HNEFATAFL: History and How to Play
Ойындар
Hnefatafl, popularized as “The Viking Game”, became a great success in Scandinavia and Northern Europe during late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages. In this video, I show you the story of the game and how historians have reconstructed it since the 19th century. I also show you how to play Copenhagen Hnefatafl, a developed variant of Feltar Hnefatafl (Gameplay section: 9:56)
Do you want to know more about old games and how to play them? Follow me on instagram (@ancientgaming_ludus) and stay tuned for more content!
* This video is for educational purposes and no copyright infringement is intended.
OTHER FACTS AND CURIOSITIES
● The version of “The Saga of King Hendrik the Wise” used for this video was translated by the actual son of J. R. R. Tolkien, the famous author of The Lord of the Rings.
● The pieces of Hnefatafl that I use in this video display black attackers and white defenders, but the actual historical sources suggest the opposite was the usual way to design them. We also do not have any historical hnefatafl pieces with such fancy designs. Like most tabula games, the designs tended to be simple and practical.
● Did you spot the bear? Wonder why did I put it there?
● The game displayed in the picture of 8:49 is actually called Alea Evangelii (the Game of the Gospels), but it technically counts as a tafl game. I will cover it in another video.
RESOURCES USED FOR THIS VIDEO
Published Resources:
● Handbook of Medieval Culture, Ed. Albrecht Classen, De Gruyter, 2015.
● Helmfrid, Sten. “Hnefatafl: The Strategic Board Game of the Vikings”, 2005.
● Nordal, S. & Turville-Petre, G. The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise. Trans. Cristopher Tolkien, Thomas Nelson and Sons LTD, 1960.
● Parlett, David. Oxford History of Board Games. Oxford University Press, 1999.
● Rasmusen, Eric. Games and Information: an Introduction to Game Theory. Basil Blackwell, 1989.
● Schulte, Michael. “Board Games of the Vikings: from Hnefatafl to Chess”. Maal Og Minne 2 (2017): 1-42.
● Walker, Damian. Reconstructing Hnefatafl. Kindle Edition, 2014.
Online Resources:
● Damian Walker’s page on Hnefatafl - tafl.cyningstan.com/
● Competitive Hnefatafl - aagenielsen.dk/hnefatafl_onlin...
● Frithiof’s saga - www.gutenberg.org/files/59689/...
● hem.bredband.net/b512479/
Music:
Intro & Main theme: Happy Life - FREDJI [Vlog No Copyright Music]
● • Happy Life - FREDJI (N...
Пікірлер: 32
Hnefatafl is my favorite board game by far.
I love the idea of this channel, definitely keep these coming!
Well done!! Interesting and fun
Awesome content, I’ll keep an eye out for your next video👌🏼
*AncientGaming* I am a music lover...and you have a great stuff
Great videos! You should cover Senet. It is one of my favorite ancient board games!
@ancientgaming4698
3 жыл бұрын
Thank you Eithan! :) Senet will indeed be one of my next videos, I am working on it at the moment
Thank you so much! Great channel. Subscribed! Merry Christmas from New Zealand 🇳🇿🎄👏👏
@ancientgaming4698
3 жыл бұрын
Thank you so much! :) I will have my next video ready very soon
Very interesting and so well explained....!
@ancientgaming4698
3 жыл бұрын
Thank you Maite :)
I love ancient card games! I love your content!
@ancientgaming4698
3 жыл бұрын
Thanks a lot Jack! :) I'm happy you like it, I'm currently working on the next one
@asmrjackunboxinggames4328
3 жыл бұрын
@@ancientgaming4698 That's nice! gonna watch for more
Good channel, don't give up pleaseeeee!
@ancientgaming4698
3 жыл бұрын
Thank you Amadeo :) I am sorry I take some time to upload videos, I'm the only person behind the channel and the research + editing is very time consuming. But do not worry, I do not intend in the slightest to give up the channel, in fact I am currently working on my next video :) the response since I started has been very warm and positive and comments like yours are the ones that keep the channel working. Cheers!
@amedeothebest
3 жыл бұрын
@@ancientgaming4698 That's great! Maybe in the future you could also cover the Royal Game of Ur!
@ancientgaming4698
3 жыл бұрын
@@amedeothebest Royal Game of Ur is actually one of the videos I have in the making ;)
I have the same set of pieces!
