The Gamble Of Norway’s King Olaf II For The Island Of Hísing

In 1015, a royal-blooded Viking and mercenary named Olaf Haraldsson (Saint Olaf) launched his bid for power in Norway, intending to end fifteen years of foreign domination over Norwegian land by the Danes and Swedes. The last Norwegian king had been slain in the year 1000 by a coalition consisting of King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark (r. 987-1014), Olaf the Tax-King of Sweden (r. 980-1022), and dissident Norwegian jarls. In the years after that battle, Norway was ruled by jarls who deferred to the Danish and Swedish authority. It was against these foreign-backed Norwegian jarls that Olaf Haraldsson campaigned in 1015, forcing them into exile or submission by 1016. After consolidating power, the upstart ruler proclaimed himself King Olaf II of Norway and began the precarious balancing act of trying to keep foreign influence out of Norway while also striving to enforce his newfound authority over the weariest of his Norwegian chieftains, such as a conspiracy of five minor kings against him that was thwarted in 1017.

Although the Dane, Canute the Great (r. 1016-1035), was on the rise at the same time as King Olaf II of Norway, Canute’s early focus was on England, making Denmark less of a threat to Olaf during his early years. Sweden, on the other hand, gave the fledgling King Olaf II quite a bit of trouble as he tried to establish his authority in Norway. Although the Swedish-aligned jarls had been defeated by 1016, Olaf the Tax-King of Sweden refused to acknowledge the new Norwegian monarch’s authority, and pointedly attempted several times to send tax collectors into Norway. According to the Heimskringla (History of the Kings of Norway) of Snorri Sturluson (c. 1179-1241), the Norwegian king or his agents clashed with Swedish tax collectors on at least three instances, and in another incident the Swedes even commandeered a ship laden with goods meant to adorn the throne room of King Olaf II. Such isolated friction and contained harassments continued until 1019, by which time both Olafs, of Norway and Sweden, had tired of their feud. That year, King Olaf II of Norway married the Swedish king’s daughter, Ástrid, and the two monarchs met together to finally settle their differences.

When the monarchs met, the Swedish king reportedly granted, without much debate, recognition of the Norwegian Olaf’s authority over most of what King Harald Finehair (r. 860-940) of Norway had once ruled in the past. The arguments apparently heated up, however, when the two discussed the large Island of Hísing, presumably referring to modern Hisingen, in Sweden. Instead of resuming their hostilities over the issue, the two in-laws reportedly decided to resolve their disagreement through a non-violent competition. According to folklore, they played a game of dice, and the Island of Hísing was the stake.

As the story goes, the game involved throwing two numbered dice (with the highest number being six on each die) and the one that threw the highest sum won the round. Whichever king provided the dice must have brought a loaded pair, for both kings consistently began rolling double-sixes. Snorri Sturluson described the bizarre dicing scene:

“Then the Swedish king threw two sixes and said that it was no use for King Oláf to throw. He replied, while shaking the dice in his hand, ‘There are two sixes still on the dice, and it is a trifling matter for God, my Lord, to have them turn up.’ He threw them, and two sixes turned up. Thereupon Oláf, the king of Sweden, again threw two sixes. Then Oláf, the king of Norway, cast the dice, and one six showed on one of them, but the other split in two, so that six and one turned up” (Heimskringla, Saint Olaf’s Saga, chapter 94).

Such was the way, according to folklore, that King Olaf II of Norway gained control of the island of Hísing. Snorri Sturluson, for his part, recognized this was a far-fetched story, even for the folklore-riddled sagas which were frequently prone to artistic license. He made sure to distance himself from the story by crediting the tale to a certain Thorstein the Learned.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Hall scene from the saga of Olaf Tryggvason, illustrated by Christian Krohg (1852–1925), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

Sources:

• Heimskringla, by Snorri Sturluson and translated by Lee Hollander. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964, 2018. 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Olaf-II-Haraldsson 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Olaf 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Olaf-Tryggvason 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Canute-I 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sweyn-I  

Golden Gambling Between Montezuma And Cortes

To the delight of Hernan Cortes and his Spanish conquistadors, Montezuma II of the Aztec Empire was an extremely generous gift-giver. He handed over treasures to the Spaniards nearly every time they interacted, be it delivered by messenger or bestowed in person. Whenever Montezuma, himself, hosted a meeting with the Spaniards, multiple golden or gilded objects almost always were handed over to the conquistadors at one point or another. Yet, sometimes Montezuma II made the Spaniards work harder than usual for their gilt gifts.

