild exultation, as if she reined empress of the conflagration which she had raised.Mortal defiance
There are many references to mortal defiance and other such florid knightly terms, which I found highly amusing. Here's one of my favorite lines:
My master will take nought from the Templar save his life's-blood. They are on terms of mortal defiance, and cannot hold courteous intercourse together.And this one:
Athelstane - 'Tell Sir Reginald Front-de-Boeuf that I send him my mortal defiance, and challenge him to combat with me, on foot or horseback, at any secure place, within eight days after our liberation; which, if he be a true knight, he will not, under these circumstances, venture to refuse or to delay.'
'I shall deliver to the knight your defiance," answered the sewer; 'meanwhile I leave you to your food.'Love triangles
I think this book is technically called "Ivanhoe, a Romance" and while I wasn't all that into the whole Rowen and Ivanhoe love affair, I enjoyed the various love triangles and angles that weren't quite intersecting. A few of the pairings/exchanges:
Rowena, to Cedric
Without attempting to conceal her avowed preference of Wilfred of Ivanhoe, she declared that, were that favoured knight out of question, she would rather take refuge in a convent, than share a throne with Athelstane, whom, having always despised, she now began, on account of the trouble she received on his account, thoroughly to detest. hagh!
Rowena, to De Bracy
Courtesy of tongue when it is used to veil churlishness of deed is but a knight's girdle around the breast of a base clown. You tell him!
Rebecca, to Bois-Guilbert
Thou shalt see that the Jewish maiden will rather trust her soul with God, than her honour to the Templar!
Lovely imagery
While I wasn't necessarily all that into the romance portion, I was very into the romanticized depiction of the medieval era. Between the castles and descriptions of the forests like the one below, I was ready to ship off to medieval England:
Hundreds of broad-headed, short-stemmed, wide-branched oaks, which had witnessed perhaps the stately march of the Roman soldiery, flung their gnarled arms over a thick carpet of the most delicious green sward; in some places they were intermingled with beeches, hollies, and copsewood of various descriptions, so closely as totally to intercept the level beams of the sinking sun; in others they receded from each other, forming those long sweeping vistas, in the intricacy of which the eye delights to lose itself, while imagination considers them as the paths to yet wilder scenes of silvan solitude.A last bit - for laughs
I mentioned earlier that Athelstane is taken for dead, and I promised the story. While I can't quite capture how amazing the whole thing is (he's punched, taken for a ghost, almost buried, and is understandably irate when he finally escapes) here's a snippet to give you a sense of the moment:
I should have been there still, had not some stir in the Convent, which I find was their procession hitherward to eat my funeral feast, when they well knew how and where I had been buried alive, summoned the swarm out of their hive. I heard them droning out their death-psalms, little judging they were sung in respect for my soul by those who were thus famishing my body.Referents and Reverberations
As usual, this book reminded me of many books - Don Quixote, the Three Musketeers, Pride and Prejudice, to name a few. Here are two specific moments that struck me:
In describing the interior of one of the medieval castles - Magnificence there was, with some rude attempt at taste; but of comfort there was little, and being unknown, it was unmissed.
(To which I thought, sounds a lot like Karhide ;)
And this line from Rebecca to Ivanhoe:
What remains to you as the prize of all the blood you have spilled - of all the travail and pain you have endured - of all the tears which your deeds have caused, when death hath broken the strong man's spear, and overtaken the speed of his war-horse?
And Ivanhoe's answer:
What remains? Glory, maiden, glory! Which gilds our sepulchre and embalms our name.
reminded me, bizarrely enough, of when I read the Iliad translated into French, and we learned these lines from Achilles (aka Asheeel)
The Iliad
Si je reste à me battre ici devant les murs de Troie
Sans effet de retour, mais j'y gagne une gloire impérissable
Si, au contraire, je rejoind la terre de mes pères, sans effet de cette belle gloire,
mais j'aurais longue vit
Et n'attendrais que sur le tour le terme de mes jours
I won't attempt to translate it line for line for you, but suffice it to say that glory has been on the brain of many a character, and Ivanhoe is certainly in good company with his obsession.
Great Lines
- Where be those false ravishers, who carry off wenches against their will? Where indeed!?
- Tell me, dogs - is it my life or my wealth that your master aims at?
- This dungeon is no place for trifling.
- Thou wilt have owls for thy neighbours, fair one; and their screams will be heard as far, and as much regarded, as thine own.
- My vengeance is awake, and she is a falcon that slumbers not till she has been gorged.
buckram - coarse linen or other cloth stiffened with gum or paste, and used as interfacing and in bookbinding
dingle - a deep wooded valley or dell
escutcheons - a shield or emblem bearing a coat of arms
hurly-burly - busy, boisterous activity (not to be confused with a Hurdy-Gurdy, pictured here)
malapert - boldly disrespectful to a person of higher standing
oriel - a projection from the wall of a building, typically supported from the ground or by corbels
quondam - that once was; former
I'm off to work out and read more books! I'll leave you with this last bit that I liked:
Be of good courage, and trust that thou art preserved for some marvel.
Have a lovely evening, be of good courage, and rest assured that you are all preserved for many marvels, dear readers! Happy spring evening to you all.
Ha ha! Lovely analysis!
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