E'gil, brother of Weland; a great archer. One day, King Nidung commanded him to shoot at an apple placed on the head of his own son. Egil selected two arrows, and being asked why he wanted two, replied, "One to shoot thee with, O tyrant, if I fail."
(This is one of the many stories similar to that of William Tell, q.v.) Egilo'na, the wife of Roderick, last of the Gothic kings of Spain. She was very beautiful, but cold-hearted, vain, and fond of pomp. After the fall of Roderick, Egilona married Abdal-Aziz, the Moorish governor of Spain; and when Abdal-Aziz was killed by the Moorish rebels, Egilona fell also.
The popular rage
Fell on them both; and they to whom her name
Had been a mark for mockery and reproach,
Shuddered with human horror at her fate.
Southey,
Roderick, etc
., xxii. (1814).
Eg'Ia, a female Moor, a servant to Amaranta (wife of Bar'tolus, the covetous lawyer).—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Spanish Curate (1622).