This time around I have been exceptionally busy in anticipation of our first moot of the year at the end of January and in order to meet demand have created a production line of game boards. My intent was to make a number of different cloth boards for games using some modern equipment but hopefully techniques that would have been familiar to the medieval man. So here are my ingredients;
- solid block rubber stamps consisting of a 2x2 with foxed edges, 3x1 with straight edges and one large single (unused this time around)
- three ink pads, brown, burgundy and peach (again unused)
- a school geometry kit (to make me feel old)
- needles and thread (not pictured)
- and a couple of metres of coarse linen.
The reason for so much fabric? So I've got enough to make a complete hash of it and still recover in triumph.
Hnefatafl
So to begin I set out to draw a 9x9 Hnefatafl outline using the 3x1 stamp, using the set square to allow me to get the angles right. As the more astute of you may no doubt have noticed by now this did not go wholly according to plan. I discovered that even with the set square the corners were just ever so slightly off which meant a very cramped central grid with overlapping squares. So I had to draw in demarkation lines on the grid with a Sharpie (very period), hopefully it will do as a spare for the children.
 |
| Rescued by Sharpie. |
The next ones I built up a line at a time which proved a lot more successful as you will see from the picture below.
 |
| 9x9 Hnefatafl |
This Hnefatafl board is a simple 9x9 grid as commonly specified on the geek and elsewhere as one of the possible configurations for the game. Rather than creating a chequerboard pattern as per chess or draughts, picking out alternate squares in a contrasting colour, here I have chosen to pick out the starting squares of both sides in the game in the burgundy shade. 16 attackers around the outside and 8 defenders and one king on the centre square. From this I went on to make a second larger board for the Welsh variant Tawlbwrdd.
Tawlbwrdd
 |
| Tawlbwrdd, the Welsh connection. |
As those of you who are more familiar with this variant will no doubt have noticed this is where I made my second mistake in the construction. I had miscounted the size of the grid and ended up with a 13x13 instead of an 11x11 board. However the light of my life in her inimitable, practical way said all I need do was mark the starting squares as per an 11x11 board and, at somepoint in the future, decorate the outer ranks and files to distinguish them as not part of the playing area. She is a genius.
Latrunculi
 |
| Latrunculi |
Finally I decided to make an 8x8 Latrunculi board (sometimes known as Ludus Latrunculorum) which although a Roman game did survive until the late medieval period. Now, as this is an 8x8 board I elected to make a standard chequerboard as this will work for a number of other games as well. I could have made an 8x7 board instead which was just as widely used but why cut off your nose to put mud in your eye. This then is my Latrunculi-come-Chess-come-Draughts board.
 |
| Hemmed. |
So having printed all the boards quite neatly (eventually), the next obvious stage was to tidy up the edges by simply hemming them in with a quick back stitch.
 |
| Nice effect for six stitches. |
I also wanted to highlight certain squares on the tafl boards such as the kings starting and finishing squares, short of using the Sharpie again as I had on the abortive first board. I considered carving a potato as a stamp until once more the flower of my desert came to my aid teaching me what I believe is called a daisy stitch. This simple stitch has allowed me to pick out a rough triquetra on certain of the squares with embroidery even I could do.
Eventually the idea will be to mount these cloths on wooden boards as probably would have been done in the middle-ages. This move will have to wait though until I have both wood and the glue with which to do it. The next stage however will be to make the playing pieces to go on these boards, and when I come to do that, I'll keep you posted.
Links
Crest Co-operative. The shop where I picked up the stamps.
Traditional Games. Really useful site.
Tawlbwrdd Great PDF from Damian Walker
Ludus Latrunculorum. Another of Damian Walker's great PDFs
Cyningstan A quick plug for Damien Walker's website where he sells a lot of thes games.
Game Cabinet Articles on Hnefatafl and Latrunculi.
www.heroarts.com Makers of my rubber stamps.
www.sharpie.co.uk Occasionally useful
No comments:
Post a Comment