Īlea evangelii, which means 'game of the gospels', was described, with a drawing, in the 12th-century Corpus Christi College, Oxford manuscript 122, from Anglo-Saxon England. Hnefatafl and Tawlbwrdd) may have employed dice. There is some controversy over whether some tafl games (i.e. Although the size of the board and the number of pieces varied, all games involved a distinctive 2:1 ratio of pieces, with the lesser side having a king-piece that started in the centre. The only variant of tafl where a relatively unambiguous ruleset has survived into modern times is tablut, the Sámi variant of the game which was recorded by Linnaeus during his expedition to Lapland in 1732.Īs for the medieval game, no complete, unambiguous description of the rules exists, but the king's objective was to escape to (variously) the board's periphery or corners, while the greater force's objective was to capture him. This popular medieval game was played with equal forces on each side and thus was not a tafl variant, but rather may have been the medieval descendant of the Roman game Latrunculi or Ludus latrunculorum. The Welsh equivalent was Gwyddbwyll and the Breton equivalent Gwezboell all terms mean 'wood-sense'. Fidchell or Fithcheall ( Modern Irish: Ficheall) was played in Ireland. Skáktafl is the Old Norse name for chess. Kvatrutafl is the Old Norse name for Tables (the medieval forerunner of Backgammon). Halatafl is the Old Norse name for Fox and Geese, a game dating from at least the 14th century. Several games may be confused with tafl games, due to the inclusion of the word tafl in their names or other similarities. It is not known if the Anglo-Saxons had a specific name for the game or if they generically referred to it as tæfl in the way that modern people might refer to 'cards'. In Anglo-Saxon England, the term tæfl also referred to many board games. The precise etymology is not entirely certain but hnefi certainly referred to the king-piece, and several sources refer to Hnefatafl as 'King's table'. The specific name Hnefatafl possibly arose as meaning 'board game of the fist', from hnefi ('fist') + tafl, where 'fist' referred to the central king-piece. Hnefatafl (roughly, plausibly realised as ), became the preferred term for the game in Scandinavia by the end of the Viking Age, to distinguish it from other board games, such as Skáktafl ( chess), Kvatrutafl ( Tables) and Halatafl ( Fox games), as these became known. The term tafl ( Old Norse: 'table', 'board' pronounced ) is the original Norse name of the game. 2.7 Other modern games in the tafl family.In addition, tablut is now also played in accordance with its original rules, which have been retranslated. New rules were added to amend the issues resulting from these errors, leading to the creation of a modern family of tafl games.

All modern tafl games are based on the 1811 translation, which had many errors.

The rules for tablut were written down by the Swedish naturalist Linnaeus in 1732, and these were translated from Latin to English in 1811. Tafl gaming was eventually supplanted by chess in the 12th century, but the tafl variant of the Sami people, tablut, was in play until at least the 1700s. Games in the tafl family were played in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Britain, Ireland, and Lapland. Names of different variants of Tafl include Hnefatafl, Tablut, Tawlbwrdd, Brandubh, Ard Rí, and Alea Evangelii. Most probably they are based upon the Roman game Ludus latrunculorum. Tafl games ( pronounced, also known as hnefatafl games) are a family of ancient Nordic and Celtic strategy board games played on a checkered or latticed gameboard with two armies of uneven numbers.

Through the ages board game