Durandarte

Role: enchanted knight · First appears: Part 2, Ch. 23.1

In Part 2, Ch. 23.1, Montesinos reveals that Durandarte, his cousin and friend, is enchanted in the cave by Merlin. Durandarte has died in Montesinos’s arms, after which Montesinos removes his heart and carries it toward France for Belerma at Durandarte’s request.

In Ch. 23.2, Montesinos explains that Merlin has kept Durandarte, Montesinos, Belerma, and Guadiana enchanted for more than five hundred years. Guadiana, Durandarte’s grieving squire, is changed into a river, while Montesinos identifies Don Quixote as the knight whose intervention may free them.

Relationship record

Life events

• Montesinos reveals that he and Durandarte are enchanted in the cave.(Part 2, Ch. 23.1 · 📍 cave of Montesinos)
  • With: Montesinos
  • “This is my friend Durandarte, flower and mirror of the true lovers and valiant knights of his time. He is held enchanted here, as I myself and many others are, by that French enchanter Merlin”
• Durandarte dies in Montesinos's arms.(Part 2, Ch. 23.1 · 📍 cave of Montesinos)
  • With: Montesinos
  • “I know it to be as sure as that it is now day, that Durandarte ended his life in my arms”
• Montesinos removes Durandarte's heart with his own hands.(Part 2, Ch. 23.1 · 📍 cave of Montesinos)
  • With: Montesinos
  • “after his death, I took out his heart with my own hands”
• Montesinos carries Durandarte's heart to Belerma at Durandarte's request.(Part 2, Ch. 23.1 · 📍 cave of Montesinos)
  • With: Montesinos Belerma
  • “he had taken out the heart of his great friend Durandarte from his breast with a little dagger, and carried it to the lady Belerma”
• Montesinos removes Durandarte’s heart and carries it toward France.(Part 2, Ch. 23.2 · 📍 cave of MONTESINOS)
  • With: Montesinos
  • “I took out your heart as well as I could, not leaving an atom of it in your breast, I wiped it with a lace handkerchief, and I took the road to France with it”
• Merlin enchants Montesinos, Durandarte, Belerma, and Guadiana for more than five hundred years.(Part 2, Ch. 23.2 · 📍 cave of MONTESINOS)
  • With: Montesinos Belerma Guadiana
  • “the sage Merlin has been keeping enchanted here these many years; and although more than five hundred have gone by, not one of us has died;”
• Merlin transforms the grieving Guadiana into a river after he leaves Durandarte.(Part 2, Ch. 23.2 · 📍 cave of MONTESINOS)
  • With: Guadiana
  • “Guadiana your squire, likewise bewailing your fate, was changed into a river of his own name”
• Montesinos identifies Don Quixote as the prophesied knight who may disenchant them.(Part 2, Ch. 23.2 · 📍 cave of MONTESINOS)
  • With: Montesinos Don Quixote
  • “Know that you have here before you (open your eyes and you will see) that great knight of whom the sage Merlin has prophesied such great things; that Don Quixote of La Mancha I mean, who has again, and to better purpose than in past times, revived in these days knight-errantry, long since forgotten, and by whose intervention and aid it may be we shall be disenchanted; for great deeds are reserved for great men.”

Part 2, Ch. 23.1

• cousins with Montesinos (Durandarte addresses Montesinos as his cousin.) “O cousin Montesinos!”
• friends with Montesinos (Montesinos explicitly calls Durandarte his friend.) “This is my friend Durandarte, flower and mirror of the true lovers and valiant knights of his time.”
• with Belerma (The preceding account states that Durandarte commanded Montesinos to carry his heart to Belerma.) “He said in reply that they spoke the truth in every respect except as to the dagger, for it was not a dagger, nor little, but a burnished poniard sharper than an awl.”
• courtship with Belerma (Durandarte's dying request to send his heart to Belerma implies their romantic attachment.) “The instant he told me he was Montesinos, I asked him if the story they told in the world above here was true, that he had taken out the heart of his great friend Durandarte from his breast with a little dagger, and carried it to the lady Belerma, as his friend when at the point of death had commanded him.”

Part 2, Ch. 23.2

• cousins with Montesinos (Montesinos explicitly identifies Durandarte as his beloved cousin.) “Long since, Señor Durandarte, my beloved cousin, long since have I done what you bade me on that sad day when I lost you;”
• servant: Guadiana (Durandarte is identified as Guadiana's master.) “Guadiana your squire, likewise bewailing your fate, was changed into a river of his own name,”
• courtship with Belerma (Belerma is described as mourning Durandarte, her lost lover.) “the sad fate of her lost lover;”
• with Montesinos (Montesinos removed and carried Durandarte's heart.) “I took out your heart as well as I could, not leaving an atom of it in your breast, I wiped it with a lace handkerchief, and I took the road to France with it,”
• patron: Don Quixote (Durandarte is among the enchanted persons referred to by “we.”) “that Don Quixote of La Mancha I mean, who has again, and to better purpose than in past times, revived in these days knight-errantry, long since forgotten, and by whose intervention and aid it may be we shall be disenchanted;”
• with Belerma (interaction) “the lady Belerma, who, with her damsels, four days in the week went in procession singing, or rather weeping, dirges over the body and miserable heart of his cousin”

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Extracted from the original text of Don Quixote (Ormsby's translation). Made with Rho MD.