Hernan Cortes and his conquistadors entered Montezuma’s capital city of Tenochtitlan in late 1519 and stayed there for the opening months of 1520. During their stay in the Aztec capital, the Spaniards came to feel increasingly paranoid that Montezuma’s hospitality would one day cease and that he would have them arrested and executed. In order to save their skins from this potential danger, and to apply more leverage against the Aztec Empire, the Spaniards captured Montezuma and detained him in their Spanish quarters in Tenochtitlan. At first, they held the Aztec emperor on a short leash, but they eventually loosened their grip, letting Montezuma hold court and visit temples—all, however, under Spanish surveillance.

Early on in his captivity, Montezuma and Cortes were forced to live in the same compound together, and Montezuma apparently decided to kill time by playing games with Cortes and the Spaniards. Montezuma’s game of choice was variously called totoloque or totoloc, and in Montezuma’s typical fashion, the Aztec leader’s personal equipment set for this game was golden or gilded. It seemed to have been a gambling game, where the participants made bets and then each player had a certain number of turns to throw a ball or pellet at a designated target. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, one of Hernan Cortes’ conquistadors, described the game: “it is played with small round glossy balls, which here were made of gold, and are pitched at a certain mark, also of the same metal: five throws finished the game, and the stakes were for valuable gold trinkets and jewels” (Conquest of New Spain, chapter 97). Even if the Aztec leader won the game, Montezuma—either because of his generosity (or his being under arrest)—was said to have always given away his gambling winnings to the Spaniards. Despite this, Bernal Díaz claimed that Hernan Cortes’ score-keeper tried to pad Cortes’ stats, and Montezuma eventually called the man out for cheating.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Sketch of Cortes and Montezuma in the Historia de la Conquista de Méjico, c. 1851, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Díaz, translated by J. M. Cohen. New York: Penguin Books, 1963.
• https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32474/32474-h/32474-h.htm 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Montezuma-II 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hernan-Cortes  

Emperor Jing Was Deadly Serious About Board Game Rules And Checkmating Kings

For many people in ancient China, life under the early emperors of the Han Dynasty (starting with Emperor Gaozu c. 202 BCE) was a time of tranquility and peace. Yet, for the new Liu imperial family, court intrigue and political maneuverings made their lives much more stressful. Outside the palaces of kings and marquises, the common farmers were innocently planting their crops, but inside the courts and banquets of government, the politicians, lawyers and nobility were battling it out in the shadows. When Emperor Gaozu died in 195 BCE, his consort, Empress Lü, began skillfully and ruthlessly raising to prominence her brothers and cousins from the Lü clan. Yet, when Empress Lü died in 180 BCE, the Liu family brutally reasserted its authority by massacring the new Lü officials and placing Gaozu’s son, Emperor Wen (r. 180-157 BCE), on the throne. Emperor Wen was generally a virtuous ruler who brought peace to both the commoners and the nobility. Taking advantage of the peace, however, the feudal kingdoms of China became extremely powerful. Emperor Wen’s successor, Emperor Jing (r. 157-141 BCE), would obsessively dwell on the growing political and military strength of the feudal kingdoms.

The kingdom of Wu was one such powerful feudal domain in the Han Empire. Wu’s long-reigning king was Liu Pi, the nephew of Emperor Gaozu. King Liu Pi had been placed on the throne of Wu in 195 BCE after distinguishing himself in battle against a rebel army. During the decades that Empress Lü and Emperor Wen ruled the Han Dynasty, the kingdom of Wu thrived under Liu Pi’s leadership. He exploited copper mines and salt deposits in his realm to make the kingdom of Wu one of the wealthiest regions of China. Furthermore, the people of Wu seemed to have generally loved their king, for Liu Pi was generous with his wealth and gave ample gifts to his subjects as rewards and incentives for good deeds. The king was also politically savvy, and achieved a great deal of autonomy from the central government of the Han Dynasty. It was said that King Liu Pi even had enough power to refuse to hand over fugitives to agents of the emperor.

Although he was a mighty figure, Liu Pi had shown unceasing loyalty to the emperors for decades. Sometime during the reign of Emperor Wen, Liu Pi sent his son, the crown prince of Wu, to the Han capital, Chang’an. There, the crown prince was well received by Emperor Wen and the young nobleman was even brought into the entourage of the heir apparent, Jing. The future emperor and the crown prince of Wu became drinking buddies and often tested each other’s skill over the trendiest board games that were popular in the capital.

One day, after the imperial heir and the crown prince both had too much to drink, the pair began to play a board game that resembled chess. Apparently, the inebriated noblemen disagreed on the rules of the game and the argument became quite heated. The crown prince stubbornly gave no ground in the debate and showed no deference to the opinion of the imperial heir. Jing, who, even at a young age, resented the power of the feudal lords, was enraged by the insubordination of the prince. As the argument persisted and the tension boiled higher, Jing lost his composure and lashed out. In his rage, Jing grabbed the game board, sending the pieces flying, and used it to clobber the crown prince over the head. The board wielded by Jing was not one of the flimsy cardboard mats used by cheap tabletop game makers of today—instead, he was bludgeoning the crown prince with what can only be described as a solid plank of hefty wood. Unfortunately for ancient Chinese politics, Jing actually beat the crown prince of Wu to death with the game board.

