Menia (fl. c. 500) was the queen of the

Thuringians The Thuringii, Toringi or Teuriochaimai, were an early Germanic people that appeared during the late Migration Period in the Harz Mountains of central Germania, a region still known today as Thuringia. It became a kingdom, which came into confl ...

by marriage and the earliest named ancestor of the

Gausian dynasty The Gausi or Gausian dynasty was a prominent Lombard ruling clan in the second half of the 6th century (547–572). They were either pagans or perhaps Arian Christians and were frequently at odds with the Roman Catholic Church. Under their rul ...

of the

Lombards The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 and ...

. She became a legendary figure after her death, strongly associated with gold and wealth. Only one other person is known by the name Menia, from a 9th-century

polyptych A polyptych ( ; Greek: ''poly-'' "many" and ''ptychē'' "fold") is a painting (usually panel painting) which is divided into sections, or panels. Specifically, a "diptych" is a two-part work of art; a "triptych" is a three-part work; a tetrapty ...

of the

Abbey of Saint-Remi An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa''), also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in ...

. In origin it is probably a Germanic name, signifying collar, ring or necklace, and by extension treasure.Wolfram Brandes, "Das Gold der Menia: Ein Beispiel transkulturellen Wissenstransfers", ''Millennium'' 2 (2005): 175–226, esp. 181ff. Fenja_och_Menja_vid_kvarnen_Grotte_(xylograph)

Fenja_och_Menja_vid_kvarnen_Grotte_(xylograph)

Menia's marriage is recorded only in the ''

Historia Langobardorum codicis Gothani The ''Historia Langobardorum codicis Gothani'', also called the ''Chronicon Gothanum'', is a history of the Lombard people written at and for the court of King Pippin of Italy between the years 806 and 810. It is preserved in the twelfth-century '' ...

''. According to that source, she was the wife of King Pissa, usually identified as

Bisinus Bisinus (sometimes shortened to Bisin) was the king of Thuringia in the 5th century AD or around 500. He is the earliest historically attested ruler of the Thuringians. Almost nothing more about him can be said with certainty, including whether all ...

, king of the Thuringians. The same source and the other Lombard chronicles make Bisinus the father of

Raicunda Raicunda (? - 512), also known as Radikunda, Radegunda or Ranikunda was a Lombardic queen consort. She was the daughter of the Thurinigian king Bisinus and his Lombard wife Menia. She had three brothers named in the sources, Hermanafrid, Bertac ...

, first wife of

Wacho Wacho (also Waccho; probably from ''Waldchis'') was king of the Lombards before they entered Italy from an unknown date (perhaps c. 510) until his death in 539. His father was Unichis. Wacho usurped the throne by assassinating (or having assassi ...

, king of the Lombards. She may have been the daughter of Menia.

Frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages * Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany * East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...

sources, such as

Venantius Fortunatus Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus ( 530 600/609 AD; french: Venance Fortunat), known as Saint Venantius Fortunatus (, ), was a Latin poet and hymnographer in the Merovingian Court, and a bishop of the Early Church who has been venerate ...

, make Bisinus the father of the three brothers who ruled Thuringia in the 520s:

Hermanafrid Hermanfrid (also Hermanifrid or Hermanafrid; , died 532) was the last independent king of the Thuringii in present-day Germany. He was one of three sons of King Bisinus and the Lombard Menia. His siblings were Baderic; Raicunda, married to the L ...

Bertachar Bertachar (or Berthachar) was a king of Thuringia from about 510 until about 525, co-ruling with his brothers Hermanfrid and Baderic. Bertachar was probably not a Thuringian himself. Frankish sources, such as Venantius Fortunatus, make the three ...

(father of Saint

Radegund Radegund ( la, Radegundis; also spelled ''Rhadegund, Radegonde, or Radigund''; 520 – 13 August 587) was a Thuringian princess and Frankish queen, who founded the Abbey of the Holy Cross at Poitiers. She is the patron saint of several churches ...

