Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Ivanhoe, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Merits of Chivalry
Disguise and Discovery
Inheritance and Displacement
The Vulnerability and Power of Women
History vs. Romance
Summary
Analysis
Suddenly, Prince John remembers that he should be picking the Queen of Love and Beauty. He suggests Rebecca, making Aymer blanch at the thought of elevating “a Jewess” to such honor. Aymer suggests Rowena, but Prince John retorts that he sees little difference between a “dog” Jew and a “hog” Saxon. Fortunately, his counselors dissuade him before he can draw the ire of the “Saxon churls” in the crowd. They suggest he allow the day’s victor to select the queen. Noting the crowd’s growing impatience, one advisor, Waldemar Fitzurse, encourages the prince to take his place and allow the festivities to begin.
Prince John continues to display the tyrannical and vicious Norman when he insists he sees little if any difference between the universally reviled Jewish people and the oppressed Saxons. Readers should note that, although the book and its characters typically treat Jewish people as foreigners, Isaac and Rebecca are, in fact, English subjects. As the book works to create a space of Englishness between the Saxons and the Normans, Isaac and Rebecca are left out of the equation despite an equal claim to citizenship.
Themes
Literary Devices
A herald proclaims the tournament’s rules. The five challengers will fight anyone who wishes to face them. Knights can choose which challenger to fight and can elect to use blunted or sharp weapons. When the five challenging knights fulfil their vow by each breaking five lances, Prince John will declare one the victor, and the victor will pick the Queen of Love and Beauty. The tournament’s second day will feature a melee of all knights who wish to fight; the prince will declare a winner for the Queen of Love and Beauty to crown. Archery, bearbaiting, and other amusements will occupy the third day. Then the heralds shout “Largesse, largesse gallant knights,” and the wealthy spectators toss gold and silver to them.
Generosity, or “largesse,” to use a word derived from French Norman, was one of the key traits of the nobility in medieval opinion. When the spectators toss coins to the heralds, they proclaim their chivalric values. The rules offer modern readers another reminder that, although this is not an actual war, the tournament presents very real dangers to its participants. This can be read either as supporting chivalric values—since knights who join demonstrate courage—or as an argument against a value system that regularly pitted knights who would otherwise belong to the same group against each other, leading to unnecessary injury and death in the name of proving one’s military skill.
Themes
All the heralds except the two marshals of the field withdraw. By the time the crowd falls silent, knights wishing to face the challengers cram the staging area. The marshals select the first five by lot and allow them to enter the lists. Templeton assures readers that they were all splendidly dressed and that his source text (“the Wardour Manuscript”) describes their coats of arms in great detail. But he glosses over it because readers won’t recognize the names of once-honored knights who died long ago and whose castles have long since crumbled into dust. These five knights disappoint the spectators when each chooses to fight with blunted weapons; medieval spectators, Templeton opines, loved the violence of the spectacle.
Templeton’s careful selection of detail to include in his modern edition of an alleged medieval story (remember that Templeton and the Wardour Manuscript are both part of the book’s fiction) contributes to his argument about the potential use (or misuse) of historical fiction. Choosing carefully what to include or exclude may miss important historical details, but it keeps readers interested and emotionally invested in the important characters—Ivanhoe, Richard, Prince John, and Rebecca.
Themes
The five knights prepare themselves and descend into the lists. At the sound of the trumpets, they charge. Over the first three rounds, although at least one opponent manages to break Ralph de Vipont’s lance, not one of the challengers falls from his horse. The losers straggle off the field to make arrangements for ransoming their horses and weapons—the spoils which go to the winners—back. On the fourth round, only three knights enter the lists; Sir Brian and Front-de-Boeuf stand unopposed. A long pause follows; it seems few knights remain anxious to test their luck against the challengers.
In medieval tournaments, a victorious knight claimed as forfeit whatever horses, armor, and weapons his defeated challenger brought onto the field with him. Knights could choose to keep these valuable items or to ransom them back to their owners for quick cash. Tournaments thus provided a way for skilled-but-penniless knights (like Ivanhoe, recently returned from the disaster of the Third Crusade) to make quick money. Again, this fact makes an equivocal case for chivalry. On the one hand, it allows knights a clear victory without necessarily having to shed blood. But on the other hand, it cheapens the ideals of courage and valor by reducing them to spectacle and economic opportunism.
Themes
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Cedric, taking each victory for the Norman challengers as a repeated triumph over the honor of true (Saxon) Englishmen, grows increasingly irate. He darts looks at Athelstane as if he wishes that man would stand for the honor of his country, but Athelstane shows no interest in meeting the challengers on the field. He plans to wait until the second day’s melee. The crowd grows restive, and Prince John begins to consider calling the end of the tournament early.
Cedric’s reactions remind readers that the tournament stands—at the very least for Sir Brian, Prince John, and Cedric—as a referendum on the Norman right to rule (and oppress) the Saxons. And Norman Sir Brain is clearly winning. In contrast, Athelstane proves his unworthiness for the throne, since he lacks any bravery or Saxon pride. The book thus continues to point to the power vacuum that only King Richard can fill.
Themes
Then, a single knight, of medium build and bearing a shield decorated with an uprooted oak tree and the Spanish word “Desdichado,” or “disinherited” on it, rides into the arena. The Disinherited Knight salutes the crowd graciously as he rides down the lists on a splendid black horse to touch the point of his lance (signifying sharp weapons) on Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert’s shield. He and Sir Brian trade harsh words, then prepare to joust.
Yet again, the oak on the Disinherited Knight’s shield connects to Saxon identity and Cedric’s household; the mysterious knight’s name and the symbolism of the uprooted tree should suggest to readers (if not the crowd at the tournament) that this knight is the doubly disinherited Saxon knight Ivanhoe. Still anonymous for the moment, however, the Disinherited Knight’s actions establish his clash with Sir Brian as a referendum on chivalry, with the Disinherited Knight representing bravery, strength, and nobility.
Themes
The crowd watches with excitement as the knights prepare to charge; although few expect the Disinherited Knight to win, they love his courage and gallantry. On the first charge, neither falls from his horse. In the second charge, although Sir Brian remains in the saddle, his horse falls to the ground. He springs to his feet and draws his sword before the field marshal intervenes, reminding the competitors that the tournament’s rules prevent hand-to-hand combat. Disgraced and defeated, Sir Brian retreats to his tent while the Disinherited Knight addresses the crowd, calling this a victory for English honor against foreign tyrants. Then he bests Sir Front-de-Boeuf, Philip Malvoisin, De Grantmesnil, and Ralph de Vipont in turn to become the day’s victor.
Although he’s faced three challengers already, Sir Brian’s strength and skill help him withstand the Disinherited Knight’s charge. Although he loses the match when he falls from his horse, he remains unharmed and leaps to his feet, ready to continue the battle. But his thirst for blood and victory betrays him, pushing him beyond the bounds of knightly restraint. This not only embarrasses him, but it also reminds readers that a disregard for the rules characterizes the Norman bullies generally. Still, five of them cannot defeat the Disinherited Knight, suggesting the inherent superiority of the man behind the disguise.
Themes
