Ivanhoe (1820). Ivanhoe is a historical novel by Sir Walter Scott, first published in late 1819 in three volumes and subtitled A Romance. At the time it was written it represented a shift by Scott away from fairly realistic novels set in Scotland in the comparatively recent past, to a somewhat fanciful depiction of medieval England. It has proved to be one of the best known and most influential of Scott's novels. Ivanhoe is set in 12th-century England with colourful descriptions of a tournament, outlaws, a witch trial and divisions between Jews and Christians. It has been credited for increasing interest in romance and medievalism; John Henry Newman claimed Scott had first turned men's minds in the direction of the Middle Ages, while Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin made similar assertions of Scott's overwhelming influence over the revival, based primarily on the publication of this novel. It has also had an important influence on popular perceptions of Richard the Lionheart, King John and Robin Hood. There have been several adaptations for stage, film and television. In June 1819, Scott was still suffering from the severe stomach pains that had forced him to dictate the last part of The Bride of Lammermoor and most of A Legend of the Wars of Montrose, finishing at the end of May. But by the beginning of July at the latest he had started dictating his new novel Ivanhoe, again with John Ballantyne and William Laidlaw as amanuenses. He was able to take up the pen himself for the second half of the novel and completed it in early November. For detailed information about the middle ages Scott drew on three works by the antiquarian Joseph Strutt: Horda Angel-cynnan or a Compleat View of the Manners, Customs, Arms, Habits etc. of the Inhabitants of England, Dress and Habits of the People of England, and Sports and Pastimes of the People of England. Two historians gave him a solid grounding in the period: Robert Henry with his The History of Great Britain, and Sharon Turner with The History of the Anglo-Saxons from the Earliest Period to the Norman Conquest. His clearest debt to an original medieval source involved the Templar Rule, reproduced in The Theatre of Honour and Knight-Hood translated from the French of Andre Favine. Scott was happy to introduce details from the later middle ages, and Chaucer was particularly helpful, as was the fourteenth-century romance Richard Coeur de Lion. Ivanhoe was published by Archibald Constable in Edinburgh. All first editions carry the date of 1820, but it was released on 20 December 1819 and issued in London on the 29th. As with all of the Waverley novels before 1827, publication was anonymous. It is possible that Scott was involved in minor changes to the text during the early 1820s but his main revision was carried out in 1829 for the Magnum edition where the novel appeared in Volumes 16 and 17 in September and October 1830. The standard modern edition, by Graham Tulloch, appeared as Volume 8 of the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels in 1998: this is based on the first edition with emendations principally from Scott's manuscript in the second half of the work; the new Magnum material is included in Volume 25b. Ivanhoe is the story of one of the remaining Anglo-Saxon noble families at a time when the nobility in England was overwhelmingly Norman. It follows the Saxon protagonist, Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, who is out of favour with his father for his allegiance to the Norman king Richard the Lionheart. The story is set in 1194, after the failure of the Third Crusade, when many of the Crusaders were still returning to their homes in Europe. King Richard, who had been captured by Leopold of Austria on his return journey to England, was believed to still be in captivity. Protagonist Wilfred of Ivanhoe is disinherited by his father Cedric of Rotherwood for supporting the Norman King Richard and for falling in love with the Lady Rowena, a ward of Cedric and descendant of the Saxon Kings of England. Cedric planned to have Rowena marry the powerful Lord Athelstane, a pretender to the Crown of England by his descent from the last Saxon King, Harold Godwinson. Ivanhoe accompanies King Richard on the Crusades, where he is said to have played a notable role in the Siege of Acre; and tends to Louis of Thuringia, who suffers from malaria. The book opens with a scene of Norman knights and prelates seeking the hospitality of Cedric. They are guided there by a pilgrim, known at that time as a palmer.