Hnefatafl: the Game of the Vikings

Tablut in Linnaeus' Original Latin

Diagram of the tablut board by Linnaeus
Diagram of the tablut board by Linnaeus

The rules that Linnaeus recorded in Latin in 1732 are our principal source for hnefatafl, but have been most often quoted, adopted and studied in a much-criticised 1811 English translation by J. E. Smith. For those with the ability to read them, them, I present here the original Latin text (which seems to contain at least one Swedish word), transcribed from the 1889 edition of Carl von Linnés Ungdomsskrifter, volume 2, pp. 147-148.

1. Arx regia. Konokis Lappon., cui nullus succedere potest.

2 et 3. Sveci N:r 9 cum rege et eorum loca s. stationes.

4..Muscovitum stationes omnes in prima aggressione depictae.

O. Vacua loca occupare cuique licitum, item Regi, idem valet de locis characterisatis praeter arcem.

Leges.

1. Alla fa occupera och mutare loca per lineam rectam, non vero transversam, ut A ad C non vero A ad E.

2. Nulli licitum sit locum per lineam rectam alium supersalire, occupare, ut a B ad M, alia aliqvo in I constitutio.

3. Si Rex occuparet locum B et nullus in E, I et M positus esset, possit exire, nisi mox muscovita aliqvod ex locis nominatis occupat, et Regi exitum praecludit.

4. Si Rex tali modo exit, est praelium finitum.

5. Si Rex in E collocaretur, nec ullus s. ejus s. hostis miles esset in F G sive I M, tum aditus non potest claudi.

6. Ut Rex aditum apertum vidit, clamet Raichi, si duae viae apertae sunt tuicha.

7. Licitum est loca dissita occupare per lineam rectam, ut A C ad N, nullo intercludente.

8. Svecus et muscovita in gressibus alternant.

9. Si qvis hostem 1 inter 2 sibi hostes collocare possit, est occisus et ejici debet, item Rex.

10. Si Rex in arce 1 et hostes in 3bus ex Nr: 2, tum abire potest per qvartum, et si ejus in 4to locum occupare potest, si ita cinctus et miles in 2 collocatur, est inter regem et militem qvi stat occisus, si qvatuor hostes in 2, tum rex captus est.

11. Si Rex in 2, tum hostes 3, sc. in A A et 3 erint, si capiatur.

12. Rege capto vel intercluso finitur bellum et victor retinet svecos, devictus moscovitae et ludus incipiatur.

13. Moscovitae sine rege erint, suntque 16 in 4 phalangibus disponendis.

14. Arx potest intercludere, aeque ac trio, ut si miles in 2 et hostis in 3 est, occidat.

The full book can be found at the Internet Archive: http://archive.org/details/ungdomsskrifter02linne.

Comments

Thanks for your very intersting website.

I think the 1889 Latin text can be improved a bit thanks to Linné's original manuscript being available online (at http://linnean-online.org/165368/):

- omnia in prima agressione depicta

- mutare loco

- et miles in 3 collocatur

There might be others (praelium doesn't seem right for instance) but I am not confident in how the manuscript should be read in some places.

The following ones are typos found above but in the 1889 edition:

- alio aliquo in i constituto

- ut a C ad N (the first "a" bears an accent in the manuscript, which marks it as the preposition "from")

- devictus moscovitas

Guillaume - 17:37, 15/09/2016

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