Ivanhoe

who is this, i know something about him, after googling about him, but i cant figure out if this a story based on ficton or not, any insight?

[norseman]

Sorry Tammy, all fiction just like King Arthur and Robin Hood

Ivanhoe opens up a path of good memories when I was a Kid. I guess as kids, we all had a bunch of heroes. One of them is Ivanhoe. Memory lane takes me back to the mid 60s.

[TheWizard]

It seems that the story of Ivanhoe is the also the story of Robinhood. I'm not sure how that could happen exactly, perhaps it has something to do with two different people from different nations writing a story based on said person, or the 'hear-say' of said person's actions.

Their is quite a difference between the two however, atleast on the surface. One having a more 'noble' heritage while the other being a leader of 'thieves'. The two characters do however share a similar philosophy and the events in both novels do have striking similarities, one of which is that they both include Richard I.

Considering all this if either is based on an actual person the best place to find out is probably from the story of Richard I assuming these events would have any documentation. Could have been stricken from history and this is why it was told in folklore, through Robinhood.

Then in the 1800's, 300 years after the Robinhood's story appeared, the writer of Ivanhoe could have very well came upon the actual documents of what took place and seen a resemblance between the stories and thus wrote the novel of Ivanhoe.

Food for thought.

[norseman]

The Robin Hood legend has it's roots in the most ancient beliefs of the tribes living in Britain in the neolithic. You need to imagine what the isles were like in those days. A dense, continuous, damp, gloomy forest with a few scattered tribes scratching a living mostly by hunting. However, the forests were home to bear, wolf, boar, wild cattle, and deer AND [worst of all !] the Green Spirits. The tribal shaman had uncovered places of power in the forest [which we now know as "doorways"] where offerings could be made to propitiate these capricious Green Spirits. These has various names such as Hob, Rob, Robin Goodfellow, and the Green Wildmen AND Elf. The forest floor was littered with flint arrow heads which were referred to as Elf bolts. The oldest pagan god comes from this period, the Green Man, said to be the wild spirit of nature. He is represented by a head with branches and leaves coming out of the mouth. Look around old churches in Britain and you will find Green Man carvings in their fabric.
Like all the long-lasting legends of the British Isles, you have to view them in context.