Reading Scott:
Ivanhoe
(Chapter 1) Girth, Wamba and Fangs
Read by Steven Watson
This Recording is part of the Club's Public Readings of Scott Project
I have chosen this passage because I find the opening chapter to be a thing of magic. I always feel as if I have been suddenly dropped, as if by sorcery, into a 'rich grassy glade' of an Ancient English forest. There, atop a hillock and amongst the Druidical stone ruins, I am left to eavesdrop on the conversation between Gurth, the swineherd, and Wamba, the jester. In the previous pages Scott gave us one of his gentle summaries of the political situation of the time -- in this case, between Norman and Saxon -- which Gurth and Wamba then discuss in their lively and idiosyncratic way. It is a brilliant opening, introducing us to this history from the bottom up. As often, Scott's lowliest characters show more insight than most.
This was my introduction to Scott, and I found it as captivating as I did confusing. I can vividly remember the experience, some six or seven years ago. I confess I was initially attracted by the physical book -- a glorious old hardback with ridged brown covers and gilt-edged pages, costing only ninety-nine pence from a charity shop. When I first opened its pages, it was like nothing I had read before. The prose was doubly strange, both on account of the quasi-medieval speech and Scott's wandering, old-fashioned style. I struggled with it, rereading many passages, but the strangeness was itself compelling; for me, it was part of what brought the medieval setting so vividly to life. Soon enough, though, I was caught up in Scott's storytelling, and by the tournament chapters I was utterly hooked, greedily turning the pages. Scott became and remains my favourite storyteller.
February, 2026.
Steven Watson is musician, composer, teacher and doctoral researcher from Ware, Hertfordshire. He holds degrees from the University of East Anglia and King’s College London, performs and records guitar music, and is pursuing a PhD on historical and technical aspects of no-nails guitar playing.
