Magonia is the name of the cloud realm whence felonious aerial sailors were said to have come according to the polemical treatise by Carolingian bishop Agobard of Lyon in 815, where he argues against weather magic. The treatist is titled De Grandine et Tonitruis ("On Hail and Thunder").
Contents
Description
The inhabitants of this realm were said to travel the clouds in ships and worked with Frankish tempestarii ("tempest-raisers" or weather-magi) to steal grain from the fields during (magically raised) storms. In his writings against these popular superstitions, Agobard denounced the belief in witchcraft and the ascription of tempests to magic.
Document history
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.
Popular Culture
Magonia is featured in Jacques Vallee's book Passport to Magonia, which explores the link between modern UFO visitations and reports from antiquity of contact with these "space beings" where he quotes Agobard's description.
Maria Dahvana Headley's young adult novel Magonia also references the mythological realm.