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

Thuringians The Thuringii, or Thuringians were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who lived in the kingdom of the Thuringians that appeared during the late Migration Period south of the Harz Mountains of central Germania, a region still known today as Thur ...

by marriage and the earliest named ancestor of the Gausian dynasty of the

Lombards The Lombards () or Longobards () were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written betwee ...

. 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 work of art (usually a panel painting) which is divided into sections, or panels. Some definitions restrict "polyptych" to works with more than three sections: a diptych is ...

of the Abbey of Saint-Remi. 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. Menia's marriage is recorded only in the '' Historia Langobardorum codicis Gothani''. 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 al ...

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

, 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, a group of Low Germanic languages also commonly referred to as "Frankish" varieties * Francia, a post-Roman ...

sources, such as

Venantius Fortunatus Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus ( 530 600/609 AD; ), 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 venerated since the Middle Ages. ...

, 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 his Lombard queen Menia. His siblings were Baderic; Raicunda, marri ...

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 (; 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 patroness saint of several churches in Franc ...

) and

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

. 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 (born ; 30 November – 17 November 594 AD) was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours during the Merovingian period and is known as the "father of French history". He was a prelate in the Merovingian kingdom, encom ...

. 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 ( ; ; ; ), 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 the progenitor groups of modern Swed ...

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

Audoin Alduin (Langobardic: ''Aldwin'' or ''Hildwin'', ; also called Auduin or Audoin) was List of kings of the Lombards, king of the Lombards from 547 to 560. Life Audoin was of the Gausian dynasty, Gausi, a prominent Lombard ruling clan, and accordin ...

, 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 were descended. Audoin was in turn the father of

Alboin Alboin (530s – 28 June 572) was List of kings of the Lombards, king of the Lombards from about 560 until 572. During his reign the Lombards ended their migration period, migrations by settling in Kingdom of the Lombards, Italy, the northern ...

, 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 in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (19 ...

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 in alliterative verse. It is distinct from the closely related ''Prose Edda'', although both works are seminal to the study of Old Norse ...

. She is a gold-grinding giantess in ''

Grottasöngr ''Grottasǫngr'' (or ''Gróttasǫngr''; 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''. The ...

'' and in '' Sigurðarkviða hin skamma'' her name is part of a

kenning A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech, a figuratively-phrased compound term that is used in place of a simple single-word noun. For instance, the Old English kenning () means , as does (). A kenning has two parts: a base-word (a ...

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

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

tradition. In the Greek ''

Life of Saint Pankratios of Taormina Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, organisation, metabolism, growth, adaptation, respons ...

'', she is the wife of the Lombard Rhemaldos who kills the mother of Tauros and then marries him. She learns

alchemy Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

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

Taormina Taormina ( , , also , ; ) 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 the Ionian Sea, incl ...

(''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