Below are a list of names of those who have registered themselves with the Guild. There may be other members who have not yet done so.

Bláithín Inghean Shéamais

Brian Goodheart

Colyne Stewart

Crispinus Spellar

Eirik Andersen

Brother Henrik

Jaime

Jean-Margaret

Michel Wolffauer

Baron Modar Neznanich

Raffe Scholemaystre

Ragnarr Kennari

Shabannah Perizada al-Najlah bint Najiyah

Thorfinna gra'feldr

Wat of Sarum

Wulfgang of Ardchreag

The Games Guild Charter, drawn by Thorfinna gra’feldr.

Is Tablero Period, and Should We Care? Laird Colyne Stewart

Page 1

Mitigati Master Rufus of Stamford

Page 5

A Brief Timeline of the Medieval Playing Card

Page 7

The Rules of Glic Laird Colyne Stewart

Page 8

The Tafl Family of Games: Rules and History with an

Emphasis on Tablut Laird Colyne Stewart

Page 11

Games Galore Lord Raffe Scholemaystre

Page 16

Guild Roster Page 19

Laird Colyne Stewart One of the first games I learned about when joining the SCA was Tablero de Jesus. That may have had something to do with the fact that the Peers here in Ealdormere (and seemingly everywhere) are en-amoured of this drinking game. When I originally asked about its origins I was told that the game was likely invented by someone in the SCA. However, upon doing a bit of reading (in the few sources I could find) I came across claims that it was a 15th Century Spanish gam-bling game. Recently a discussion on the Games Guild of Ealdormere e-list has re-sparked my interest in track-ing down the origins of this game, so I began my research a new. While most sources claim that the gambling game was invented in Spain in the 15th Century, there are some in An Tir who claim that it was a good gentle from that king-dom that added the drinking compo-nent. There, they call the drinking version Tablero de Gucci (Lilith Runesdattir). Other sources say that the Scots added the drinking compo-nent, and called the game Toblero (The Game Cabinet). For documentation all we have is second hand information. Accord-ing to a post to hist-games, made by Justin de Coeur, Tablero was likely

introduced to the SCA by a fellow named Gerhard Kendal. He there quotes photocopies given him by Amanda Kendal of Westmoreland (Gerhard’s wife) that were written by I.Y. Erzbergen-St.Susse, Ph.D., Queenswood Professor of Medieval Studies at Brunswick University. De Coeur says the photocopies gave the following history of Tablero:

1. That the game is known to

have been played by Cistercian monks at the Abbey of Los Santos de Campo in Granada by 1404 and that boards have been found in a few Spanish abbeys, as well as Tuscany, Provence and the Low Countries.

2. That the Abbot of Cleaves in England, in 1449 refers in his journal to "the Jesus boarde".

3. That the Bishop of Limoges defended the game in 1446.

4. That the game was banned by Pope Sylvester V in 1458.

5. That Cardinal Martino d'Allesandro says in his

memoirs that he introduced the game to the papal court in 1456.

6. That the board being sold by Erzbergen-St.Susse is based on one found at the Abbey of Saint-Michel-des-Fosses in Provence. This board is highly decorated, with a floral motif covering most of the squares

Laird Colyne Stewart is a Low-lander, born in southern Scotland in 1324 to a wealthy family. He was apprenticed to a tax col-lector at a young age, but quickly grew tired of that life. He longed for adventure and joined the army of King David II in 1340 when he was sixteen years of age, and was present at David's capture at Neville's cross in 1346. At this point, he became a gallowglass. Within the SCA, Colyne is a co-founder of the Septentrian Per-forming Arts Troupe, the founder and Head of the Games Guild of Ealdormere, and a member of the Bardic College of Ealdormere. He is also currently the Chronicler for the Canton of Ardchreag and a Baronial Bard of Sep-tentria (with Thorfinna gra’feldr). By day Todd Fischer works in the Recording Studio for the CNIB's Library for the Blind. By night he's a zine and chapbook editor and publisher, a cartoonist, an illustrator, a writer and a playtester. He may soon have a column running in Toronto Computes! Master Rufus of Stamford is a Saxon, born in the year 1098 in the town of Stamford, Eng-land. His father ran several farms for the absentee Norman lords, who rarely associated with the Saxons or the concept of physical labor. Rufus

received an education from local monks and later went on to work as

a minor clerk in King Henry's court. Within the SCA, Rufus has gained most notice for his tablet weaving, but he also greatly enjoys playing the harp and singing some of the wonderful pieces Ealdor-mere's bards have created.

