Sir Walter Scott Appreciation discussion

Please post comments here.

As an English teacher, I really liked the jester's joke about the Saxon pigs becoming Normans!

One of the most important things to know to understanding Ivanhoe is how the Norman Invasion of 1066 effected the Anglo-Saxon and Briton people. For almost 300 years afterwards, Norman French was the 'acceptable' language and Normans and Saxons did not intermarry. In several places the Normans, to prove a point, sallied out from their castles and wiped out the local population, men, women children. In others they were treated little better than slaves. The Romans and the Anglo-Saxons did not do this. They integrated with the people after initial struggles. They also allowed some sovereignty to local chiefs/kings.
Ivanhoe is at it's core a story of an oppressed people struggling to keep their identity, their beliefs and customs, language and freedom. Even to this day, British people have a dislike of the Norman invaders and maybe it is this that has caused the people to fight so hard to never be invaded again. A nation has a long memory as seen by all the unrest and discontent throughout the world. The US would do well to read history and learn from it...sadly it seems we are doomed to keep repeating.

I have finished the first 11 chapters and here are my thoughts.

Scott's writing is great and the story interesting if not always historically accurate. He mentions marriages between Saxon and Norman which were very very rare. Also, King Richard only was in England for 10 months out of his 10 year reign and spent his time there exacting increased taxes from the people to fund his crusades. He was a giant of a man who was known as the Lion Heart but he really was not that beloved of the people. However, Scott's portrayal of John is pretty accurate except that he probably died of dysentery and not a 'surfeit of peaches.'

The castle of Athelstane:
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/vi...

I lived very close to this and worked at a pharmacy in Conisbrough.

Scott's depiction of Issac of York is very stereotypical and yet his depiction of his daughter, Rebecca, was a brave move at a time when Jews were still seen as less than Christians. Since Christians were not allowed to loan money for interest and this was the only profession open to Jews, then this image of being money greedy was forced upon them. Maybe Scott wanted to balance the view of Jews and made in Rebecca one of the finest heroines in literature as will be seen later in the book.

I have finished the first 11 chapters and have noticed the pace is faster than the other Scott novels I have read. There has been a lot of action so far.
Unfortunately, the reaction of the Saxons and the Normans to the Jewish people as portrayed in the book is accurate.

Rosemarie wrote: "I have finished the first 11 chapters and have noticed the pace is faster than the other Scott novels I have read. There has been a lot of action so far.
Unfortunately, the reaction of the Saxons a..."

Yes it is. The Jews were totally expelled from England in the Edict of Expulsion, a royal decree issued by King Edward I of England on 18 July 1290, expelling all Jews from the Kingdom of England. The expulsion edict remained in force for the rest of the Middle Ages. The edict was not an isolated incident, but the culmination of over 200 years of increased persecution.
Not until 1856 were Jews given equal rights in England. Scott did a very brave thing making Rebecca, a Jewess, the heroine of the story. Another of the great reasons to love Scott.