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MINISTERS Of EELIGIOiSr. 1S9
of the Ynglinga Saga, of tlie arrival of Odin and
his followers in the North, cannot be regarded
otherwise than as a very erroneous interpretation of
the old Eddaic myths, but which is in accordance
with the views of his age. His account of the
twelve Diar or Drotnar, who presided both at the
sacrifices and at the judicial proceedings in thek
ancient Asgard, and who afterward accompanied
Odin to the North,* doubtless rests on the same
foundation. The name Biar is "evidently the same
as Tivar, which, as above-mentioned, f was an appellation
of the Gods. Then, even as Snorri's own
account intimates, the twelve Diar were no other
than the twelve ^sir who were specially worshiped.
As a council of priests they exist only in Snorri's
interpretation ,of the myths, and as this term, ap-
plied to the priests of the -^sir, does not occur
either with the same author afterwards or in any^
other reliable poems or ancient Sagas of the Northmen,
it becomes very doubtful whether it was used
in this sense at ail.-
It is otherwise with the terna Di*6tnar. The word
drottinn {plur. dr&ttnar) is much used in ^e Old-
Norse in the sense of Lord or Master. In the earli-
est ages this name was peijuliar to the highest
rulers of the people, w'ho at the same'time presided
at the courts of justixjQ and were high-priests ; but
it gave way at an early period to konungr:j: (king),
* Snprri ; Ynglinga Saga, 2, 6.
t Chap. 11.
X According to.Snorri, twenty ages before Harald Hirfagri, or
about the third centufy.