Hey ! Great video man ! Just have a question i'm sorry what is the name of the roman game you mentioned at 1:17 ? Thank you !
@ancientgaming4698
3 жыл бұрын
Thanks a lot Georges :) the game I mention is called Ludus Latrunculorum (literally, the game of the thieves, or mercenaries), you will often also see it refered as Latrunculi. It is an evolution of the Greek game "petteia", which is otherwise played in a similar way. It is less known and thus harder to find, the set you see in the video I crafted it myself. I will however do a video about it in the future :)
Sería muy útil que, cuando dices nombres (de juegos, figuras históricas o mitológicas), representaras esos nombres de manera escrita en alguna parte del video para que podamos investigar y profundizar en las cosas que nos parecen interesantes.
Respect! imediatelly subscribed this chanel:) i'm waiting new videos, and i have 1 request if you can. make video about Tabula (ancient roman table game, similar to backgammon). on internet not exists any good explanation video about this game. good luck and waiting new videos ;)
@ancientgaming4698
3 жыл бұрын
Thank you so much for your kind words Davit :) I am currently busy wrapping up the next video. It took me a little longer because it's a huge one (around 30 min.) , but I hope I can finally upload it this week. As for tabula, I do want to make a special video about it in the future, as there is much confusion around that topic. The reason you might have trouble finding anything consistent about it is because tabula literally means "board" in latin, so it was commonly used to refer to many different games, including backgammon, nine men's morris, etc. If you read medieval manuscripts, and some Roman sources for that matter, you will see that they often say tabula for many different things. As a fun fact: if you go to Greece today, you will see that they still call backgammon "tavli", which is just the Greek word for the Latin tabula, but they play different games with it (plakoto, portes and fevga, mainly). I will develop this in a future video, is a very interesting topic indeed!
@Lomidze-D.90
3 жыл бұрын
@@ancientgaming4698 thank you for replay and for inforation. i know, that there are many variations for backgammon (for example gulbara, plakoto, acey-deucey, nackgammon, takhteh, fevga, shesu besh and etc.) but most people today are playing backgmon with international rules. but because, that i love and i'm always searching to discover ancient board games, tabula is most interesting thing. because tabula is ancestor of moderm backgammon :) i know, that this games is playable with 3 dice, 24 quarter, and 30 game piece (15 black - 15 white). understand some rules, how it starts and how it ends. but there are some additional rules (for example quarters, and bearing off) and dont understand everything with instructions. i dont inderstand completelly, how this game is played. (this is link: a4games.company/tabula-rules-route-and-layout/ ) and when i found your channel, and your explanation of Hnafetafl, that was best explanation, best 100% completely and fully explanation lesson about hnafetafl. never seen before video like that, that everything is explained so completly understable :) and your video about tabula will be a full tour about tabula :) i'm waiting this :) thank you for that, what are you doing for us. i will always happy to see your videos. good luck and have a nice day ;)
Why do all these ancient games all start with "h"?😆 Love the channel
@ancientgaming4698
3 жыл бұрын
Hahahaha apparently people in antiquity loved long unpronounceable words
Can you share a link to your set?
@ancientgaming4698
3 жыл бұрын
Jake! I just realized you were refering to the Hnefatafl video instead of the Hanafuda one, my bad! Here is the link to the set I show in the video :) www.amazon.co.uk/Hnefatafl-Limited-Uniquely-Designed-Drawstring/dp/B08PZCY896/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=hnefatafl&qid=1612310885&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExRTFPUDZUTEdBSlVVJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNDM0NTQ0M0VDWk85OURBNjU4SSZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNDEwMjM0MjBDRTVKVDRCSlRHTCZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=
@MoonlightCrow
3 жыл бұрын
@@ancientgaming4698 great thank you! I ended up making my own out of a fallen tree’s branches. I kept the bark on the black pieces and whittled off the bark on the white pieces!
@ancientgaming4698
3 жыл бұрын
@@MoonlightCrow that sounds awesome! :O Do you have a picture of it?
@MoonlightCrow
3 жыл бұрын
@@ancientgaming4698 haha ya I have a pickoff it so far (haven’t made a real board yet)! Want me to dm you on a social media platform?