Ivanhoe (1823)
Ivanhoe is a 1823 fiction book written by Sir Walter Scott.
England lies divided between Saxon and Norman a century after the Conquest, its king away at the Crusades. Wilfred of Ivanhoe returns home disinherited for his loyalty to Richard, in love with the Lady Rowena whom his father means for another. Walter Scott fills the ground between with tournaments, siege, and disguise: the Templar knight Brian de Bois-Guilbert, the healer Rebecca and her father Isaac, a green-clad archer who answers to Locksley, and a king traveling unknown. Published in 1819, it fixed the popular image of Robin Hood and chivalric romance for generations of readers.
Quick answers
What is Ivanhoe about?
England lies divided between Saxon and Norman a century after the Conquest, its king away at the Crusades. Wilfred of Ivanhoe returns home disinherited for his loyalty to Richard, in love with the Lady Rowena whom his father means for another. Walter Scott fills the ground between with tournaments, siege, and disguise: the Templar knight Brian de Bois-Guilbert, the healer Rebecca and her father Isaac, a green-clad archer who answers to Locksley, and a king traveling unknown. Published in 1819, it fixed the popular image of Robin Hood and chivalric romance for generations of readers.
When was Ivanhoe published?
Ivanhoe was published in 1823.
Who made Ivanhoe?
Ivanhoe was written by Sir Walter Scott.
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Ivanhoe in our writing
- Companion guide: Knights & the Medieval World
- Companion guide: Musketeers & Swashbucklers
- Companion guide: Robin Hood & Outlaws
- Companion guide: The Crusades
A few thoughts on Ivanhoe
Readers drawn to Ivanhoe's Saxon-versus-invader England and its code of honor should try The Last Kingdom, which walks the same contested ground a few centuries earlier. For hands-on medieval chivalry and tournament grit, Kingdom Come: Deliverance puts you inside the armor. The 1938 Adventures of Robin Hood keeps the swashbuckling spirit alive.
Knights, secret orders and sieges you can actually play
Ivanhoe runs on tournament lists, a siege and a disguised king moving through his own country, and these games let you live inside that same world. Kingdom Come: Deliverance drops you into a very grounded medieval Bohemia, Oblivion trades history for a full fantasy kingdom, and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, II and III send you against secret orders not unlike Scott's Templar knight, Brian de Bois-Guilbert.
Swashbuckling treasure hunts across history's high seas and ruins
Ivanhoe's tournaments and disguises are Walter Scott's take on swashbuckling adventure, the same instinct these games chase across other eras. Uncharted 2, 3 and 4 send a modern-day adventurer through ruins, deception and daring escapes, while Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag swaps chivalry for piracy but keeps the same taste for danger and disguise.
Outlaws and underdogs standing up to a conquering empire
Ivanhoe is the book that fixed Robin Hood and a world of Saxons chafing under Norman rule in the popular imagination, and these picks share that same underdog-versus-empire shape. The Adventures of Robin Hood plays the outlaw legend straight, The Last Kingdom and Vikings dig into the actual conquest-era world Scott was drawing on, and Asterix turns the same story, a small, stubborn people resisting a bigger empire, into comedy.
Epics about honor, empire and the wars that made history
Ivanhoe stages its drama around tournaments and a kingdom split between two peoples, and these picks share that same weight of honor and history. The Song of Achilles carries the same doomed nobility into the Trojan War, 300 turns a single battle into legend, Kingdom follows a rising general through the sieges of ancient China, and Spartacus: House of Ashur keeps the political knives sharp inside a crumbling empire.