The Voynich Ninja

I found root in German herbal similar to the root on VMs fol 22v. The plant is horse-tail (cauda equina). Does anybody know what Ratzenschwantz mean?
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Apparently it's "rat's tail" in southern German dialects, Rattenschwanz in standard German. It also appears to be the name for a very ugly hair style. The endings of the roots look like rat's tails, but I have no idea why there are bells or beads on there...

(01-04-2016, 07:55 PM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Apparently it's "rat's tail" in southern German dialects, Rattenschwanz in standard German. It also appears to be the name for a very ugly hair style. The endings of the roots look like rat's tails, but I have no idea why there are bells or beads on there...

Thanks Koen!

Are you sure this doesn't say Katzenschwantz (cat's tail)? And Ratz can also mean polecat, but I think rat makes more sense here.

Cat's tail would make more sense to me, even though it looks more like rat's tails. In Dutch, there's an expression I'd translate as "to bind the bell to the cat" which means "to be the first one to start talking about a difficult situation". 

Now, I haven't fully researched this yet, but according to one reliable source I just found, this expression has its origin in the first century Indian work You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. Which I find very, very interesting. I'll need to look into it some more. Either way, the expression is a very old one, used already in the middle ages.

(01-04-2016, 09:06 PM)Oocephalus Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Are you sure this doesn't say Katzenschwantz (cat's tail)? And Ratz can also mean polecat, but I think rat makes more sense here.

Thanks so much. It could be Katzenschwantz . I can't make the initial very well. The thing is - the VMs plant could be pasque-flower and the root may represent the whip used on Good Friday in the scourging of Christ. So I always thought this root may be a whip. There are cat's tail whips, rat's tail whips etc.
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The story I mentioned earlier was apparently this one: Who will bell the cat?

"A group of mice was terrorized by a notorious cat. They call a meeting and hatch a brilliant scheme to tie a bell to the cat so that they can make out when the cat is coming. But who will bell the cat? No one had the answer.

Moral: Planning is easy; execution, not so easy."

It's got cats and mice and bells, and was popular all the time from antiquity till now. Not sure if it relates to the plant though... If those things are bells, then maybe.

"Cauda equina" means horsetail (Equisetum arvense).

I agree that the German word reads "Katzenschwantz", and not "Ratzenschwantz". Either way, it is not clear why it does so. Horsetail is "pherdeszagel" in AHD/MHD (see You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.), which means literally "horsetail".

"Katzenschwantz" is cat's tail, not horse's. There is MHD "Katzenzagel" (see You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.), which means the same thing ("zagel" means "Schwanz"), and it is Millefolium, i.e. yarrow.

Interestingly, the picture does not resemble neither horsetail nor yarrow, in my opinion

(01-04-2016, 09:30 PM)Anton Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view."Cauda equina" means horsetail (Equisetum arvense).

I agree that the German word reads "Katzenschwantz", and not "Ratzenschwantz". Either way, it is not clear why it does so. Horsetail is "pherdeszagel" in AHD/MHD (see You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.), which means literally "horsetail".

"Katzenschwantz" is cat's tail, not horse's. There is MHD "Katzenzagel" (see You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.), which means the same thing ("zagel" means "Schwanz"), and it is Millefolium, i.e. yarrow.

Interestingly, the picture does not resemble neither horsetail nor yarrow, in my opinion

Probably the author knew the German common name of the plant at the time as cat's tail not horsetail. Common names can change from village to village

That's possible. I googled for Russian folk names of horsetail, and amongst them are "horsetail" (originating from the Latin name of the plant), "cat's tail" and (surprisingly) "cat's eye".