He have also been transcribing many of these pieces, a project which began as an effort to preserve the music of Mistress Rhiannon who

died after a prolonged bout with cancer. As a side effect of this project, he have been writing more of my own mu-sic. Robert Schweitzer is a Chem-istry and Physics teacher, currently at Agincourt Colle-

giate in Toronto. He have a beauti-ful wife Ceridwyn and three cats: Mika, Dante and Temujin.

Lord Raffe Scholemaystre was one of the founding members of the Canton of Ardchreag, and is known throughout Ealdormere for his love of Medieval games. He has held several offices within the SCA. Currently he is the Baronial Seneschal of

Septentria, the oldest Barony in Eal-dormere. Jim McColm is a teacher in the Greater Toronto Area.

Inc., Jan. 1983 Salamallah, Medieval Games, Ray-mond’s Quiet Press, Albuerque, NM, 1982.

Bell, R.C., Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations (Revised Edition), Dover Publications Inc., 1979

Morse Alea Evangeli Tawlbyrd Mancala Hazard High Roll Fox & Geese

Alquerques Marienbad Draughts Shatranj Oblong Chess Shovepenny

Darts, Heads and Tales, Ang/Fr Chess, Rithmo-machy, Fallus, Tourne-case, Nard, Queek, Quilles, Thirty-One, Ranter-go-Round

Ren. Chess, Sixe-ace, All Fours, Maw, Basset, Primero, Reversi, Ruff & Honor, Welsh Gdfr., Noddy, Vieus Garcon, Trappola

Kegel Hnefetafl Morse Fox and Geese Mancala Hazards Highroll

Marienbad Stelpur Shatranji Alquerque

Courier Chess, Knight’s Chess, Nard, Mishy-Mashy, Glukhaus, Rithmomachy, Poch, Trappola, Karnoffel

Ren. Chess, Sixe-ace, All Fours, Elfern, Trappola, Vieux Garcon, Ranter-go-Round, Lansquent

Alquerques Morse Queek Stelpur Tabula Mancala Hazard Highroll

Assaulto Shatranji Oblong Chess

Grand Acedrex, Byzantine Chess, Fallas, Nard, Tablero, Sies doe eas, Rithmomathy, Bassett, Piquette

Game of Goose, Ren. Chess, Tarot, Primero, Trappola, Andre a Piscere, Ranter-go-Round, Vieux Garcon, Reversi

Shatranji Oblong Chess Alquerques Mancala Hazard Low Roll Nardshir

Dice Chess Marienbad Acey-Deucy Al-falahia

‘Decimal’ Chess As-nas

and featuring various religious symbols on some of them. No one sems to know if these

symbols influeneced play or were merely decoration, but in the footnotes there is a

reference to a British professor Bryce Ryefield as having given an opinion on one of the odder symbols on the board.

However, according to other sources, and my own research, all these arguments are flawed. We will look at each in turn.

First, that the game was played by Cistercian monks at the Abbey of Los Santos de Campo in Granada by 1404. I cannot find any record of such an abbey. Senhora Ester Men-des says, in her post to hist-games, that no abbey existed at that time by that name. This doesn’t seem unre-markable, since during 1404 Gra-nada was under Muslim rule!

Likewise, I can’t find record of any city named Cleaves in England, supposed home of the Abbot of Cleaves, who wrote of the game in his journal. Mendes claims that the only Cleaves she could unearth was a town in Germany.

As for the Bishop of Limoges, well. There was indeed a Bishop of Limoges in 1446, but I cannot find any mention of him tied in with Ta-blero (other than on pages quoting the same source material). It may have been helpful if the Bishop’s name had been supplied.

And what of Pope Sylvester V, who supposedly banned the game in 1458? Such a person did not exist.

The New Advent Online Catholic Dictionary has no listing for a Syl-vester V (though there were Sylvest-ers I through III). Callistus III was Pope in 1458.

