Case file · Folklore / legend
Magonia, the land of sky ships
Archbishop Agobard of Lyon mocked people who believed storm-raisers sold crops to sailors from 'Magonia' who came in ships through the clouds.
815 CE · 45.76, 4.84 · status: legend
The account
In his treatise 'On Hail and Thunder' (about 815) Agobard says he saw a crowd present three men and a woman as having fallen from such ships, intending to stone them, until reason prevailed. Jacques Vallée's 1969 book 'Passport to Magonia' made the story a touchstone for the idea that UFO lore continues older folklore.
The sceptical view
Agobard himself called it a delusion; it is evidence of early medieval weather magic beliefs.
Connections in the atlas
- De Grandine et Tonitruis (On Hail and Thunder)
- Basel celestial phenomenon
- "The Rise of the Psycho-social Hypothesis" (Magonia)
- Irish fairy forts
- Passport to Magonia