50 Fun Facts About Ivanhoe

Who wrote the 1819 historical romance Ivanhoe?

It became by far the best-known of his nearly thirty Waverley novels.

In which year was Ivanhoe first released?

All first editions carry the date 1820, but the book went on sale in Edinburgh on 20 December 1819.

Ivanhoe belongs to which series of Scott novels?

The series of nearly thirty books is considered seminal to the genre of historical fiction.

In which decade is Ivanhoe set?

It broke from Scott's habit of setting stories in 16th- and 17th-century Scotland.

What is the first name of the novel's hero, the knight of Ivanhoe?

He is one of the last Anglo-Saxon nobles in an England ruled by Normans.

Who is Ivanhoe's father?

He disinherits his son for serving a Norman king and for loving his ward.

Whom does Ivanhoe's father want his ward to marry?

The match was meant to unite two Saxon bloodlines and revive a claim to the English crown.

The Saxon pretender in the novel claims descent from which king?

That descent is why his kinsman sees him as a pretender to the English crown.

From which Crusade is Ivanhoe returning?

He is said to have played a notable role in the Siege of Acre.

Ivanhoe first appears in disguise as what?

A palmer was a pilgrim; he guides the Norman party to his father's hall and later helps the moneylender escape.

Which Jewish moneylender supplies Ivanhoe's armour and horse for the tournament?

He guesses that the palmer is secretly a knight and offers the gear as repayment for his rescue.

Where is the great tournament held?

The real castle there is now a ruin in the care of English Heritage.

Ivanhoe jousts under which name, taken to mean "Disinherited"?

The book describes it as Spanish; the masked knight refuses to unmask even when the prince asks.

Who presides over the tournament?

His dinner for the local Saxons afterwards ends in insults.

Whom does the Disinherited Knight name Queen of the Tournament?

As champion of the day he may choose the queen, and he gives the honour to the woman he loves.

How does the nickname "Le Noir Faineant" translate?

He rescues the hard-pressed Disinherited Knight in the melee and then slips away.

Who is the Black Knight finally revealed to be?

He unmasks after the castle falls, accepting the surrender of de Bracy and then releasing him.

Which skilled physician tends Ivanhoe's tournament wounds?

She persuades her father to take the wounded knight home to York with them.

Which famous Robin Hood archery feat appears for the first time in Ivanhoe?

He also splits a willow reed with an arrow at the end of the tournament.

Under what name does Robin Hood appear in the novel?

Scott took the name from an anonymous 1600 manuscript, and it has stuck to the outlaw ever since.

The captured travellers are taken to which castle?

It is an ancient Saxon fortress now held by a Norman lord.

Who holds the castle where the Saxon party is imprisoned?

He tries to wring a hefty ransom from the moneylender and dies in the fire during the assault.

Which Saxon crone, also called Urfried, sets the castle ablaze?

She is the daughter of the castle's original Saxon lord and burns it as revenge for her father's death.

Who slips into the besieged castle disguised as a priest and swaps places with his master?

The jester's trick lets his master escape with details of the garrison and its layout.

Gurth, the Saxon servant who helps the moneylender escape, has which job?

In the opening chapter he and the jester discuss life under Norman rule.

Why was the Saxon noble presumed dead found alive at his own wake?

Reviewers hated the resurrection; Francis Jeffrey kindly called it introduced out of the very wantonness of merriment.

Which Templar Grand Master puts the Jewish physician on trial for witchcraft?

He is outraged by the Templar knight's infatuation and orders that same knight to fight as the order's champion.

How does the Templar villain die in the climactic trial by combat?

Scott writes that he dies a victim of his own contending passions.

Where do the Jewish physician and her father plan to settle after leaving England?

Critics note the anachronism: the Emirate of Granada and its ruler Boabdil came centuries later.

Who was the real Grand Master of the Templars in 1194, rather than Scott's invention?

The witchcraft trial itself is anachronistic: a non-Christian woman would not have faced the charge in 1194.

The name of Ivanhoe's father was Scott's misspelling of which Saxon name?

The slip, an example of metathesis, created a brand-new English first name.

Scott took the novel's title from a village in which English county?

Ivinghoe is the village; an old rhyme about Tring, Wing and Ivanhoe suggested the name.

The novel's Coningsburgh is based on which real castle near Doncaster?

The town is so devoted to the book that streets, schools and public buildings are named after its characters.

Prior Aymer's "Jorvaulx" is a historical spelling of which Yorkshire abbey?

Scott also mentions York Minster, where the climactic wedding takes place.

Arthur Sullivan's 1891 grand opera Ivanhoe ran for how many consecutive performances?

W. S. Gilbert recommended the librettist, Julian Sturgis.

Who wrote the libretto for Sullivan's opera Ivanhoe?

Sullivan's usual partner Gilbert suggested him for the job.

Which composer's Ivanhoé pasticcio did Scott see and call "sadly mangled"?

A pasticcio stitches pre-existing music to a new text; Scott also found the dialogue partly nonsense.

Who played Ivanhoe in the 1952 MGM film?

Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Fontaine and George Sanders co-starred, and the film earned three Oscar nominations.

Which future James Bond starred as Ivanhoe in a 1958 television series?

The series was built around the character rather than adapting the novel directly.

In the 1997 A&E/BBC miniseries, Ciarán Hinds played which character?

Steven Waddington was Ivanhoe and Susan Lynch played the physician he fights for.

What was Thackeray's 1850 spoof sequel to Ivanhoe called?

Thackeray's parody gave the Jewish heroine the ending many readers felt Scott denied her.

In which novel is Jem forced to read Ivanhoe aloud as a punishment?

The punishment follows Jem destroying Mrs Dubose's camellias.

The 1839 Eglinton Tournament, modelled on Ivanhoe, was held in which Scottish county?

The 13th Earl of Eglinton staged it at Eglinton Castle.

How large was the print run of Ivanhoe's first edition?

Copies cost £1 10s, roughly £149 in 2021 purchasing power.

Which Edinburgh publisher issued Ivanhoe?

Hurst, Robinson and Co. issued it in London nine days after the Edinburgh release.

Why did Scott dictate the first half of Ivanhoe rather than write it himself?

The same illness had forced him to dictate the end of The Bride of Lammermoor.

What was the Templar villain's horse, won from the "Soldan of Trebizond", called?

The boast is anachronistic: the Trebizond state was only founded in 1204.

Waldemar Fitzurse is the fictional son of a real murderer of which archbishop?

Reginald FitzUrse was one of the knights who killed the archbishop in 1170.

To whom is the novel's Dedicatory Epistle addressed?

The imaginary letter explains the tale was found mostly in the Anglo-Norman Wardour Manuscript.

Which historian attacked the novel's Saxon-Norman conflict as unhistorical?

He cited Walter Map's claim that tension between the groups had faded by the reign of Henry I.