Viking game
(#1) 1981
(#2) ?year
(#1) History Craft
(#2) History Craft or Past Times History Craft
 
First produced
?year
Players
2
Age(s)
             

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 #1   1 x cloth playing surface
1 x King
12 x King's defenders
24 x dark side attacking pieces

The rules are printed on the inside of the box lid.

The King vs the dark side. The King wins by escaping to the King square in each corner of the board. The dark side wins by capturing the King.

The simulated wood and ivory pieces have been individually moulded to slightly different designs based on the famous Lewis chess pieces discovered in the Outer Hebrides, an area under Viking rule at that time.

Archaeological study provides clues for game play. Undoubtedly, there were many versions of the game in various places at different times. This game is based on suggested rules from the 9th or 10th centuries.

This edition;
- some versions are manufactured by History Craft alone and others in conjunction with Past Times
#2  
Popular in the Scandinavian Viking homelands as early as 400AD.  Over the centuries, the game developed and different versions of the board have been found in sites from Ireland to the Ukraine. Pieces have survived made from wood, jet, glass, bone, ivory and antler.

Occasionally referred to in manuscripts, the game was known as Hnefatafl which means literally ‘King's table’. Hnefatfl was last recorded as being played in Wales in 1587 and in Lapland in 1723. Its decline began in the 11th century as chess grew in popularity. It soon lingered on only in remote country districts.
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