Neither does there exist any record of Cardinal Martino d'Alle-sandro or Professor Bryce Ryefield. Even the author of the game’s his-tory itself, Dr. I.Y. Erzbergen-St.Susse, seems to be a fabrication. I can find no record of her/him, nor of a Brunswick University. Everyone and everything quoted to support the existence of Tablero does not seem to exist itself. It would seem that Gerhard Kendal’s source material is flawed. In an email copied to hist-games and dated July 25, 2001, Gerhard claims he learned the game from Duchess Merowyn de Lyoness of the West Kingdom (Teceangel). Pouring over the Order of Precedence for the West Kingdom I did not find a Merowyn de Lyoness, though I did find a listing for Merewyn de Lyonesse. It is possible that this is the same person, and Gerhard Ken-dal simply misspelled her name (and gave her the wrong title; this good gentle is credited as a Viscountess, not a Duchess). I have personally emailed Gerhard Kendal to ask him about Tablero, and in response he sent me the exact same email posted to hist-games. (He also said he’d send me a photocopy of his board and documentation but has so far not done so.) I have thus far been unable to track down an email for Viscountess Merewyn de Lyonesse. In looking at further posts on

hist-games, I found one by Melissa Kendal of Westmoreland, who claims that her brother, Andre Les-sard (Derek Stevens), invented the drinking aspect of Tablero, after learning the game in 1976 from Maelgwyn and Merewyn de Lyonesse. I emailed Melissa to see if she had any more information on the subject but have not heard back from her.

So, what is

the verdict? W i t h o u t

being able to consult primary documentation first hand, and having its sup-posed points of support repudi-ated, we must work under the assumption that Tablero is a modern inven-tion.

Does this mean that we should stop playing and teaching it? I don’t think so. Though the SCA is at its heart a recreation group, it is often billed as ‘the Middle Ages the way they should have been.’ We’ve taken the idea of the Middle Ages and made our own sub-culture. So if a game is developed within our cul-ture, should we not play it? It is

something unique to us, and part of who we are. As long as we don’t teach it as a true period game, but rather as an SCA game, I see noth-ing wrong with letting it prosper (not that anyone could stop it if they wanted to). I would rather see some-one playing an SCA game than not playing a game at all.

Sources Baron Steffano, Cardinal da Gucci and al Khabeelah McGurn of Ravensfuri, Baron Steffano’s Guide to Tablero de Gucci, Fourth edition, http://www.aracnet.com/~avalon/

A Tablero Board at start of play.

Lord Raffe Scholemaystre Many games developed throughout period to entertain the gentles of the this time. Many of these games have been passed down to us nearly un-changed exfept for the name, while others have kept the name but have changed greatly over time. Only some of the games that were played in period have been played throughout history. Games like Mancala, Marienbad (or Nim), the Morris variations and Tables (now generally called Backgam-mon) have existed in one form or another back to ancient Egypt and Mesoptamia and some back to pre-history. Dice have been found dat-ing back to at least 900 BCE. Man-cala and Morris and Marienbad seem to have been common in many cultures around the world. Other games were devloped in one area and spread elsewhere. The classic example is that of Chess. It was developed proably in India and was common in the Arabic world by the time of the Crusades under the name Shatranj. It was introduced into Europe and developed slowly into Renaissance Chess fairly simi-lar to modern Chess. Tables or Backgammon was popular in Roman times, faded and then was reintoruduced again through Islamic culture. Backgam-mon started with many variations and eventually Nard would become the version most play today. The development of the playing

card, around 1371, changed games forever. Dice became less important as cards gained popularity, One of the earlist card games, Thirty-One, was an adaptation of a dice game of the same name. Many late Medieval card games survive today, but under new names. Vieux Garcon became Old Maid, Andare a Piscere is Go Fish, and Noddy is a precurser to Cribbage, which was developed in the 1630’s. However the games of Bridge, Poker, Rummy, Solitaire, Black Jack, Euchre, Dominoes and Chi-nese Checkers were devloped after 1700 and many late in the 19th Cen-tury. While some games like Par-cheesi did not reach Europe until the late 17th Century. In the accompanying chart, I have attempted to layout what games were developed or introduced into what region and when. If a game was played in an earlier pe-riod, one can generally assume that the game was known later. Since many rules varied by gep-graphy and over time, it is very im-portant that the players opf a game agree on the rules you will be using before you begin play. For the exact rules for the games noted here please consult the texts listed below. Smith, P.J., “Period Pastimes”, The Complete Anachronist #71, SCA Inc, Jan 1994 Schovanek, J., ed. “Indoor Games”, The Complete Anachronist #2, SCA

