Ivanhoe

Wilfred of Ivanhoe returns from the Crusades to find his father has disowned him, the Norman lords have tightened their grip on Saxon England, and the woman he loves is being pursued by a man with far more power than scruples. Fighting incognito as the "Disinherited Knight," he gets pulled into a tournament, a siege, a trial by combat, and the return of a certain outlawed archer everyone assumes is just a legend. Scott didn't just write a historical adventure — he invented the template nearly every knights-and-castles story since has followed.The novel that popularized Robin Hood as a supporting character and defined the romantic image of medieval chivalry for two centuries of readers and filmmakers alike.