Gonagas

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The title gonagas (or konagas), bird man, was a shaman ranking level in Northern Scandinavia amongs noayddes, which possessed special level of spiritual knowledge and visualized themself to have possession to transform oneself into a bird figure to "fly" over mountains. Because of this (spiritual) ability, Lundius states they were treated more respectfully or had a higher poisition than other peoples. According to the myth they could "spiritual communicate," i.e. travel to trading ports in forehand and see what peoples would come to trade. And in the witchcrafting period, the figure could not be burned on the stake because the fire would be smothered in the same way water cannot be ignited.

The word comes from old Norse for "king".

Source: "Descriptio Lapponiae", Nicolaus Lundius Lappo (1905)