Ivanhoe: Volume 1, Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

As a servant leads the Palmer away from the hall, Oswald promises him a cup of good mead if he will share news from Palestine with the household servants. When the Palmer declines, Oswald orders the servant to put him in a servant’s stall, next to Isaac, rather than a better bedroom. Before he can do so, one of Rowena’s maids summons the Palmer to her chamber because she wants more information about Ivanhoe. The Palmer says only that when he met him, Ivanhoe was recovering from ill health, that he escaped persecution from the Norman-allied, and that he planned to return home soon. Rowena, the Palmer says, knows better than he what kind of reception Ivanhoe will receive when he arrives. She offers him a piece of gold, then dismisses him.

The servant takes the Palmer to a rustic but clean room between Gurth and Isaac. The Palmer falls asleep immediately. In the morning, he quietly sneaks into Isaac’s room, where he finds the moneylender muttering in his sleep about persecution. He prods Isaac awake with a staff, warning the old man that he overheard Sir Brian ordering his servants to follow Isaac, capture him, and turn him over to one of the closest Norman nobles. The Palmer offers to guide him safely to Sheffield, where he can bribe someone else to help him get to the tournament. Still protesting his poverty, Isaac accepts. The Palmer wakes Gurth, whispers some secret words in his ear, and persuades him to help them leave in secret.

The Palmer leads Isaac through the countryside with such urgency that Isaac occasionally fears betrayal. In an aside, Templeton explains a little about the situation of the Jewish people in this era: they were universally despised in part out of religious prejudice, and in part because they often made themselves very rich from lending money at punishing interest rates to the wealthy. As they were the only source of ready cash, nobles and even kings had few other options. Thus, the powerful often retaliated by persecuting and extorting money from Jewish people in their lands.

The Palmer and Isaac reach an oak tree that marks the extent of the Norman nobles’ properties and points out the road to Sheffield. Isaac realized the previous evening that the Palmer is a knight in disguise, and he wants to repay the man’s kindness. He writes a note in Hebrew and hands it to the Palmer, telling him to visit a moneylender in Leicester who will lend him a horse and armor for the tournament as repayment. If he has earned enough in the tournament, he can buy the equipment afterwards; if he loses, Isaac promises to cover the cost—although he’s certain the Palmer won’t lose.