Hnefatafl: A Board Game of the Vikings
by Sir Egil "Tree-Speaker" Njalsson
(September 1998)

The Viking world was not quite as vicious as the movies would have us believe. Though this culture was indeed characterized by sea-going raids on distant villages for easy loot, this was but one small aspect of the overall society.

Their economy was one of agriculture, with the vast majority of the populace either owning or working on farms. The growing season was short, and the winters were long and dark. During the long, dark periods when the crops were laid in and the oceans too icebound for travel, they had to find ways to keep themselves entertained during long stretches of darkness.

One of the many ways they amused themselves was through storytelling. The "skalds" (their equivalent of Amtgard's bards) related long, complex tales of gods, heroes, and everyday people, often using one of a number of verse structures. They also sang songs, and danced (which had the additional benefit of keeping them warm). But archaeologists and historians tell us they also had a variety of games, sports, and other competitions to choose from, and apparently the vikings quite enjoyed these pastimes. They wrestled, raced, played their equivalent of football, held horse fights, and told riddles, among other entertainments; but they also played a number of board games.

The generic term for a board game was "tafl," meaning "table," and the playing boards were often carved on tables, benches, chairs, scrap wood, or even church pews. Many tafler (the plural form of "tafl") were in use, but the one which serves as the focus of this article was the one known as "hnefatafl," which dates back to as early as the 4th century, and was regularly played in the Scandinavian realm for over 1300 years.

The Rules

Many varieties of hnefatafl were played, on game boards of intersecting parallel lines. The different layouts ranged anywhere from 7x7 to 19x19 playing points, arranged in a grid, with the pieces arranged in a configuration showing 4-way symmetry, and with the "king's" team always outnumbered 2 to 1 (not counting the king itself) by their opponent. The different sizes of boards were due to influences from games in use in other cultures throughout the centuries, but the vikings appeared to use the name "hnefatafl" for all of their game variants played with this particular set of rules. Though the rules for piece movement and victory conditions remained relatively constant throughout the different versions, the number and starting positions of the pieces varied considerably depending on the size of the board, and the players' strategies also varied widely as you moved from one board size to another.

My favorite layout is the 19x19 grid, in which the initial layout of the pieces was as follows:

..o..o.......o..o.. ................... o....o.......o....o .......o.o.o....... ......o.x.x.o...... o.o..o.......o..o.o ....o....x....o.... ...o....x.x....o... ....x..x.x.x..x.... ...o..x.x*x.x..o... ....x..x.x.x..x.... ...o....x.x....o... ....o....x....o.... o.o..o.......o..o.o ......o.x.x.o...... .......o.o.o....... o....o.......o....o ................... ..o..o.......o..o..

In this diagram, 'x' represents members of the king's team, '*' represents the king, and 'o' represents the opponent's team. Notice the four-way symmetry in the distribution of pieces.

As in chess, the locations of the pieces weren't actually marked on the board; but for beginners (as is also true in chess) I find it speeds things up to use a board with the piece locations already marked.

The king's team always moves first. The pieces all move like a chess rook: that is, they can go any distance vertically or horizontally on the board, following the lines, provided they do not run into any other pieces; but they cannot move diagonally. The object of the game for the king's team is to move the king to the edge of the board, at which time he is considered to have "escaped," while the opponent tries to prevent this from happening, and/or to capture the king. (In smaller versions of the game, the king actually needs to get to a corner to win. On the 19x19 board, getting him to the edge is sufficient.)

Individual pieces can be captured by being surrounded, or "sandwiched," by the other player's piece, as in the following examples:

a) Starting here:	b) Move upper piece to surround enemy:	c) And remove enemy:
........ ....o... ........ ..ox.... ........	........ ........ ........ ..oxo... ........	........ ........ ........ ..o.o... ........

In this way, it is possible to capture two or three pieces at a time. Observe:

a) Start here:	b) Move down:	c) And remove:
...x.... ........ .xo.ox.. ...o.... ...x....	........ ........ .xoxox.. ...o.... ...x....	........ ........ .x.x.x.. ........ ...x....

However, it is perfectly safe to move your own piece between two of the opponent's pieces: they have to actively move to surround you in order to make a capture. For example:

a) Start here:	b) Move in (or through):	c) Nothing is removed:
........ ...o.... .x...... ...o.... ........	........ ...o.... ...x.... ...o.... ........	........ ...o.... ...x.... ...o.... ........

Note that in this particular example, there is nothing to prevent the 'o' team from moving one of his men away the next turn, then back again the following turn to make the capture.

You can only capture a piece if you actively surround it with your own piece on two opposite sides adjacent to that piece, with no spaces or other enemy pieces between the involved pieces.

Thus, the strategies begin to unfold, as both sides begin to suffer losses, and as multiple attacks are plotted simultaneously. Any stalemates are considered wins for the king's opponent, since they successfully kept the king from "escaping."

Despite the difference in the number of pieces between players, the game does not heavily favor either player, though statistically the king's team will tend to win a bit more than the opponent between evenly-matched players. With the four-way symmetry, there is no obvious "strong" or "weak" point in each team's configuration, but as soon as pieces start to move, strong points and weak points develop. The game is often won by waiting for your opponent to make a mistake, or by distracting him with a feint in one direction which is really a build-up for a powerful move in another part of the board.

I heartily recommend this game. It is easy to learn, and very stimulating to play. In addition, it is as authentic a game as we can hope to bring into Amtgard. My dream is that it will one day become an accepted Crown Qual event throughout the Amtgard realm. Try it!

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