The Voynich Ninja

(18-03-2016, 05:25 PM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Haha David, it does resemble that one. There's one that comes closer though, but I still have to publish it. It's my favourite one. I'll try to get it online this evening.

Marco, do you know of any paralls for these creatures' tails that makes sense? I'm still intrigued by their being painted over.

There are many dragons in the margins of illuminated manuscripts that have flower tails or leaf tails—branched tails that aren't very mammalian or reptilian, so I wonder if something like that might have inspired the unusual plant-like tails (particularly the one top-right).


The little dragony creature on folio 25v also has an odd bumpy tail that slightly resembles some of the marginal drawings of flower-tail dragons.

By coincidence I came across this Roman mosaic of a camel



The way its feet are drawn reminded me of something. Let me link JKP's image:



Would it be possible that the blue creature's feet represent cloven hooves?

The forked tails may actually be inspired by reality. Sometimes, the tail of a lizard is damaged, which triggers regeneration of a second or even more tails although the original one is not lost. See here for more details:
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I think I have seen this in ancient Greek art but I'm not sure. The record is a lizard with six tails:
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(19-03-2016, 01:30 AM)Oocephalus Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The forked tails may actually be inspired by reality. Sometimes, the tail of a lizard is damaged, which triggers regeneration of a second or even more tails although the original one is not lost. See here for more details:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
I think I have seen this in ancient Greek art but I'm not sure. The record is a lizard with six tails:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

That second illustration, the "tree-root" tail looks surprisingly like the root- or branch-like VMS tail.

I knew lizards could regrow their tails. I didn't know an injured tail could regenerate and handful of new tips.

I agree that the red creature looks the most reptilian, with the rather serpentine tail and ridged back.

I'm starting to wonder if this scene could be nilotic. Note how the other creatures are not that much smaller than the yellow mammal, so they needn't necessarily be interpreted as lizard sized. 

The green one on the far left would make a decent crocodile. Its fish tail would mark its aquatic nature. The blue one would be a hippo. It's also been given the fish tail marker. The shape of its head is kind of hippo-ish, and feet as well.

Red is a harder case. The back and tail say reptile, while the head and feet say mammal.

The yellow land creature is hybrid as well. Its body looks feline enough, but the head is more like that of a herbivore, like a horse.

Hippo and lion suggest Arican fauna. The red beast may be an okapi or a giraffe.

They do look like they share a natural habitat though. If the green one is a crocodile, the blue one a hippo and the yellow one a lion, then it makes sense to see this as a Nile scene, since the Nile is where the habitats of these three creatures overlap. Depictions of Nilotic wildlife were quite popular in antiquity.

Giraffes were known in Egypt, but only as tributes from southern peoples. I think they would mostly be seen as zoo animals or weird things from faraway lands.



The okapi was even more of a legendary creature, though I do see where you get the idea 

Hippos and crocodiles were among the most common creatures depicted in Nile scenes, often shown together. The famous You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. offers an idea of which other creatures we might expect. The top parts of the mosaic represent southern areas and contain more "hearsay" creatures, including even something like a giraffe.

Lions are a possibility for the yellow one. Here's Ethiopians hunting a lion, with a crocodile-faced hippo looking on:




For the red one, many possibilities remain. My current favorite is the Egyptian mongoose, since it was often depicted in a confrontation with its nemesis, the cobra:




Was the red creature in the VM originally supposed to be a mongoose wrestling a snake in the water, and is that why there's an additional snake tail?

I think it's reasonable to search for a matching context in which a hippo and a lion co-exist, and then not to forget about what's going on to the left of the figure - what's the connection of the mer-person and the persons above to these animals. One thing which is more or less distinct is that at the highest level we have heavens (cloudband pattern), from which water seems to pour onto the second layer of the system.

If we consider blue as clean water and green as dirty water, then clean water is pouring down from heavens, then the lady second from the top does somehow contaminate it, then the third lady manages some kind of filter which purifies the water again and it flows down to the alleged Nile which is dirty again (why?).

(21-03-2016, 09:19 PM)Anton Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I think it's reasonable to search for a matching context in which a hippo and a lion co-exist, and then not to forget about what's going on to the left of the figure - what's the connection of the mer-person and the persons above to these animals. One thing which is more or less distinct is that at the highest level we have heavens (cloudband pattern), from which water seems to pour onto the second layer of the system.
...

While they were extinct in the region when Alexander Crawford visited the S.E. Mediterranean in the first half of the 19th century, he mentions that there used to be lions and hippopotami around the River Jordan.

I had a vague theory somewhere that this page represents female purity and how accepting divine will improves your lot.
The top woman receives blessed water from heaven directly (note the cross staff she is holding* - she isn't holding it, it is coming into her hand. Compare with the ring below), which also falls straight down onto the next woman, who may represent nobility (note Crown/Ring?). But she is on her back. The water falls onto her face to symbolise purity and her whole body is in the water
This goes down to the next level of commoner who is not purified by the water but is allowed to touch it.
And finally it goes down to the beasts of the field (whores?), one of whom escapes from her bestial form by touching the water (note how she is leaving the fish) whilst her companions stay.

The hair styles of the women become progressively plainer towards the bottom.

It's just the gist of a theory... a previous one of mine was that the women represent different phases of pregnancy (note belly - the penultimate belly has been retouched to make it more prominent).

*This cross-staff, of course, may simply be a stick she is pointing at the top of row of women on the next page, showing a connection between the two sets of illustrations.