| Hnafltafl |
Background.
A fragment
of a board belonging to a game very like Hnefatafl was found
in Denmark in a Roman grave. This game was later taken to Britain by the Vikings
and evolved into Hnefatafl, and documents dating back to King Athelstan
(925-940AD) mention the game.
Rules
· The board is laid out as shown with the King in the centre.
·
Players
move alternately, with the Kings forces moving first.
· All pieces move along a row or column any number of vacant squares, the same as the Rook in Chess. Diagonal moves are not permitted.
·
Any piece,
except the King, is captured if an enemy piece moves so that they occupy the
square to either side of it (see
above - here the blue piece would be captured
by the red move). A piece may itself safely move into the space between two
enemy pieces.
·
The King
is captured if it is surrounded by enemies on all four sides.
·
The Kings forces win if the King makes it to any edge
square, and lose if the King is captured.
Download Files
The board can be downloaded from below. It should be printed out at 110dpi, which will give a board about 19.5cm square - this should fit on a piece of A4 paper.
Right click the link below, then choose "Save As..." to download the file to your computer
