The Game of the Gospels

The popularity in the Middle Ages of tafl, a type of table game, led someone to develop a version of it that could be used as a teaching tool about Christianity.

It was found in an 11th-century Irish manuscript that includes the Vulgate Latin version of the four Gospels with St. Jerome's prologue, the Eusebian Canons that lay out the differences and similarities between them, the diagram of the game Alea Evangelii (seen here), and two pages of description of the game.

The instructions tell us that it was created at the court of the 10th-century King Æthelstan (ruled 924 - 939) by two men, Israel the Grammarian and an unnamed Frank, and brought to Ireland by the Bishop of Bangor, Dub Innse (who died in 953, so this manuscript was an Irish copy made later).

The game is called Alea Evangelii, the "Game of The Gospels," and is far more elaborate than the strategy game of tafl from which it derives. You can see from the illustration that it was a much larger board than the original, with many more pieces. The manuscript mentions:

If any one would know this game fully, before all the lessons of this teaching he must thoroughly know these seven: to wit, dukes and counts, defenders and attackers, city and citadel, and nine steps twice over.

It acknowledges that the current as well as the source game are about attacking and defending, but it is not clear from the diagram which is the offensive and which the defensive position. Also, tafl has only two kinds of pieces: a king and the rest. Alea Evangelii has more differentiations between pieces. Also, the pieces in Alea Evangelii are placed on the intersections of lines, not inside the squares. This makes it resemble the modern game of Go.

The four corners are each assigned to a different Gospel. A total of 67 pieces represent the Eusebian Canons. The pieces are black except for four red pieces, two for John and two for Mark (nothing for Mathew and Luke?). One black piece represents the unity of the Trinity. Each of Eusebius' Canons have a different number of pieces assigned to them, from the 16 pieces assigned to Canon I to the single piece assigned to Canon X.

Trying to figure out how it was played makes my head spin. A 1951 book, A History of Board-Games Other than Chess. (Oxford: Oxford University Press) by H.J.R.Murray tries to re-create it, or you can read the original ms. yourself.

Instead, I'm going to ask myself about one of the creators, Israel the Grammarian, who was considered one of the 10th-century's leading scholars. Tomorrow I'll tell you what I found out.

Table Games

Yesterday's post mentioned two people playing tafl. This was one of several versions of Northern European board games that emphasized strategy.

"Tafl" (pronounced tavl) is the Old Norse word for "table," which is where English got the modern word.

Scandinavia used the term Hnefatafl (pronounced nevatavl) to distinguish from other games played with boards on a. table, such as chess. Old Norse hnefi means "fist" may be the origin of the term, so the whole name refers to the "board game of the fist." The suggestion of its origin is that the "king piece" was known as the fist.

It starts with a king piece in the center of the board. He needs to move to a corner or a side. The opponent who does not have the king has more pieces, and moves them one by one to try to capture the king or simply prevent him from achieving his objective. The king player can try to block the blocking of the opponent. The king player only has half the number of tokens used by the opponent.

There were several variations of the game. Ard Ri (Gaelic: "High King") was a Scottish version played on a 7x7 board. From what little we know of it, this version went fast with the advantage to the king's side, even though the king had half the number of defenders. The goal was to move to any side, not just a corner, which was a real advantage for the king.

Two Irish poems mention Brandubh ("black raven"), the Irish version, also on a 7x7 board, with five pieces against eight. Several ancient boards have been found.

When the Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus traveled to Lapland in the 18th century, he observed the Sámi people playing a board game they called tablut, played on a 9x9 grid. He wrote down the rules as he understood them and sketched the board, showing the pieces on the two sides having a different appearance (not colored differently, but one smooth and the other notched).

Then these games fell out of use. Examining references in poems and Linnaeus' account have led to a re-creation of the rules of the game, tested and refined for fairness. You can purchase sets on Amazon and other places, and learn Hnefatafl here.

But notice the layout of the pieces above. Looks vaguely like a cross, doesn't it? Hmm, I wonder if someone in the Middle Ages would look at that and turn it into something religious. There are four arms to the cross, and there are four Gospels, aren't there? Could this possibly be turned into a game about the Gospels?

Could and was. Tomorrow I'll introduce you to Alea evangelii, the "game of the Gospels."

Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye

When Sigurd was three years old, two half-brothers were killed by the Swedish King Eysteinn Beli. His mother asked Sigurd's older brothers to avenge the deaths, but they (including Ivar the Boneless) feared that the Swedish king's magic was too powerful (they heard that he had a magic cow!). Three-year-old Sigurd wanted to attack, however, which encouraged the others to gather ships and men. They succeeded in killing Eysteinn.

In his Gesta Danorum ("Deeds of the Danish People"), Saxo Grammaticus writes that Sigurd was close to his father, Ragnar Lodbrok, traveling with Ragnar in Scotland and being named sub-ruler of conquered territories. We also learn that Sigurd went with Ragnar through the Kievan Rus all the way to the Hellespont.

When Ragnar died (killed by Ælla of Northumbria, prompting Ragnar's sons to launch the Great Heathen Army), Sigurd inherited the island of Zealand, the province of Scania and Halland, the Danish islands, and Viken (the strait between Norway, Sweden, and Jutland). He is also referred to in many records as the co-ruler of Denmark with his older brother Halfdan (who was away most of the time with the Great Heathen Army).

The "evidence" of co-rulership comes from Frankish sources that mention Sigfred and Halfdan as rulers in 873 (The names "Sigfrid" and "Sigurd" were often mixed up in literature). The known Danish King Harthacanute (not this one in England, but an earlier designated with a "I" in Denmark) was the son of "Sigurd" in the proper time frame.

What about Sigurd's nickname? It is said he was born with a mark in his left eye that looked like a snake. You might spot the difference in the 1670 engraving pictured above.

Some of the above comes from  Ragnarssona þáttr, "The Tale of Ragnar's sons." It mentions that, when word came of Ragnar's death, two of Ragnar's son, Björn Ironside and Hvitserk ("white shirt," believed to be a nickname of Halfdan) were playing tafl. That reference got me looking into tafl, a table game several forms of which have been played for centuries. I'll tell you more tomorrow.