Viking chess, or hnefatafl, is a board game that Vikings played on either and 11-by-11- or 13-by-13-square board. The game pits two people against each other. One plays the king, who starts in the middle with his troops. These troops must get their king safely to any corner of the board. The other player, who has more pieces, defends the corners and tries to surround the king with his pieces. There are no written rules to the game that survive from the Viking age. The modern version of hnefatafl, literally translated as “fist-table,” may not have all the rules correct.
Sami Tablut
The Sami people, who lived alongside the Vikings, had a similar game called “tablut.” The Sami played tablut as late as 1732 when Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish Botanist, wrote the rules in his “Expedition to Lapland.”
Modern Adaptation
Linnaeus wrote the rules in Latin, which were incorrectly translated to English in the 1800s. The incorrect translation made the game much easier for the defending player. Modern players experimented with the rules to create a more balanced game, and a new translation helped clarify those rules in the 1900s.
Vikings and Play
It may be difficult to think of the Vikings as people who played games, but like any society, they had different forms of fun. The sagas record a ball game. The sagas mention dice games, and Viking chess was popular enough that some burial sites contained playing pieces and parts of boards.
Another Viking game “Kubb” is also called “Viking chess.” It involves throwing sticks at your opponent’s wood blocks to knock over the wood blocks.
Chess, itself, likely made its way to Scandinavia before the end of the Viking age. Some scholars believe its arrival sounded the death knell for Viking Chess, or Hnefatafl.
Sources: https://www.lifeinnorway.net/viking-games/
