700 Years Ago...

I can play at tafl,

Nine skills I know,

Rarely do I forget the Runes,

I know of books and smithing,

I know how to slide on skis,

Shooting and rowing, I do well enough;

Each of two arts I know:

Harp playing and speaking poetry.

Music and poetry; archery, rowing and skiing; metal working; writing; Rune- reading (which might mean fortune telling): these are eight of the nine skills a noble should have, according to this short poem by the Norwegian viking-age nobleman, earl Rognvaldr Kali. At the top of the list is the ninth, a game called tafl. Now almost forgotten, tafl (which simply means board or table), was once the most popular strategy game played through Europe. The rules are no longer known for sure, but similar games were played in ancient Rome, China and Africa, not just for fun, but to teach problem solving skills useful for politics, science, the battlefield and numerous other areas.

A number of different versions of tafl are known, called hnefatafl ("fist-board"), tawl-bwrdd (a Welsh variation meaning "throw-board") or tablut (a Saxon version). In 18th century Finland, one of the last places where the game was played, it was also called "Swedes and Muscovites".

The set up is above using a 11x11 board. There are two sides, white or light coloured defenders and black or dark coloured attackers. The attackers have 24 warrior pieces (dark brown) all the same, set up as shown. The defenders have only 12 warriors (light buff), plus a king , set up on the centre throne space.

The object is to move the king into any of the four corner squares. Black wins if they prevent this or capture the king. In case of a stalemate, where white cannot move or both sides could keep moving forever without winning, black wins (for example, if black successfully blocks off all four corners--hint, this is good strategy for black!). The attackers make the first move.

Like chess, each player in turn moves just one piece. All pieces, warriors and the king, move the same way. The can move in a straight row any number of squares, like a rook in chess, but cannot jump over another piece. Only the king can move onto the corner squares or the "throne" square in the centre. Warriors can move over the throne square but cannot stop there.

Warriors are captured and removed from the board when they are "sandwiched" between two enemy pieces (two friendly pieces exactly opposite to each other with an enemy piece in the middle), or an enemy piece and a corner square. In this example, --XO, the X would be captured if another O would move to the empty "-- " space. Moving an O to the space above or below the X would not capture it. If the "--" space was a corner square, the X piece would be captured if the O piece had just moved beside it. You can move a piece between two enemy pieces and be safe. You can only be taken when an enemy piece actually makes a move to capture you. The exception is the king, which can only be taken when surrounded by warriors on all four sides, or three sides and the edge of the board, or two sides, the edge of the board and a corner square.

You can make your own tafl board by drawing out a playing surface 11 squares by 11 squares. Make up your own designs for the throne space, the set up areas and the corners squares. For warriors use pawns from a few chess sets (you will need at least three to make up 24 dark pawns), checkers pieces, or make your own. For the king use any distinctive piece.

Tafl and its variants began to lose out to another board game after 1200 AD. This game was chess, introduced into Europe by knights returning home after the crusades. The crusaders learned chess from the Persians (the term "check mate" cames from "shah mat" which means "the shah (king) is dead"), who in turn had taken the game from India. Chess was just one of many cultural influences the crusaders took back to Europe from Asia. Cut off from the Middle East since the Arab conquest 500 years before, Europe now learned new medicines from doctors like Avicenna. The adoption of Arabic numerals (actually borrowed originally from India), to replace the more cumbersome system of counting by Roman numerals, allowed for more advanced mathematics. Algebra comes from the Arabic word for math, "al jebr". New musical forms and instruments were introduced such as the "lute", a stringed instrument of the guitar family, called in Arabic "al oud".

This time period could be called the age of the Mongols. The Mongols were the last in a long series of nomadic peoples to trouble the city dwellers of China, India, West Asia and the Mediterranean. Mongol rule lasted the longest in Russia, which did not gain freedom from Mongol rule until 1480. However, the Mongol threat had really ended by the middle of the 14th century, but at this time, between 1346 to 1351 the whole Eurasian land mass was wracked by the Black Death, the bubonic plague epidemic. In part sparked by such upheavals, the feudal system in Europe began to break down leading to the rise of modern nation states like France and England. In Africa, the empire of Mansa Musa in Mali reached its peak while the Inca and Aztec empires rose in South and Central America. It was also a time of climatic change. After a warming period around 800 AD, the world-wide climate became cooler for a 300-400 year period beginning after 1200. The Anasazi civilization declined, famines struck China and Europeans had to learn to cope with severe winter weather.