A key part of my reading of the Voynich ms. is to identify the terrestrial nymphs (as distinct from the zodiacal or celestial nymphs) with the nymph lore of the Dolomite mountains in northern Italy.
Assuredly, the Voynich nymphs are very different to the nymphs of that folklore – they have been Hellenized – but there are enough allusions and motifs to make the identification clear.
Primarily, the golden hair and rosy cheeks of the Voynich nymphs are motifs from the Dolomite mythology concerning King Laurin and his ‘Rose Garden’.
That mythology concerns the ‘Alpenglow’, or Enrosadira in the Ladin language: the sacred light that illumines the central peaks of the Dolomites like a rose garden.
As part of that myth cycle (a very ancient myth cycle preserved in the Ladin languages) there are nymphs who are agents of the alpenglow and accordingly have golden hair.
Similarly, as part of the myth cycle, King Laurin gives the nymphs the power to heal, signified by restoring the rosy cheeks of the ailing: the nymphs administer the rosy light of the alpenglow.
Golden haired rosy cheeked mountain nymphs… in northern Italy. I argue that these are the nymphs – removed from their folk setting and Hellenized – who we meet in the nymph or balneological (bathing) section of the manuscript.
Throughout Voynich Studies one encounters the argument: Italians aren’t blonde! Look at those blonde nymphs! The manuscript must be Nordic, Germanic, Scandinavian, Latvian….
But, in fact, there is an indigenous folk lore throughout the Dolomite region – northern Italy – featuring a race of blonde nymphs. Their golden hair is emblematic of the Alpenglow.
In any case, this is a remnant mythos from much earlier strata, perhaps going back to the Ice Age, and has Rhaeto-Celtic roots. It perhaps once came with migrations from more arctic regions. And it became entangled with Germanic heroic legend. But there is a folk lore featuring golden haired nymphs in alpine Northern Italy. We do not need to look further north.
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On the basis of this identification, I understand some of the odd depictions in the balneological section as allusions to stories about the nymphs of the Alpenglow mythology.
For instance, we see their shape-shifting powers illustrated. And the motif of rainbows. We find these motifs in Ladin nymph stories.
I also want to explain the strange “magic rings” sported by several nymphs in this way.
These, like other details, have attracted considerable speculation. The codicological comparison approach – hunting for similar rings in other manuscripts – leads into a mire of marriage symbolism.
But if the Voynich mountain/water nymphs are Hellenized renderings of the Dolomite nymphs, another explanation presents itself.
In the central stories about King Laurin and the mythic origins of the alpenglow, the fair bride Similde (who King Laurin had impriosoned inside his mountain for seven years) is able to overcome King Laurin with the help of magic rings.
(As an aside, there is a school of thought that argues that Tolkein drew heavily upon this specific mythology.)
In the Voynich, we find several nymphs holding up - conspicuously – large, oversized rings.
I suppose this to be an allusion to the magic rings of Similde.
The rings have no nuptial associations, except that King Laurin has taken Similde as his bride.
(Why do many Voynicheros assume rings = marriage? Have they not read Lord of the Rings? Those rings have nothing to do with marriage.)
Rather, the rings represent elemental powers. They thwart the magic powers of King Laurin’s dwarves.
In the Voynich, we notice that one of the rings is red – as if red hot. I think the idea is that these rings are forged inside the mountain and represent elemental powers.
In the Voynich, I suggest, they are shown as protective rings: the mountain nymphs have them to keep them safe from malevolent chthonic forces.
It is because they have the protection of the magic rings that they are free to bathe and frolic.
Certainly, there are no dwarves to be seen. And no King Laurin, or other features of the folk lore. But there are enough motifs and allusions to allow us to make the identification.
As I understand it, what has happened is this:
1. The author has a body of (ancient Hellenic) astrological material that features celestial nymphs in the Hellenic manner.
2. The author has matched those celestial nymphs with the indigenous nymphs of the Italian alpine landscape.
The feral, rustic (late Ice Age) nymphs of the King Lauren myths have been civilized into frolicking (but poorly drawn) Hellenic nymphs (who, moreover, are Christians.)
They retain their golden hair, and rosy cheeks, and magic rings.
In the Voynich we see them depicted as agents of the alpenglow and keepers of the streams, ponds and underground hydrology of the mountains.
In the context of the Voynich ms. they are the terrestrial counterparts of the celestial nymphs who populate the zodiac.
The scenario I see in the manuscript is the celestial nymphs informing the terrestrial nymphs.
The whole construction should be seen as ‘Humanist’ – a fusion of classical models with vernacular Italian traditions (made nominally Christian.)
R.B.
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