Variant Library
Tafl (Old Norse: “table”) is a family of asymmetric board games played across Norse and Celtic Northern Europe from around 400 AD until chess displaced them in the 11th and 12th century. One player commands a king and a small defending force trying to reach safety; the other controls a larger attacking force trying to capture the king. Tablut (9×9) is the only variant recorded from living practice, documented by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus during his 1732 Lapland expedition. All other variants in this hub are historical reconstructions from medieval texts and archaeological finds. Every variant is pre-1800 in origin and in the public domain.
This library includes 4 playable variants.
- Tablut — 9×9; the only form observed from living practice (Linnaeus 1732); King escapes to any board edge
- Brandubh — 7×7 Irish form; 4 defenders and 8 attackers; King escapes to corner squares
- Hnefatafl — 11×11; the primary Norse form, reconstructed from Tablut and archaeological evidence; King escapes to corner squares
- Tawlbwrdd — 11×11 Welsh form documented in a 1587 manuscript; King escapes to any edge square
Attribution
Tafl. The Norse hnefatafl family is documented in Murray, A History of Board Games Other Than Chess (1952), and at cyningstan.com, which publishes reconstructions of the historical rule sets. The surviving evidence is fragmentary and all modern tafl rule sets are reconstructions to some degree; individual variant files note where this applies. Public domain.