Viking games, pasttimes and recreation. What kind of games did the Vikings play?

Viking games, pasttimes and recreation. What kind of games did the Vikings play?

King's Table: Game of the Noble Scandinavians

And some men carol and sing good songs;

Some shoot with darts in the field

And some playen at chess among.

--- Ogier the Dane[1]
This little verse is a succinct catalogue of the noble virtues. Once expected of the candidate for knighthood, in the Current Middle Ages all peers and nobles are said to excel not only in their field of endeavor, but are also able to dance, entertain, and to play the noble game of chess. Even before the pageantry of the High Middle Ages however, this voice was heard:
I can play at tafl,

Nine skills I know,

Rarely forget I the runes,

I know of books and smithing,

I know how to slide on skis,

Shoot and row, well enough;

Each of two arts I know,

Harp-playing and speaking poetry.

--- Earl Rognvaldr Kali[2]

These were the accomplishments of the noble of Viking Age Scandinavia. Before the introduction of chess (O.N. skak-tafl) in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Scandinavians sharpened their wits by playing a game known as tafl.[3] Tafl in Old Norse means "table," and by the end of the period referred to a variety of board games, such as chess (skak-tafl or "check-table"), backgammon (kvatru-tafl, introduced from the French as quatre), and fox-and- geese (ref-skak, "fox chess"). However, the term tafl was most commonly used to refer to a game known as hnefa-tafl or "King's Table."[4] Hnefatafl was known in Scandinavia before 400 A.D. and was carried by the Vikings to their colonies in Iceland, Greenland, Britain, Ireland and Wales. The Saxons had their own variant, derived from a common Germanic tafl-game, and this was apparently the only board game known to the Saxons prior to the introduction of chess.[5]

the far-famed ones, will be found again,

which they had owned in older days."[8]

Rigsthula speaks of the noble child Earl learning to swim and play tafl.[9]

Heidrek:
"Who are the maids that fight weaponless around their lord,

the brown ever sheltering and the fair ever attacking him?"

(ans: the pieces in hnefatafl),

which kills the flocks? It has eight horns but no head?"

(ans: the hnefi or king).[10]

We know that women also played hnefatafl from the reference in Gunnlaugs saga

But as their troops seemed but few to them, they sent Hilding, their foster-father, to Fridthjof, and asked him to join the troops of the kings.

Fridthof was sitting at tafl when Hilding came. He said: "Our kings send word to thee, and they would have thy fighting men for the war against King Hring, who wishes to fall upon their kingdom wrongfully and tyrannously." Fridthjof made no answer, but said to Bjorn, with whom he was playing, "That is a weak point, brother: But thou needest not change it. Rather will I move against the red piece to know if it is protected." Hilding spoke again: "King Helgi bade me tell thee, Fridthjof, that thou shouldst go on this raid, else thou wilt suffer hardship when they come back." Bjorn said, "Thou hast a choice of two moves, brother: two ways of saving it. Fridthjof said, "First it would be wise to move against this hnefi and that will be an easy choice." Hilding received no other answer to his errand. He went back quickly to the kings and told them of Fridthjof. They asked Hilding what sense he made of these words. Hilding said: "When he spoke of the weak point, he meant this raid of your; and when he said he would move with the fair piece, that must refer to your sister Ingebjorg. Therefore look to her well. And when I promised him hardship from you, Bjorn called that a choice, but Fridthjof said that the hnefi had first to be attacked, and by that he meant King Hring."[12]

Several things are lacking in these brief references: the arrangement of the board, initial placement of the playing pieces, and the rules of the game. Archaeology provides some additional clues. There have been numerous gravefinds of game pieces (Fig. 1).

One runestone from Ockelbo, Sweden, shows two men balancing a boardgame on their knees (Fig. 2),

which reflects the saga references where arguments over the game frequently cause one or both players to leap to their feet, upsetting the tafl-board and scattering the pieces.[13] Fragments of actual game boards have been excavated as well. One board from the Gokstad ship has a 15 x 15 ruled board on one side for tafl, and what appears to be a nine-men-morris board (O.N. mylta, "mills") on the reverse side (Fig. 3).

 A magnificent tafl board thought to have been manufactured on the Isle of Man was found in a crannog excavation in Ballinderry, West Meath, Ireland (Fig. 4).

The final clue to reconstructing the rules of hnefatafl was provided in 1732 by

 "The Tablut board is marked out with 9 x 9 squares, the central one

being distinctive and known as Konakis or throne. Only the Swedish king can occupy this square. One player has eight blonde Swedes and their monarch; the other has sixteen dark Muscovites. The king is larger than the other pieces. The Muscovites are placed on the embroidered squares. (The board was made of reindeer skin ornamented with needlework as the Lapps had no cloth). [15]"

2.A piece is captured and removed from the board when the opponent occupies both adjacent squares in a row or column. This is the custodian method of capture. A piece may move safely onto an empty square between two enemy pieces. 

