Donated to the Museum in 1992, the photograph at the left is the box (30 cm x 13.5 cm x 3.5 cm) for a playable commercial version of a tafl game. This version was produced in York, England, by History Craft Ltd. and has a copyright date of 1987.
According to Murray (History of Board Games Other Than Chess, Oxford, 1952, page 56):
Tafl...was the older, and hnefatafl the later name of a board game which was already played by the Scandinavian peoples before A.D. 400. It was carried by the Norsemen to Iceland, Britain, and Ireland, and spread to Wales. It was the only board game played by the Saxons.
The game "board" and playing pieces are pictured on the right. The board is 28.3 cm x 29.3 cm and is made of a flexible (almost square) piece of soft cotton canvas, that can be rolled up for storage in the box. The 11 by 11 playing matrix was produced via a stencil and paint process. A similar process created the traditional Viking designs around the edges of the board. The area for the "defenders" in the center of the board contains similar designs, as do the four areas on the edges of the board which are the home bases for the "attackers".
The photograph at the left is the center of the board which includes the group of "defenders". There are 12 "defenders" (1.3 cm x 3 cm) who protect the "king" (1.6 cm x 3.8 cm) who stands in the center of the group. Though not easily seen in this photograph, there are four different designs used for these molded plastic pieces. The "king" piece is larger than his "defenders" and also has unique designs.
The 24 molded black and brown "attackers" also have unique designs in that each of these "men" have a beard and carry a sword and shield.
Included within the box is a printed sheet with a brief history of games of this type, and a set of instructions for playing this game. The following is a copy of some of this information.
Last update March 2, 2010