#22, 2001. 22-23. Salaamallah the C o r p u l a n t (Jeffrey A. DeLuca), Me-dieval Games. Third Edition. W i l l i ma n t i c , CT, 1995. 72-75. The Tafl Fam-i l y . W e b .ukonline.co.uk/james.masters/T r a d i t i o n a l -G a m e s / T a f l .htm

King’). Escape was to the cor-ners.

Sources Sire Bohémond de Niée, Hnefatafl: The Viking G a m e . w w w .g a m e c a b i n e t . c o m /history.Hnef.html Lord Brustende Bearsul (Patrick J. Smith), “Period Pastimes,” The Compleat Anachronist #71: Ways to While Away a Siege, 1994. 34-35, 46. Gerhand Kendal of Westmoreland, “Alquerque and Tafl Games,” The C o m p l e a t Anachronist #4: Indoor Games, Jan 1983, 27-31. Helmfrid, Sten, Hnefatafl: The Strategic Board Game of the Vi-kings, version 2, 2000 . u ser .t n i n e t . s e /~ j g d 9 9 6 c /h n e f a t a f l /hnefatafl.html K n u t s o n , Charles, “The Games of the Vikings,” Renaissance Magazine

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G

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Alea Evangeli

Ard-Ri

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cosmic/steffano.html Dagonell the Juggler, Tablero de Jesus, http://www-cs.canisius.edu/~salley/Articles/tablero.html The Game Cabinet, Tablero, http://www.gamecabine t . com/ru les /Tablero.html Gerhard Kendal of Westmoreland, “El Tablero de Jesus”, The Com-pleat Anachronist #4: Indoor Games, or How to While Away a Seige, January 1983. 41-42. --. post to hist-games (forwarded by Teceangel), Aug 8 2001, http://www.pbm.com/pipermail/hist -games/2001/000721.html

Justin de Coeur (Mark Waks), post to hist-games, Feb 1 2000, http://www.pbm.com/pipermail/hist -games/2000/000468.html Lilith Runesdattir (Jeanne Salt), Ta-blero, 1998, http://www.aracnet.com/~avalon/cosmic/tablero.html

Melissa Kendal of Westmoreland (Heather Stecher), post to hist-games, February 3 2001, http://www.pbm.com/pipermail/hist -games/2001/000625.html New Advent Online Catholic Dic-tionary, http://www.newadvent.org/ The Rolls Ethereal, http://jducoeur.org/rolls/ Salaamallah the Corpulent (Jeffrey A. DeLuca), Medieval Games, Third Edition, 1995. 135-136. Senhora Ester Mendes (Kirsti Tho-mas), post to hist-games (forwarded by Teceangel), Aug 8 2001, http://www.pbm.com/pipermail/hist -games/2001/000721.html Thierry Depaulis, posts to hist-games, Jan 29 2000, http://www.p b m . c o m / p i p e r m a i l / h i s t -games/2000/000458.html and Feb 2 2000, h t tp : / /www.pbm.com/pipermail/hist-games/2000/000469.html

Master Rufus of Stamford Mitigati is one of a series of card games which developed in Europe based on the Tarot deck (the fortune telling aspects of the deck came later). It combines the best parts of bridge and poker, and is a lot of fun once you remember the scoring sys-tem. The Deck The tarot deck consists of four suits (hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades or sometimes cups, coins, wands, and swords) of 14 cards each (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, page, knight, queen, king), plus a fifth trump suit of 21 cards and the fool. The trump suit is commonly illustrated, with some decks also giving a name to each card (eg the lovers). Scoring Mitigati is a trick tak-ing game. At the end of play, each player will add up the value of the cards taken. However, knowing the value of the hand you were dealt is essential in the bidding process. Kings, 1 of trump, 21 of trump - 5 Queens , Fool - 4 Knights - 3 Pages - 2

