2. Dice were made of antler for the most part, although examples of bone, walrus ivory and jet are also known. More perishable materials, such as wood and horn, were also likely to have been used. They were often rectangular, with the 1 and 2 on either end and the 3,4,5, and 6 on the four long sides. Others types were also found including modern shaped and numbered examples. One curious dice found in Viking Dublin is a cubic dice, much like most modern dice, but has the curious number combination of 3, 4, 4,5, 5, 6. The nature of the games played with dice are unknown, but simple games such as 'who can get the highest (or lowest) number were probably common. The 'long-dice' are usually found in sets of two or three, and normally have the numbers 1 and 2 on the smallest face.

3. There are many finds of board games and gaming pieces from Scandinavia and from the British Isles. Gaming pieces were often hemispherical and made of antler, amber, bone, glass, clay, stone or even horses' teeth. Finds of several light and several dark pieces together have been made sometimes with a single piece being a different shape, like a sea urchin, in the same area. Another type of gaming piece found have been made from disk shaped slices of hart's pedicle, which must have been taken from a fully grown male deer carcass. Writings of the times mention various board games but it can be quite difficult to work out exactly how the game was played. The word tafl (literally 'table') was used to describe a board game, with the pieces being referred to as toflur or hunn.

4. A beautiful carved board with 13x13 squares was found at Gokstad in Norway. This is a double sided board with a nine men's morris layout carved on the reverse side as with other less impressive examples. Many other wooden tafl boards have also been found throughout the Viking and Anglo-Saxon world, but some of the boards were much simpler affairs being only marked out with charcoal or scratched onto the surface of slices of rock. The pieces for these games were usually hemispherical. For boards with 9 squares a side, 16 light and eight dark pieces were used, with an additional king. Boards with more squares used 24 light, 12 dark and a king.

5. At Ballinderry in Ireland a little game board has been found with holes in place of squares and with the centre and corner positions clearly marked. Two notches on the board indicate a division between white and red pieces similar to modern solitaire. It is thought to be the halatafl known from the sagas. An alternative idea is that this could be used for a form of the game known as fox and geese or a 7x7 hnefatafl board or, indeed, all three. The pieces can be moved in two different ways; either they move one step at a time either forwards, sideways or diagonally along the marked lines, but never backward. Or they jump over a neighbouring piece to an empty hole behind it. They may proceed jumping as many times as possible in any direction or even backwards. The jump can be made over any piece - your own or your opponent's - and if you jump over one or more of your opponent's pieces they are taken and removed from the board.

6. Contrary to what many books say, neither chess or draughts were commonly played in the early medieval period. Chess did not become popular until brought back by Crusaders after the first Crusade (1096-99) and draughts was not played until much later in the Medieval period. The Lewis chessmen, although Viking, date to the mid twelfth century. Recent excavations at Dublin and York have revealed playing pieces shaped like Arabic chess pieces, but with pre-Conquest style Scandinavian style decoration. It would not be strange if the Vikings, thanks to their contacts with the Arab world, learnt this game earlier than other Europeans, although this is just speculation. Chess certainly did not become popular or widespread until the twelfth century.

7. A form of 'knucklebones' or 'fivestones' was played, probably the form where a number of small bones (usually pig or sheep knuckles) or stones are taken in the palm of the hand. The bones are then flicked in the air and the idea is to catch as many bones as possible on the back of the same hand. The winner is the player who catches most bones. Other versions of this game might include the version where one stone is taken in the palm of the hand whilst the others are left on the ground. The stone/bone on the hand is thrown into the air. Whilst it is in the air the player must pick up the stones/bones on the ground with the same hand and catch the thrown piece before it hits the ground. If the player succeeds with one piece in his hand, he moves onto two, then three.

8. From the earliest times (it was played even in ancient Egypt!) This game has been known as 'the game on the other side of the board'. Several boards found in both Viking and Anglo-Saxon contexts have had hnefatafl on one side and nine men's morris on the other. However the game has also been found rather unexpected places - ship's timbers, loose boards, benches, lumps of rock and, later, even on church pews and tiles. Nine men's morris is a simple game. The board is quickly made, and pieces could be any set of black (or red) and white stones, bones, etc., which could also be used for any other game.

9. This game is a development of the popular Roman game of duodecim scripta, also known as tabula or alea, which was also played in Germany and Scandinavia in the Roman Iron Age, where it appears to have been known as katrutafl. Several wooden boards for this type of game are known from the Saxons' Germanic homeland, and metal fittings for boards of this type have been found from the Viking Age in Germany and Denmark. The only known surviving British example of a tabula board was found in Gloucester; dating to the eleventh century. The decorated bone plates that once covered the now rotted wooden board and the playing pieces, beautifully carved from bone and antler, and were originally decorated with paint.

10. One of the most popular games was riddling. A warrior was not considered to be up to much unless his word skill was as good as his weapon skills. Riddling was a good way of demonstrating this skill and many of the riddles of the time are full of double meanings which suggest two answers, one innocent, the other more 'raunchy'. These riddles could be anything from a one to a hundred lines long and sought to describe everyday objects in an unusal way. Part of the skill of riddling was to be able to construct the riddle using the correct 'poetic' conventions. Obviously, as well as the correct construction, it was important to make sure that the description given was not too obscure. Here are some actual Saxon riddles (Answers at end).

11. http://www.heorot.dk/tafl/ http://www.gamecabinet.com/history/Hnef.ht ml http://www.gamecabinet.com/history/Hnef.ht ml http://www.regia.org/games.htm