[15.] eagle. "Camden and others observe that eagles used annually to build their aerie among the rocks of Snowdon, which from thence (as some think) were named by the Welsh, Craigian-eryri, or the crags of the eagles. At this day (I am told), the highest point of Snowdon is called 'the Eagle's Nest.'"—Gray.
[16.] Dear as the ruddy drops. Shakespeare has it:
"As dear to me as are the ruddy drops
That visit my sad heart."
—Julius Cæsar, Act ii, sc. 1.
[17.] I see them sit. See Milton's "Lycidas," 52:
"On the steep
Where your old bards, the Druids lie."
griesly. Grisly. From the A.-S. grisli, dreadful.
[18.] Weave the warp, etc. As the Fates were represented by the ancient Greeks as spinning the destinies of men, so the Norns in the Norse mythology are said to weave the destinies of the heroes who die in battle.
"Glittering lances are the loom,
Where the dusky warp we strain,—
Shafts for shuttles, dipt in gore,
Shoot the trembling cords along;
Swords that once a monarch bore,
Keep the tissue close and strong."
—The Fatal Sisters, translated by Gray, from the Norse.