ORIGIN OF SAYINGS
TO FIGHT WITH WINDMILLS.
. The saying, to fight with windmills, or to tilt at windmills, refers to an adventure of Don Quixote. Don Quixote de la Mancha approached 30 or 40 windmills which, he declared to his friend, Sancho Panza, "were giants, two leagues in length or more." Striking his spurs into Rosinante, with his lance in the rest, Don Quixote drove at one of the "monsters dreadful as yphaeus." The lance lodged in the sail of the windmill, and the sail, striking both man and beast, lifted them into the air and shivered the lance to pieces. When the valiant knight and his steed fell to the ground they were both much injured. Don Quixote declared that the enchanter Freston, " who carried off his library with all the books therein," had changed the giants into windmills, " out of malice."
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAIPO19310310.2.48
Bibliographic details
Waipa Post, Volume 42, Issue 3270, 10 March 1931, Page 7
Word Count
143ORIGIN OF SAYINGS Waipa Post, Volume 42, Issue 3270, 10 March 1931, Page 7
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