Hnefatafl or the escape of the king...

People have been enjoying board games for thousands of years.  The Ancient Egyptians had games like senet which possibly represented the journey of the spirit into the afterlife (you can see a model of a senet board in Hands On History Museum).  The Ancient Greeks had petteia and the Romans had ludus latrunculorum which were both strategy games where opponents want to take all of the other players pieces (done by surrounding the enemy!).

Animal bone gaming counter:
Hull and East Riding Museum

These two games (petteia and ludus latrunculorum) probably influenced the development of the Viking game of hnefatafl.  No one is sure exactly when this happened, however hnefatafl was being played by the 8^th century AD (701 – 800AD).

Hnefatafl travelled far and wide as the Vikings travelled across Europe and further afield.  The spread of the game resulted in a lot of variations, with different sized boards and numbers of pieces.  Boards have been known to be as small as 7x7 squares or as large as 19x19 squares.

So, what’s the idea of the game?  At the centre is the king, surrounded by his defending troops.  The king wants to get to the edge of the board, helped by his defenders.  However, there are attacking troops at the edges of the board who want to stop and capture him.  So either the king needs to escape or the attackers need to catch the king!

Lead gaming counter (possibly a 'king'):
Hull and East Riding Museum

Pieces can move vertically or horizontally across the board (but they cannot move diagonally).  You capture an enemy piece by surrounding them on two or more sides.

Both gaming pieces and boards have been found by archaeologists.  At Hull and East RidingMuseum we have a replica of a hnefetafl gaming board that was found during excavations at Balinderry crannog, Ireland (the original is in the National Museum of Ireland).  We also have lots of gaming counters which come in all shapes and sizes, such as discs, domes and crenelated.

If you’d like to see our replica gaming board and some gaming pieces, Hull and East Riding Museum have a temporary display on hnefatafl, 6^th January – 9^th February 2020.

If you’d like to learn more about hnefatafl, have a look at: http://tafl.cyningstan.com/