- Magonia (mythology)
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According to the treatise on weather magic composed by Carolingian bishop Agobard of Lyon in 815, Magonia is the name of the cloud realm from where felonious aerial sailors were said to have come.
The inhabitants of this realm, the Magonians were said to travel the skies in "cloud ships" (storm clouds) and worked with Frankish tempestarii, "tempest-raisers" or weather-magi, to steal grain from the fields during magically raised storms.
However, in his writings against popular superstitions, Agobard denounced the belief in witchcraft and the ascription of tempests to magic.
Modern usage
Due to its association with entities coming from the sky, the name Magonia inspired UFO related material, see Magonia (magazine).
References
Agobard's works were lost until 1605, when a manuscript was discovered in Lyons and published by Papirius Masson, and again by Baluze in 1666. For later editions see August Potthast, Bibliotheca Historica Medii Aevi. The life of Agobard in Ebert's Allgemeine Geschichte der Literatur des Mittelalters im Abendlande (1880), Band ii., is still the best one to consult. For further indications see A. Molinier, Sources de l'histoire de France, i. p. 235.
See also
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