) and

Baderic Baderic, Baderich, Balderich or Boderic (ca. 480 – 529), son of Bisinus and Menia, was a co-king of the Thuringii. He and his brothers Hermanfrid and Berthar succeeded their father Bisinus. After Hermanfrid defeated Berthar in battle, he in ...

. They are sometimes considered as sons of Menia,Jörg Jarnut, "Thüringer und Langobarden im 6. und beginnenden 7. Jahrhundert", in Helmut Castritius; Dieter Geuenich; Matthias Werner (eds.). ''Die Frühzeit der Thüringer: Archäologie, Sprache, Geschichte'' (De Gruyter, 2009), pp. 279–290. or else as sons of Basina, who is called a wife of Bisinus by the Frankish historian

Gregory of Tours Gregory of Tours (30 November 538 – 17 November 594 AD) was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of the area that had been previously referred to as Gaul by the Romans. He was born Georgius Florenti ...

. Many scholars, however, reject Bisinus' marriage to Basina as ahistorical, leaving Menia as his only known wife. By a relationship with an unnamed man of the Gausian family—a ''Gausus'', perhaps a

Geat The Geats ( ; ang, gēatas ; non, gautar ; sv, götar ), sometimes called ''Goths'', were a large North Germanic tribe who inhabited ("land of the Geats") in modern southern Sweden from antiquity until the late Middle Ages. They are one of th ...

, according to the ''Historia Langobardorum''—she was the mother of

Audoin Alduin (Langobardic: ''Aldwin'' or ''Hildwin'', ; also called Auduin or Audoin) was king of the Lombards from 547 to 560. Life Audoin was of the Gausi, a prominent Lombard ruling clan, and according to the ''Historia Langobardorum'', the son ...

, king of the Lombards from 546.Wolfram Brandes, "Das Gold der Menia: Ein Beispiel transkulturellen Wissenstransfers", ''Millennium'' 2 (2005): 175–226, esp. 181ff. She also had a daughter from whom the later

dukes of Friuli Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ranked ...

were descended. Audoin was in turn the father of

Alboin Alboin (530s – 28 June 572) was king of the Lombards from about 560 until 572. During his reign the Lombards ended their migrations by settling in Italy, the northern part of which Alboin conquered between 569 and 572. He had a lasting effe ...

, who led the Lombards into Italy. As an ancestor of Lombard royalty, Menia seems to have entered the

oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985 ...

and from there various Germanic epic traditions, such as the Icelandic

Poetic Edda The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems, which is distinct from the ''Prose Edda'' written by Snorri Sturluson. Several versions exist, all primarily of text from the Icelandic me ...

. She is a gold-grinding giantess in ''

Grottasöngr ''Grottasöngr'' (or ''Gróttasöngr''; Old Norse: 'The Mill's Songs', or 'Song of Grótti') is an Old Norse poem, sometimes counted among the poems of the ''Poetic Edda'' as it appears in manuscripts that are later than the '' Codex Regius''. T ...

'' and in ''

Sigurðarkviða hin skamma ''Sigurðarkviða hin skamma'' or the ''Short Lay of Sigurd'' is an Old Norse poem belonging to the heroic poetry of the ''Poetic Edda''. It is one of the longest eddic poems and its name derives from the fact that there was once a longer ''Sigur ...

'' her name is part of a

kenning A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech in the type of circumlocution, a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English po ...

(''Meni góð'', "Menia's goods") meaning gold. She is also featured in the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

tradition. In the Greek '' Life of Saint Pankratios of Taormina'', she is the wife of the Lombard Rhemaldos who kills the mother of Tauros and then marries him. She learns

alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

and turns base metals into gold. The entire legend is used to explain how the city of

Taormina Taormina ( , , also , ; scn, Taurmina) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Messina, on the east coast of the island of Sicily, Italy. Taormina has been a tourist destination since the 19th century. Its beaches on ...

(''Tauromenia'') got its name.Cynthia Stallman-Pacitti, ''The Life of Saint Pankratios of Taormina: Greek Text, English Translation and Commentary'' (Brill, 2018), p. 498.

References

Further reading