Every other card - 1 This provides a total of 129 points available in the deck. There are also some additional honours points which are displayed and scored with the first card played by each player. All four kings - 20 points from each player 1 of trump, 21 of trump and Fool - 15 points from each player Any four of the above 7 cards - 10 p o i n t s f r o m e a c h p l a y e r (Any extra honours card scores an

extra five points from e a c h p l a y e r ) 10 or more trump (the Fool counts as a trump only if it is the 10th card) - 1 point each For exmaple: If a player holds 4 kings, the 1 and 21 of trump, they would score a total of 30 points from each player (20+5+5 for the two extra hon-ours). This means they would go up 60 and each of the other players would go down 30.

historians ac-tually think t h i s w a s based on an older Roman game, and was not re-lated to Tafl at all. See also #5, Ard-Ri.

2) Tawlbrydd / Tawlbrydd / Tawl-Bwrdd ( W e l s h ) , played on an 11 x 11 or 13 x 13 board. T a w l -Bwrdd is usu-ally translated as ‘Throw Board’, and dates back to 914-943 CE. It was played on an 11 x 11 board, with the King and twelve defenders against twenty-four attackers. The way in which this game’s name has been translated, leads some to believe that dice were used in play. Some say that an even roll meant you missed your turn. Others believe that the roll told you how far you could move a piece that turn. This is disputed, as the randomness involves cuts down on a game of skill and tactics.

3) Hnefatafl (Saxon), trans-lates as ‘King’s Table’ and was usually played on a 13

x 13 b o a r d . At least one ex-a m p l e exists of hnefatafl b e i n g p l a y e d on an 18 x 18 b o a r d . T h e r e -fore, it is surmised that the p i e c e s w e r e actually p l a c e d on the

corners of the squares, in-stead of in the squares, turning the board into a 17 x 17 board. (There are eastern games that play like this, such as Go.) Hnefatafl on a 19 x 19 board greatly resembles Alea Evangeli.

4) Alea Evangeli (Anglo-Saxon), played on a 19 x 19 board. In this version the defender moved first and the four defenders right around the King are the King’s Guards, and cannot be captured. The other de-fenders are called Huns.

5) Some games were played on a 7 x 7 board where pieces could only move one space at a time, such as Scotland’s Ard-Ri (‘High

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Hnefetafl

the next rule. 2b) The corners, and the center Throne, count as hostile spaces. Anyone sitting next to one is at threat of capture. Once the King leaves the Throne, he cannot land on it again.

O t h e r Possible V a r i a -tions There is a lot of c o n j e c -t u r e a b o u t what an-c i e n t g a m e s w e r e r e a l l y t a f l g a m e s . Evidence is being p i e c e d

together from fragments of poems, journal entries and other such sources, and are usually incomplete or evasive in meaning. The one con-stant seems to be that the boards always had an odd number of squares, and that the defenders had half the number of men as the at-tackers, plus the King. Also, the at-tackers generally go first.

1) Fitchneal (Irish), played on a 7 x 7 board. Some game

game. If he has two clear paths to an edge, he an-n o u n c e s “ T u i c h i ” . Two paths cannot be blocked dur-i n g o n e move, so it is an automatic win.

2) Get the King to a corner. Some t af l boards have been found with ornate corners, lead-ing scholars to believe that in some versions the King had to get to a cor-ner to win. In this case, one of two rules had to added, to keep white from simply blocking the corners and forcing a stale-mate.

2a) The corners count as Thrones, which means only the King can land in them. This doesn’t stop white from simply sitting beside them, effec-tively blocking access for the King, so most modern tafl boards use

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The King is captured.