3.The king is captured if all four squares around him are occupied by enemy pieces; or if he is surrounded on three sides by enemy pieces and on the fourth by the Konakis. When the king is captured the game is over and the Muscovites are victorious.

 4.The Swedes win if the king reaches any square on the periphery of the board. When there is a clear route for the king to a perimeter square the player must warn his opponent by saying "Raichi!" When there are two clear routes he must say "Tuichi!" This is the equivalent of a checkmate since it is impossible to block two directions in the same move."[15]  

These are essentially the basic rules used in all forms of tafl. 

   Rules for Tafl-Games

 :
1.The king and his men are usually the dark pieces (according to the sagas but white in Tablut) and are always outnumbered by the attackers.

 2.The king may not assist in captures.

 3.Usually the king's side moves first.

 4.All moves are orthagonal (the move of the rook in chess).

 5.Pieces may not jump other pieces, nor occupy the same square.

 6.A piece is captured when the opponent moves a man to either side of it in

either row or column (no diagonal captures) except for the king, which must be surrounded on all four sides by attackers in order to be captured. 

7.The king's side wins when the king escapes to the edge of the board. The attackers win by capturing the king.

   Variants of tafl:

  Tablut:

 Lappish game played on a 9 x 9 board (Fig. 6) using the rules given above. White king plus 8 white pieces (Swedes) and 16 dark pieces (Muscovites) are used.
Tablut Layout  King's Men (Swedes) = White ( )

Attackers (Muscovites) = Brown ( )

Tawl-bwrdd:
Welsh variant, played on an 11 x 11 board which has the second, fourth and sixth columns shaded. Tawl-bwrdd is literally "throw board," as it was played using a single die (normally the rectangular "knucklebone" die with spots on four sides instead of our modern six-sided square dice). Each player rolls the die at the beginning of his turn: if an odd number is rolled, the player may move a piece, but if an even number results,the player must skip his turn. King and 12 king's men, 24 attackers (no colors given for the sides). Robert ap Ifan in 1587described tawl-bwrdd as follows:
The above board must be played with a king in the center and twelve men in the places next to him; and twenty-four lie inwait to capture him. These are placed, six in the center ofevery end of the board and in the six central places. Two players move the pieces, and if one belonging to the kingcomes between the attackers, he is dead and is thrown out of the play; and if one of the attackers comes between two of the king's men, the same."[16]

NOTES

2.E.V. Gordon, ed. "A Gentleman's Accomplishments," in An Introduction to Old Norse. (Oxford; Clarendon. 2nd ed. 1957) 155. [All translations from the O.N. are my own.]

3.Richard Eales. Chess: the History of a Game. (NY; Facts on File. 1985) 50.

4.Richard Cleasby & Gudbrand Vigfusson. An Icelandic-English Dictionary.

(Oxford; Clarendon. 2nd ed. 1957) [See definitions for each O.N. term.]

5.H.J.R. Murray. A History of Boardgames Other than Chess. (NY; Hacker.

1978) 56.

6.Ibid. 60.

7.H.J.R. Murray. A History of Chess. (Oxford; Clarendon. 1913) 144.

8.Lee Hollander, trans. The Poetic Edda. (Austin; U of Texas P. 1962) 12.

9.Murray. Board Games. 60.

10.Ibid. 60-61.

11.Gwyn Jones, trans. "Gunnlaugs saga ormstunga," in Eirik the Red and Other Icelandic Sagas. (NY; Oxford UP. 1961) 171-217.

12.Margaret Schlauch, trans. "The Saga of Fridthjof the Bold," in Medieval Narrative. (NY; Prentice-Hall. 1934) 8-9.

13.Murray. History of Chess. 444.

14.J. Armitage Robinson. The Times of St. Dunstan. (Oxford; Clarendon. 1923)

69-71, 171-181 and frontispiece.

15.R.C. Bell. Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations I. (London; Oxford UP. 1960). 77-78.

16.R.C. Bell. Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations II. (London: Oxford UP. 1969) 44.

17.Anne Harrington. "Hnefatafl: the Viking Game of Strategy," Northways (Winter 1990) 29-30.

18.Suggestion from Lady Leidrun Leidulfsdottir's class on medieval games at Candlemas, Bryn Gwlad, 6 February 1993, A.S. XXVII.

19.Ibid.