Game boards and gaming pieces have been found all over the British Isles, finds dating from before the Roman invasion right up to the 11th and 12 centuries.
Earlier finds, usually from graves generally only have the gaming pieces and rarely the remains of boards, as the boards were usually made of wood, they tend to have rotted away but gaming pieces of stone, glass, bone etc. some beautifully carved have survived. Later boards have survived, including a wooden board found in 1932 during excavations of a Crannog at Ballinderry in Ireland and a board scratched roughly onto stone at Buckquoy in Scotland.
The Games In Mythology
Celtic Myth mention several different games played, the first Fidchell in Irish, Gwyddbwyll in Welsh is described as a game played on a chequered board with an equal number of opposing pieces and sounds similar to chess, indeed today the words are used in Irish and Welsh for the game chess, and in translations they are often translated as chess.
In Ireland it is mentioned in The Irish romances and in the 9th Century Cormac's Glossary, Irish legend states the game was invented by the God Lugh and his son Cu Chulainn was a very skilled player.
In The Wooing of Etain Midir challenges Eochaid to games of Fidchell for greater and greater stakes:
'Another time on a lovely summer day Eochaid Airem king of Tara arose and climbed the terrace of Tara to gaze over Mag Berg. It was radiant with bloom of every hue. As Eochaid looked round him he saw a strange warrior on the terrace before him. A purple tunic about him, and golden yellow hair on him to the edge of his shoulders. A shining blue eye in his head. A five-pointed spear in one hand, a white-bossed shield in the other, with golden gems thereon. Eochaid was silent, for he was unaware of his being in Tara the night before, and the courts had not been opened at that hour.
Thereupon he came up to Eochaid. Then Eochaid said, ‘Welcome to the warrior whom we do not know.’ ‘Tis for that we have come,’ said the Warrior. ‘We know thee not,’ said Eochaid. ‘I know thee, however,’ replied the warrior. ‘What is thy name?’ said Eochaid. ‘Not famous,’ said he, ‘Midir of Brí Léith.’ ‘What has brought thee?’ said Eochaid. ‘To play chess with thee,’ said he. ‘Of a truth I am good at chess,’ said Eochaid. ‘Let us make trial of it,’ said Midir. ‘The queen is asleep,’ said Eochaid, ‘and it is in her house that the chessboard is.’ ‘I have here,’ said Midir, ‘a chessboard that is not inferior.’ That was true: a silver board and golden men, and each corner thereof lit up by precious stone, and a bag for the men of plaited links of bronze. Thereupon Midir arranges the board. ‘Do thou play?’ said Midir. ‘I will not play save for a stake,’ said Eochaid. ‘What shall the wager be?’ said Midir. ‘It is all one to me,’ said Eochaid. ‘Thou shalt have from me,’ said Midir, ‘if thou win my stake, fifty dark grey steeds with dappled blood-red heads, pointed-ears, broad-chested, with distended nostrils, slender limbs, mighty, keen, huge, swift, steady, easily yoked, with their fifty enamelled reins. They shall be here at the hour of sunrise to-morrow.’ Eochaid said the same to him. Thereupon they play. Midir's stake is taken. He goes off taking his chessboard with him. When Eochaid arose on the morrow he came on to the terrace of Tara at sunrise, and he saw his opponent close by coming towards him along the terrace.He knew not whither he had gone or whence he had come, and he saw the fifty dark grey steeds with their enamelled reins. ‘This is honourable,’ said Eochaid. ‘What is promised is due, said Midir.
‘Shall we play at chess?’ said Midir. ‘Willingly,’ said Eochaid, ‘so it be for a stake.’ ‘Thou shalt have from me,’ said Midir, ‘fifty young boars, curly-mottled, grey-bellied, blue-backed, with horse's hooves to them, together with a vat of blackthorn into which they all will fit. Further, fifty gold-hilted swords, and again fifty red-eared cows with white, red-eared calves and a bronze spancel on each calf. Further, fifty grey wethers with red heads, three-headed, three-horned. Further, fifty ivory-hilted swords. Further, fifty speckled cloaks, but each fifty of them on its own day.'
The Welsh version, Gwddbwyll is mentioned several times in The Mabinogion, in one particular story the character Peredur encounters a magical Gwyddbwyll board that the pieces play against each other by themselves, magical boards seem to be a feature of the Welsh matter with battles being decided by game play, boards playing against the human protagonist in the tale and often the boards are described as being of gold or silver with lavish pieces and gem encrusted borders.
The name of both Fidchell and Gwyddbwyll can be translated to 'wood sense' or 'wood wisdom', in both languages which has led some scholars to think this demonstrates the antiquity of the game. The game is often considered a precursor of the game chess, and whilst often presumed to be a variant of the Scandinavian Tafl games the descriptions given make it more likely to be a native version of the Roman game Ludus Latrunculorum, or little soldiers.