Tawl-Bwrdd

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The Bidding The dealer deals out 10 cards to each player and the person to the left of the dealer will start the bid-ding with the bidding going clock-wise. As mentioned above there are a total of 129 points available. This means an average of 43 points per person. As such, the bidding is done relative to 43. For example, if I were to bid +20, that means that I believe I will capture cards worth 63 points. Each player can bid positive, negative, zero or ask for more cards. The bidding continues around the circle until someone asks for more cards or the total of the bids equals zero. You may not bid higher if the bidding comes full cir-cle, but you may lower your bid. If the total of the bids equals zero, it means that you have agreed on the value of your hands. At this point, the score would be written down and a brand new hand would be dealt - the hand is not played out. If someone asks for more cards, five more cards are dealt and the bidding is repeated. Again, you may ask for more cards. Another five cards are dealt and there is a final round of bidding. If there is no agreement on the score, the remaining cards are dealt out - five to each player with the dealer getting the extra three cards, and the hand is then played

out. The bidding has no influence on the actual play, so feel free to bid "creatively" - bluffing is a big part of this game.

The Play The play starts to the left of the dealer, after the dealer has picked three c a r d s t o d i s c a r d (remember they had extra cards at the end of the deal). Those three cards are scored by the dealer at the end of the game. You may not discard any kings or trump. Remem-ber that any honours need to be declared with the first card played. Each player must follow the suit led. The highest card takes the trick, and

that player would then lead the next card. You may not play trump unless you are void in the suit led. If you do not have the suit led, you must play trump. If you do not have any trump either, then you may play any card remaining. The exception to this is the fool, it may be played at any time, but is always scored by the person who played it, even though it can never take a trick. If the Fool is led at the beginning of a round, the next person to the left is considered to have the "lead card". When all the cards are played, each player scores the cards in their tricks, and the deal proceeds to the next player.

1000 C. E. A type of thin playing card, much like dominoes, appear in China. Suits are variations of coins. 1200 C. E. Play-ing cards now established in the Middle West. The Islamic suits were Coins, Swords, Cups and Polosticks. There were also three court cards, called the Com-ma nder , L t . Commander and Second Lt. 1350 C. E. Is-lamic cards intro-duced to south-ern Europe. The suit of Polosticks was changed to Scepters, Batons or Cudgels, and Europeans ex-perimented with the court cards, sometimes hav-ing as many as six (King, Queen, Knight, Lady, Valet and Maid). Ger-mans changed the suits to Leaves, Hearts, Acorns and Hawk Bells; they also disposed of the Queen card.

1420 C. E. The Italian game Tarocco appears, using four court cards (King, Queen, Knight and

Valet) and intro-ducing a wild card (the Fool). The deck ex-panded from 52 to 97 cards, and t h e n a m e changed to Tarot. (It was not until the 1780s that these playing cards began be-ing used for divi-nation.) 1470 C. E. The French create our current suits of Hearts, Spades, Clubs and Dia-monds (though the French called them Hearts, Spearheads, Tre-f o i l s a n d Squares). These cards were origi-nally handmade

and hand painted, and were owned by the wealthy only. Soon, wood-blocks were used to mass-produce them on cardboard. Source: http://www.usplayingcard.com/tradition/cardhistory.html

Etienne de Vignolles, dit La Hire, 1390-1443. The French knight who invented the card game Primero.

blocked by white on the other three sides, he is captured. Also, if any defenders are sitting beside the King, and they and the King are blocked in so none of them can move, the King is captured. (In some modern versions, the King is captured like any other piece.) The King is allowed to take part in captures for his side. As should be obvious by now, the attacker’s goal is to capture the King. The King’s goal is to escape. There are at least two different ways to play this: 1) Get the King to an edge. In this ver-sion, the King wins if he reaches an out-side edge of the board. If he makes a move that opens up a clear path to an edge for the King, h e a n n o u n c e s “Raichi”. If this path is opened by white’s move, he does not have to announce this, and can take

opportunity of the opening on his next move to win the

(Russians). In other versions the King is c a l l e d H n e f i (‘King’) or Cyning-stan (Old English for ‘King-Stone’), and the pieces were c a l l e d H u n n s (‘knobs’), Taeflor (‘table-men’) or tae-felstanas (Old Eng-lish for ‘table-men’). Pieces moved like a rook in chess, which is any number of spaces orthogonally (up or down, left or right, not diago-nally). In most variants any piece could move through the Throne, but only the King could land on it. Pieces were captured by having an opponent close in on two sides, either top and bottom, or left and right (custodial capture). If a piece moves in-tentionally between two enemy pieces of its own volition it is not captured. Multi-ple captures were possible. The King is captured by being blocked on all four sides. If the King is sitting beside the Throne, and is

Black is captured.

