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Volume 1, Chapter 1
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
Wamba dawdles on the road until the riders—10 men—overtake him and Gurth. Two evidently wealthy men lead the train, each accompanied by some attendants. The first man (later identified as Aymer) wears clothes that look like the habit of a Cistercian monk, although the Cistercian rule forbids luxuries like the colorful, fur-lined garments he wears. A venal twinkle lights Aymer’s eyes, the only unguarded part of his carefully composed expression. He and the other four monks ride on fine Spanish mules with ornamented saddle cloths and bridles.
Ivanhoe’s description of Prior Aymer draws on the portrait of the Monk from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Both Aymer and the Monk abuse their position as representatives of the Church to enrich themselves and sate their own appetites for good food and aristocratic diversions like hunting. By the time the Cistercian Order was founded in 1098, many other religious institutions had become wealthy and stopped living lives of poverty and self-denial. The Cistercians returned to this original ideal. By making Aymer a Cistercian, the book both draws on historical fact (the Order exploded in England in the 1120s) and further suggest the abuses of power and morality practiced by Normans like Aymer. This also points to the idea of disguise and discovery; in the book, noble characters use disguises, while ignoble ones usually cannot hide their vices from the world.
Themes
Literary Devices
The other head rider (later identified as Sir Brian) is a tall, muscular, middle-aged man with strong features and sun-tanned skin. A frightening temper seems to lie just below the calm surface of his expression, and one can tell from looking at him how many dangers he has faced—and survived. A scar runs across his forehead and one of his eyes. He wears the clothing of a Templar knight, a cross between a knight’s armor and a monk’s robes. He rides a workhorse, but one of his attendants leads a “gallant war-horse” dressed for battle and evidently bred in the East. His two squires bear his splendid weapons and armor. His two dark-skinned servants wear embroidered silk clothing and carry “Saracen”-style weapons which identify them as foreigners.
Sir Brian immediately pushes the limits of the book’s idealization of knighthood—although he’s clearly strong and brave, he lacks the moral rectitude of a chivalrous knight. Arrogance and anger rule his actions instead of kindness and justice. Members of the Templar Order (founded in 1118) promised to protect the city of Jerusalem and all the Christian Europeans who traveled there as pilgrims (religious tourists) or as part of the crusader armies which wanted to capture and colonize the land where many of the events described in the Christian Bible played out. He also took monastic vows, promising to serve God and the Roman Catholic Church with humility, obedience, and poverty. It’s immediately clear, however, that Sir Brian isn’t doing either. The book describes his servants as “Saracens,” a medieval word for people coming from Muslim-majority countries between Syria and Arabia. Their being enslaved by a Templar knight points toward medieval European colonial ambitions in Palestine (and recalls the British colonial empire already well-established by the time Ivanhoe was written, thus linking past and present).
Themes
Wamba and Gurth immediately recognize Aymer, the Prior of nearby Jorvaulx Abbey. Most people like Aymer. He absolves penitents’ sins without requiring much penance; he has familial ties to prominent Norman nobles; he admires the ladies; he enjoys the hunt; he preaches an impressive sermon; and he generously shares the priory’s wealth with the poor. Thus no one says anything when he joins the hunt or indulges in fine food or sneaks back into the abbey early in the morning after a romantic rendezvous.
The list of Aymer’s virtues toggles back and forth between religious and worldly concerns. And, apart from supporting the poor, even his religious “accomplishments” seem rather hollow: he preaches a rousing sermon but fails to set a good example; he lets people off the hook for their sins in a way that suggests a morally lax outlook. But mostly, he succumbs to his own appetites and desires. His vows of chastity and poverty don’t keep him from having affairs or enjoying the rich life of a Norman nobleman. He thus participates in and perpetuates his kinsmen’s abuse and displacement of the native Saxon population.
Themes
Aymer ungraciously demands directions to the nearest nobleman’s house from Wamba and Gurth, who hesitate to direct the party to the home of their master, Cedric. Wamba points them towards nearby monasteries, but Aymer tactfully suggests his preference for a layman’s charity. Sir Brian breaks in, demanding directions to Cedric the Saxon’s home specifically. Ultimately, Wamba gives them incorrect directions in exchange for a silver coin. As the riders depart, Gurth notes that the knight would likely have provoked Cedric and that Aymer might have taken too much interest in “the lady Rowena.”
Aymer wants to stay at a nobleman’s house, the book strongly implies, because it’s there that he can expect a rich meal and fine wine. Religious houses which properly observe their vows of poverty can’t entertain a corrupt and abusive Norman monk like him. Sir Brian’s particular insistence on staying with Cedric, despite his well-known abhorrence of the Normans, further suggests his innate desire to harass and control others, and points to the Normans’ general abuse of their power in England.
Themes
Literary Devices
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On the road, Sir Brian asks Aymer about the insolent servants, and Aymer explains that the defeated Saxons’ descendants, like Gurth and his master Cedric, still tend to be “savage, fierce, and intractable.” Sir Brian testily replies that a good beating can tame the most savage slave. The two men discuss their bet about Rowena’s beauty and the monk warns the knight to avoid betraying an interest in the girl. Rumor has it that Cedric banished his own son for falling in love with her.
Although Aymer means his description of Gurth as an insult, the book shows a marked preference for rough and strong Saxon ways over refined and useless Norman inventions; thus, Aymer’s insult functions more as a compliment, highlighting a quality Saxon blood provides to the English identity that the book celebrates. Sir Brian’s desire to beat the servants points toward the cruelty that lies beneath his chivalric veneer.
Themes
Having reached the landmark where Wamba told them to turn, Sir Brian and Aymer begin to argue because neither can remember if they’re supposed to turn left or right. They fight until Sir Brian notices—and has his squire poke—a man huddled there. The stranger, a Palmer, complains in French about their discourteous interruption of his meditation but agrees to show them the way to Cedric’s house through the dark and boggy woodland. He identifies himself only as a pilgrim recently returned from Palestine, where—he acidly suggests—Sir Brian should have remained to defend Jerusalem. Soon the party reaches Rotherwood, a large house protected by a moat and double fence. As the rain begins, Sir Brian sounds his horn at the gate.
Again, Sir Brian’s arrogance and selfishness belie his Templar vows and raise questions about his membership in the order (only much later will he tell Rebecca what he truly hopes to gain as a Templar). The Palmer chides his betrayal of his vows, too: the Templars promised to defend Jerusalem with their lives, yet Muslim leader Saladin had taken the city a few years before the events in this story. Unlike the Saxons, the Palmer suggests, the Templars found themselves displaced through their own actions. But, instead of staying in Palestine and fighting to reclaim the city, Sir Brian has selfishly abandoned his responsibilities. Readers should note the ease with which the Palmer leads the party to Rotherwood, which hints that he may be none other than Cedric’s disowned son, Ivanhoe.
Themes
