The Voynich manuscript has been carbon dated to the 15th century (~1430).
Statistical analysis of the manuscript's text reveals patterns similar to those of natural languages, in fact more complex than English, meaning that it is highly unlikely to be a codified language or a hoax. That much is scientifically proven.
Astonishingly, no one has been able to read the Voynich manuscript or figure out where it originated, who wrote it, or what its purpose was.
The theory in this blog establishes the following:
Script
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A progenitor of Scottish Secretary Hand most closely akin to medieval Cornish manuscripts such as the Ordinalia and northern Scottish/Irish manuscripts, including the preserved letter from Robert the Bruce.
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Language
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A combination of old Finnish and Old Norse with some Slavic, the arcane Kven tongue OR a dialect that evolved where Austria, Hungary, and Croatia meet remain the best bet; however, a plethora of dialects in north Europe, many of them extinct, are viable candidates, perhaps especially dialects spoken around A) Torne Valley and northern Norway; B) the island of Kihnu, Estonia, whose language is a blend of Finno-Ugric and Old Swedish; C) the island of Naissaar, Estonia, when it was inhabited by the aibofolket, Estonian Swedes, in the 15th century; D) the medieval towns of Lohja, Porvoo, and Naantali, or E) the older villages of Karelia.
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Authors
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The many women drawn in it, called "nymphs" or elided altogether in other theories, are central instead of peripheral to it. They themselves actually wrote and drew it. They are possibly the legendary Huldra, participants in a Neolithic cult of tripartite Rhea (later [f]Reya), the original Finnic practitioners of what was then appropriated and dubbed by the Norse as Seiðr during the Late Scandinavian Iron Age. In Finland, Estonia, and Scandinavia, the Church later terminated the sacred HIIS and the underworld called Hiiela by substituting the hiis with the Church graveyard. They were healers, herbalists, midwives, brewers, bakers, cooks, spinners, weavers, embroiderers, well-water guards, water navigators, jewelry makers, tradespeople, land owners or birkarls, noblewomen, singers, dancers, and diviners. The manuscript celebrates these occupations.
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Literary Form
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BaltoFinnoNorse poetry and song. Trochaic chant in the tradition of the great Finnish epics, possibly even in Kalevalan meter itself. Akin to Seto Leiko Hõpõhelme, leelo song, which is said to be able to bring down walls. Alliterative, repetitive, and playful with words. Nonlinear, with depth symmetry, like a joik.
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Origin Hotspots
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Geographic scope
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Rosette map contains Fennoscandia, the Baltic,
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Topic
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The women were depicting themselves performing a shamanistic water/cave ritual celebrating the sempiternal cycle of nature manifest in the seasons and in the span of human life from birth to death. The backdrop for this ritual is north European (Finno-Ugric) cosmology that reaches back into the Neolithic. Sauna/banya, still enjoyed today, echo these ancient rites, as do pilgrimages to sacred springs that have been in more recent times dedicated to saints, as well as several seasonal festivals, such as one known in English as Twelfth Night.
In the center of many of the star charts is a woman's face. These star charts may depict a celebrated Nordic ancestor (disir) and her descendants (represented by the smaller, surrounding stars) and not astronomical bodies or constellations. Indeed, these star charts resemble the large, circular brooches worn by Nordic women during the phase in their lives when they are fertile. These brooches are often said to represent the sun. The women's faces in the centers of the star charts often have rays like the sun. These symbols all hark back to an ancient female sky deity celebrated under various names throughout northern Europe. The rosette map in the manuscript records an ancient pilgrimage from Fennoscandia to the The belief system depicted in the Voynich manuscript was alluded to in sagas such as the Edda. In time it was subsumed under the spread of Christianity and re-emerged as the cult of Mary and Saint Birgitta, which was centered in Reval (Tallinn) though widespread throughout the Baltic region and into Germany. The murals of Saint Lawrence cathedral in Lohja, Finland, serve as a semiotic bridge between the pre-Christian Voynich Manuscript and the more classical, Judeo-Christian iconography of later churches around the Baltic region. |
Context
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As with all shamanism water and caves were main metaphors for travel between life and death. The belief system played out on every folio is a remnant of the Neolithic fertility paradigm that once spanned Europe under names like Freya, Holda, Nerthus, Perchta, Holle, Akka, Rán [raun or raahn], and Frau Gauden. These former deities can be traced only vaguely in their later surrogates--the docile, vapid vessels of the Virgin Mary, Freya, and myriad saints who have taken over wells and springs, etc. In order to survive, the old belief system went deep underground and obviously at some point, and oftentimes with inhuman brutality, died out so thoroughly as to mystify us whenever any actual historical remnant of it gets unearthed.
The wisdom throughout the Voynich manuscript is that of the folk. It is not classical, not Judeo-Christian, not Hebrew, not Islamic, not Chinese, not South American, not Arabic, not scientific, not a cipher, not gibberish, and not a hoax. One of the duller attacks made on this theory is that nothing in it reflects any of the current research going on elsewhere about the Voynich manuscript. Indeed, little to no real light has been shed on the Voynich since the statistical analysis and carbon dating. Most certainly this theory is a radical departure from the many blind alleys down which other scholars are still camped. Beautifully, none of the actual science done about the Voynich conflicts with the theory presented here in this blog--not the carbon dating of the vellum, not the consistency of the vellum (more like calf than the goat often used in more southerly locations), not the statistical analysis that suggests that it is a natural language. |
Remnants
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Sauna and Banya, herbal knowledge, embroidery, folk songs, Twelfth Night traditions, lore (fairy tales, myth, and legend, including Tannhauser's), folk design (octogram and kolovrat), coracle design, the shell grotto of Margate, and, oh um, the Voynich manuscript. The herbal jars are treenware, household implements made from wood, often involving being turned on a lathe, further carved, and then painted. The containers in the Voynich most resemble wooden sewing nécessaires, needle cases, spice grinders and spice towers owned and used by women in their everyday work of cooking, brewing, healing, and sewing from the 11th to the 17th century. The plants in the Voynich are rendered by artists inured in the tradition of embroidery and other women's handicrafts. The flowers are often drawn and painted in a style reminiscent of needlework from the Kihnu and Muhu Islands of Estonia.
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