Hnefatafl

The Viking Game

It has become traditional to start this sort of article with the quote by Earl Rognvald Kali in which he describes the skills of a Norse nobleman - including, of course, playing tafl.

Lets just consider that done and skip right onto the fun stuff. How to play, what options exist in the game, and how we know they played. That order should get everyone right into the game and you can always follow up later if you happen to skip the history section.

To play this game like a good Norseman the correct steps to follow are:

1. Head to the bar and pick up a big jug of something to drink while you are doing the rest of the steps. (Yes I WILL document the drinking part – later)
2. Sit down somewhere comfy with a friend or, lacking any handy friends, grab the first person that walks by and sit them down with a drink.
3. While drinking sort out what set of rules you are going to play by and what size board you will be using. The rest of these steps assume you are using my favourite rules.
4. Grab your knife and carve a quick grid into the table in front of you. Make it 13 squares by 13 Squares. Put an “X” in the center and in each corner.
5. Grab a big piece of antler and put it in the center square. This is called the King.
6. Place twelve smaller pieces of antler in four groups of three going out from the center square to each principal direction (top, bottom, left, right). If the drink is going to your head there’s a picture below. These are the defenders.
7. Grab 24 rocks. Place 5 of them on each edge of the board centered along the edge. Place the remaining 4 rocks just inside of the groups of five on the same lines as the three defenders. (Don’t worry the picture is coming.) The rocks are the attackers.
8. Decide who is attacking and who is defending. Hint – according to the sagas the defender usually wins.
9. The attacker moves first (its an attack after all right).
10. Play and drink. (I said I’d document it just wait a minute)

That covers the steps, which only leaves you needing to know the rules. So lets deal with those next.

1. There are no diagonals in this game. Just forget the concept of diagonal even exists.
2. Every piece has exactly the same move. Just like a rook in chess - as far as you want in any of the principal directions (up, down, left, right). And yes that means the king too.
3. The attacker is trying to kill the king.
4. The defender is trying to get the king safely off the board to raise a bigger army.You get off the board by going out one of the corner squares.
5.All of the squares with “x” in them belong to the king. No-one else can stop on those squares.

That leaves only how to remove pieces from the board so here’s how you do that.

Every piece is a Viking warrior. That means that one-on-one there is no way to kill a piece. (Vikings after all are the best fighters.) So you gang up on them. Keep his attention focused on a player in front, then have a friend run up behind and hit him in the head with an axe.

In slow motion that looks like this.

A		A
D	>	D
		A
A

This “kills” the defender and he is removed from the board. It also works horizontally but not using diagonals.

Some other “killer” moves include

A		D	A		A	D	A
	D			>	D
	A				A

The first example kills one attacker.

The second kills two defenders. (Ok so only one of the two defenders can be hit with an axe but being hit in the back of the head with a shield will mess you up enough the guy in front of you can kill you.)

These moves don’t kill any pieces:

D		A	>	D	A
A				A

A		A	>	A	D	A
	D

Only one more man to kill then – the king. The king is the best fighter, of course, so he can only be killed by being attacked on all four sides at the same time. (Four to one instead of the usual two to one.) Remember – the king is a defender just like any other piece and thus can be used to help kill attackers. This makes him MUCH harder to pin down.

Go play some games now…..

Variations on a Theme

So now that you’ve played a game or two and noticed that the game is rather unfair (I don’t know if the attacker or defender is winning more often – it depends on the players) here are some changes you can apply to make the game more even.

Try a different Board or set of starting positions.

If the king is winning too often:

1.        Require the defender to say “Raichi” (check) when a winning move is available.
2.        Require only two men to kill the king.

If the Attacker is winning too often:

1.        The king is only required to get to the side of the board to win.
2.        Count the corners as an “opposing piece”. If the attacker is beside the corner than a single piece on his other side can kill him.

The following are also “valid” board sizes and starting positions.

A		A	A	A		A
			D
A			D			A
A	D	D	K	D	D	A
A			D			A
			D
A		A	A	A		A

			A	A	A
				A
				D
A				D				A
A	A	D	D	K	D	D	A	A
A				D				A
				D
				A
			A	A	A

		A	A	A	A	A
				A

A				D				A
A			D	D	D			A
A	A	D	D	K	D	D	A	A
A			D	D	D			A
A				D				A

				A
		A	A	A	A	A

			A	A	A
			A	A	A

				D
A	A		D	D	D		A	A
A	A	D	D	K	D	D	A	A
A	A		D	D	D		A	A
				D

			A	A	A
			A	A	A

The History

I promised a bit of documentation so here it comes (quickly because this is a “short” article).

We know of the following boards or pieces of boards:

Knockanboy, Ireland. 7x7
Ballindary Ireland 7x7
3 boards from the Orkneys (7x7)
Faroes (13x13)
Trondheim (11x11)
Wimose (19x19??)
Gokstad (13x13)
Coppergate (York) (19x19??)

I have records of at least 138 playing pieces discovered. These are made of a variety of materials including soapstone, amber, jet, ivory, bone, antler, stone, tusk, glass, and bronze.

Saga evidence comes from:

Erybyggja Saga
Grettir’s Saga
Heimskringla
Kormac’s Saga
Volsung Saga
Orkneyinga Saga
Greenland Lay of Atli
Hervar's Saga
Fridthjof's Saga
Gunnlaugs Saga Ormstunga

Other than the sagas there is Carl Linne’s diary of July 1732 which describes a 9x9 version of the game played among the Lapps called Tablut.

Manuscript evidence includes:

Peniarth #158 - Robert ap Ifan 1587 – an 11 x 11 board and rules for Tawlbrwdd.
Oxon 122 - c. 925 – 19x19 version “Alea Evangelii”

Additional References are found in:

Dimetin Code
the Laws of Howel Dha
the Book of Rights

And finally I thought I would document the drinking. Although several sagas make the connection my personal single favourite piece is the stone carving from Okelbo, Sweeden.

I hope you have fun playing. Feel free to drop by the web site and have a look at the historical articles that support this “short” article. http://www.treheima.ca/viking

Even better find me at an event, grab a beer (and one for me) come on over and we’ll play a game…..

Ragnarr

© Neil Peterson, 2001