Both white are captured.

White is not captured.

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The King is captured.

Laird Colyne Stewart Tafl is the catch name for a group of games popular in northern Europe up to a few hundred years ago. Vari-ants have been found in Finland, Scotland, Ireland, England, Scandi-navia and many other countries. Anywhere that had contact with the Vikings had contact with tafl. History The oldest re-cord of a tafl-like game is from 250 BCE, when the Ger-manic tribes first entered recorded history. The old-est board found to date was in Denmark. The board was dated to 400 CE. Tafl was written about in folk tales, poems and epics throughout northern Europe. It appears in an English manuscript dated some-where during 925-940 CE, and in a Swedish botanist’s journal in 1732. (It is from this journal that we get most of our modern information on how to play from.) Gweyddbwyll (a Welsh variant) is included in the Arthurian legends, where Owain (a

Welsh hero) bests King Arthur. Being a good tafl player was so important that when the Norseman Earl Rognvalder Kail bragged about his skills, he topped his list with his strength at tafl. In later translations of some of these texts, tafl was changed to chess, or chess was used

to mean tafl, creating much confusion for scholars. The Rules T h e m o s t prevalent ver-sion of tafl, the one you are most likely to encounter to-day, is the Fin-nish version, called Tablut. Tablut was played on a 9 x

9 checkered board. One side, the defenders, consisted of 9 men, one of whom was the king. They were usually white, and were placed in the center of the board. The king was placed in the center of the board, on a square called either the King’s Square, the Throne, or ko-nakis. The attackers numbered six-teen, were most often red, brown or black, and set up on the edges of the board. The white side represented Swedes, and the black Moscovites

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Laird Colyne Stewart Glic was a game in 15th and 16th C. France with English and German variants. This is the variant that has sprung up in Ealdormere. Set– Up For three to six players works best. The board is laid out as on the fol-lowing two pages.. On the top row is an Ace, a King, a Queen and a Jack or Valet. On the bottom row is a Ten, a King/Queen combination (the Marriage), a Nine/Eight/Seven combination and the Poker, Poch or Glic space. Each player starts with a number of counters. We usually play with 35—25 pennies, and 10 groats (worth four pennies each). Phase One: Ante and Deal Each player puts one penny on any of the compartments on the board, except for the Poker space. The dealer then deals each player four cards. Phase Two: Sweepstakes The deck is then cut and whatever suit is revealed is Trump. If anyone has a card in Trump that matches one of the compartments on the board, they win any coins/counters on that compartment. For instance, if a six of hearts is turned up, and I have the Queen of Hearts, I show that card and take all coins on the Queen compartment. If you have the King and Queen, you get the King, Queen, and the King-Queen combi-

nation (or marriage). Because the chances of getting a Nine-Eight-Seven combination is unlikely, my home Canton of Ardchreag also al-lows a flush to take the coins on this compartment. Phase Three: Poker Starting with the player to the left of the Dealer, players place bets on the Poker compartment. Winning hands are in the following order: Four of a Kind, Three of a Kind, Two Pairs, One Pair, high Card. In case of a tie, the hand with the highest card in the Trump suit wins. The winner takes all the coins from the Poker com-partment. Phase Four: Countdown The player who wins the Poker round begins the Countdown by placing a card on the table. Each subsequent player, if they are able, place a card on top trying not to ex-ceed 31. Face/Court cards count as 10 and an Ace is 1. If a player can-not play without going over 31 play proceeds to the next player. The last player to be able to play is given a penny by all the other players, and then begins a new Countdown. When a player runs out of cards all other players must pay them a penny for every card still in their hand. If they player goes out on a 31, every other player pays him an extra penny. (That is, one penny for each card in their hand, and one penny for getting 31.)

Ace of Pomegranates, Germany, 1500

King of Clubs, France, 15th C.

Ten of Batons, Germany, 1500

Queen of Spades, Belgium, 1543 Valet of Cups, Germany 1500

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