Another board game mentioned in the Celtic Myths is the Irish game Brandubh, variants being the Welsh Tawlbwrdd (towelbrooth), and Ard Ri in Scotland.
The Irish game Brandubh is mentioned in several Irish myths, particularly the Tale The Cattle Raid of Cooley, though it has been suggested that after the game was introduced into Ireland the game Fidchell was replaced with Brandubh.
There are brief descriptions of the game given in a couple of later Irish sources, one, Colloquy with The Ancients (a collection of stories from the Irish Heroic age) describe it as a game played with 13 pieces, 5 against 8 with one of the five pieces being a king or chief piece.
The welsh Tawlbwrdd is described by Robert Ap Ifan in 1587 in one of the Peniarth Manuscripts. (stored as Peniarth # 158) though this doesn't give a full description of the rules, it does give an illustration of the board.
The following translation of Robert ap Ifan's passage on the subject is reproduced by H. J. R. Murray (A History of Board-Games Other Than Chess, p.63):
"The above board must be played with a king in the centre and twelve men in the places next to him, and twenty-four lie in wait to capture him. These are placed, six in the centre of every end of the board and in the six central places. Two players move the pieces, and if one belonging to the king comes 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. If the king himself comes between two of the attackers and if you say 'watch your king' before he moves into that place, and he is unable to escape, you catch him. If the other says gwrheill and goes between two, there is no harm. If the king can go along the line that side wins the game."
The unequal gaming pieces point to the game being a variant of the Scandinavian Tafl games, and archaeological finds of gaming boards share layouts similar to Tafl boards found in Scandinavia.
One such board, The Ballinderry gaming board, discovered during the excavation of a crannog at Ballinderry in Ireland. The board itself is made of Yew with a border carved with Celtic and Viking borre style knotwork, a style particularly associated with the Isle of Man but also found on Irish metalwork, it is believed the board was made in Dublin.
The board itself has rows of holes in a grid 7 x 7, with the centre hole clearly defined.
Similar boards have been found at excavations in Dublin with a variety of gaming pieces made from jet, bone, antler and stone.
The Ballinderry game board.
A graffiti style board, being one roughly scratched onto a surface, was discovered at Buckquoy, Scotland in 1976, this again featured a grid of 7 x 7.
Th Buckquoy graffiti style game board.
Another graffiti board was found at the cathedral in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland again with the 7x 7 grid and the centre and corners marked out.
The Downpatick and Ballinderry boards have both been dated to between the 9th and 11th centuries a time of heavy viking influence in the British Isles.
The Downpatrick graffiti style game board.
I'm going to concentrate on the Tafl games now, if you've watched the TV show Vikings you will have seen them playing a board game, this is a variant called hnefatafl, often called viking chess.
Boards found in Scandinavia bear striking similarities to the Ballinderry and Downpatick boards, though with the marked difference of being 11, 13 or 15 square grids.
The Ockelbo picture stone, from a churchyard in Ockelbo Sweden clearly shows two figures seated at a gameboard with a layout that is clearly marked in the centre and four corners as the Ballinderry board is.
So what we can see is that certainly in later Celtic times and after the raids and later settling of the Vikings the people of The British Isles where playing Their own versions of Tafl games, not that the Vikings came in, threw out all the old games and made everyone play theirs, I think given the variations, and the fact the Vikings were also traders that it was a slow gradual progress perhaps starting before the Viking raids, and quite possibly brought in by the Germanic tribes appearing in the British Isles after the Romans left.
What we don't have with any of the descriptions is how to actually play the games, the people telling and writing down the old stories would assume the person hearing it would know how to play those games, a writer today wouldn't describe how to play chess if they were writing about it, so how do we know how to play them?
With Fidchell and Gwyddbwyll we have few references except in myths, given that it's supposed to be played with an equal number of counters the game is quite possibly based on the old Roman game of Ludus Latrunculorum (little soldiers/ brigands).
With the Tafl games we have a couple of sources, both from Lapland where a variant called Tablut was still being played by the Sami people there as late as the 19th Century, two people recorded this game, the most detailed description being by Carl Linnaeus in 1732, a naturalist and the father of modern taxonomy, who whilst travelling around Lapland witnessed the game being played and documented the game play.
The Tablut variation was played on a 9 x 9 grid board, not the smaller 7 x 7 grid as with Brandubh,
Interest in the game was sparked firstly in 1981 when 'The Viking Game' was published, since then more scholarly approaches have tried to reconstruct the game and its variants using Linnaeus's description and Robert Ap Ifan's 1587 description.
Today it can be played online, as an app on your phone and several companies make game boards.
Peter Grimes
References and Further Reading
Secret Games of the Gods Nigel Pennick
Reconstructing Hnefatafl Damian Walker
An Introduction to Hnefatafl Damian Walker
Hnefatafl Jonathon A George
The Irish Invented Chess Brian Nugent
The Mabinogion
The Irish Myths and Sagas