Don't Blame the Tempestarii!

Well, the book is still out in the night someplace, so I've turned my attention to something shorter, a sci-fi story about weather witches trying to terraform a new world.  Tempestarii, they were called in medieval times.  What a great name.*

Co-incidentally, I struggled to think what on earth to cook for dinner tonight.  Preparing this blog has really helped.


* Having told me that, good old Wikipedia then went on to describe the belief of the parishioners of Bishop Agobard of Lyons (ca. 779-840 CE) that ...

... tempestarii were in league with a mythical race of cloud-dwellers who came from a land named 'Magonia' ("Land of Magic", "Land of Thieves"). The Magonians were supposed to sail the skies in storm clouds; they would then pay Frankish tempestarii to summon up storms over farmlands, during which the Magonians could swoop down and steal the corn from the fields. On the particular occasion which prompted Agobard to write, several supposed Magonians had been taken prisoner by irate villagers shortly after a bad storm; the Bishop had been forced to intervene and debate with the villagers in order to save the prisoners' lives.

Well, now you know.