Durandana (dö-rän-dä´nä).—The name of the marvelous sword of Orlando, the renowned hero of romance, said to have been wrought by the fairies, who endued it with such power that its owner was able to cleave the Pyrenees with it at a blow.
Durandarte (dö-rän-där´te).—A fabulous hero of Spain. Cervantes has introduced him, in Don Quixote, in the celebrated adventure of the knight in the cave of Montesinos.
Durden (der´den), Dame.—(1) The heroine of a popular English song. She is described as a notable housewife, and the mistress of five serving-girls and five laboring men. The five men loved the five maids. (2) A sobriquet playfully applied to Esther Summerson, the heroine of Dickens’ Bleak House.
Durward (der´wārd), Quentin.—A novel by Scott. Quentin Durward is a young archer of the Scottish guard in the service of Louis XI. of France. When Liège is assaulted, Quentin Durward and the Countess Isabelle, who has been put into his charge, escape on horseback. The countess publicly refuses to marry the Duc d’Orléans, to whom she has been promised, and ultimately marries the young Scotchman.
Dwarf, Alberich.—In the Nibelungen Lied the dwarf “Alberich” is the guardian of the famous hoard won by Siegfried from the Nibelungs. The dwarf is twice vanquished by the hero, who gets possession of his “Tarn-Kappe” (cloak of invisibility).
Dwarf, The Black.—A novel by Sir Walter Scott. The dwarf is a fairy of the most malignant character; a genuine northern Duergar, and once held by the dalesmen of the border as the author of all the mischief that befell their flocks and herds. In Scott’s novel the black dwarf is introduced under the aliases of Sir Edward Mauley; Elshander, the recluse; Cannie Elshie; and the Wise Wight of Mucklestane Moor.
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Ecce Homo (ek´sē hō´mō).—The title of a semi-theological work, attributed to Professor Seeley, and published in 1865, in which the humanity of Christ is considered and enforced, apart from his divinity. The phrase, “The enthusiasm of humanity,” was [793] originated in this work; to which, it may be mentioned, Dr. Joseph Parker replied in his Ecce Deus published in 1866.
Eckhardt, The Faithful.—A legendary hero of Germany, represented as an old man with a white staff, who, in Eisleben, appears on the evening of Maundy Thursday, and drives all the people into their houses, to save them from being harmed by a terrible procession of dead men, headless bodies, and two-legged horses, which immediately after passes by. Other traditions represent him as the companion of the knight Tannhäuser, and as warning travelers from the Venusberg, the mountain of fatal delights in the old mythology of Germany. Tieck has founded a story upon this legend, which has been translated into English by Carlyle, in which Eckhardt is described as the good servant who perishes to save his master’s children from the seducing fiends of the mountain. The German proverb, “Thou art the faithful Eckhardt; thou warnest everyone,” is founded upon this tradition.
Eclecta.—The “Elect” personified in The Purple Island, by Phineas Fletcher. She is the daughter of Intellect and Voletta (free-will).