When news of his son’s needless death reached the ears of powerful King Liu Pi, the otherwise loyal monarch began to question his allegiance. After the incident, Liu Pi held a grudge against the central government, especially Jing, and pointedly never ventured to the capital of Chang’an. When Jing became emperor in 157 BCE, the feud between the central government and the kingdom of Wu only deepened. Emperor Jing increased the tension when he and his legalist advisor, Chao Cuo, began systematically whittling away at the power of kings. In 156 BCE, the central government removed the region of Changshan from the control of King Liu Sui of Zhao and also deprived six districts from King Liu Ang of Jiaoxi. The carving up of kingdoms continued in 155 BCE, with King Liu Wu of Chu losing control of Donghai province and King Liu Pi of Wu, himself, being stripped of his authority in Yuzhang and Kuaiji.

As Liu Pi had loathed Jing since the death of his son, the land deprivation finally pushed him over his limit and he began to plot with other disgruntled kings against the emperor. In 154 BCE, Liu Pi was the leading figure in the so-called Revolt of the Seven Kingdoms. The revolt and its aftermath proved that both sides of the conflict were right in their assessment of their enemy—Emperor Jing was right about the kingdoms having too much power, but the kings were also correct in their fears that the central government wanted to reduce their political and military might.

Emperor Jing executed his advisor, Chao Cuo, in response to the rebellion, but he also quickly crushed the revolt and had King Liu Pi of Wu assassinated. The destruction of the rebellion was a great leap forward in Emperor Jing’s dream to dismantle the power of the feudal lords. On the relentless campaign of Emperor Jing and his successor, Emperor Wu, against the power of the Chinese kingdoms, historian Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE) wrote, “The feudal lords were permitted nothing more than tax revenue from their lands, while the rest of their prerogatives were all taken away. In later years some of them grew so poor that they were obliged to ride about in ox carts” (Shi Ji, 59).

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Depiction of men playing Go, c. Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji) by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
• http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Han/personsliupi.html  

Hneftafl—A Mysterious Scandinavian Board Game From The Early Middle Ages

Hneftafl (also spelled hnettafl or hnefatafl) was a popular board game that is believed to have originated in Scandinavia or possibly in the northern Germanic lands. Although modern hneftafl games are being sold by nostalgic producers, it likely took a lot of guesswork and improvisation on the part of these companies, for there is very little surviving information on how the authentic hneftafl game was played.

What we do know about the game mainly comes from remnants of the player pieces found in burial mounds and a few brief descriptions of the game found in medieval literature, such as the Icelandic sagas. The game is often compared to chess—they both had light and dark sets of game pieces, and they both had a king that needed to be protected or captured. Hneftafl pieces could sometimes be fairly large in size and they often were made with pegs jutting out underneath, so that the hneftafl pieces could be securely attached to the game board. The pegs must have been fairly long and sturdy, for in one grisly episode from Grettir’s Saga (c. 14th century) the peg from a hneftafl piece was used to gouge out a person’s eye.

Around the time of the crusades, hneftafl’s popularity began to wane under the weight of the skyrocketing rise of chess in Europe. As the northern Europeans converted to chess, hneftafl soon sank to the vague and incomplete shadow that we have of the game today.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Odin entertaining guests in Valhalla, by Emil Doepler  (1855–1922), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Grettir's Saga (anonymous Icelandic saga, c. 14th century) translated by Jesse Byock. New York: Oxford World's Classics, 2009.
• http://tafl.cyningstan.com/page/3/the-history-of-hnefatafl  

The Persian Origin Of The Word, “Checkmate”

The game of chess is arguably one of the most popular board games on earth, with a following in most countries around the world. Yet, despite this worldwide interest, the answers to vital questions about the game remain a mystery. For example, scholars have not been able to decisively pin down the exact location in which the game war born. In general, chess is thought to have originated in Asia around the 6th-century, with India being the most likely bet. Thankfully, we are much more certain about the origin of chess’ iconic victory-phrase—checkmate.

According to Persian legend, the game of chess was introduced into the Sasanian Persian Empire during the reign of Khosrow I (or Khusrau I, r. 531-579). In a dubious tale recorded during that time, the Persians were said to have sent their game of backgammon to India, and received chess in return in a sort of battle of wits, where each culture tried to decipher logic of the game rules created by the other country. Whether or not chess was introduced to Persia in this manner, the game did, indeed, become popular in the Middle East over the next few centuries.

Etymologists believe that the origin of the word, checkmate, traces back to the language of the Persians. In the Persian language, the objective of the game was to defeat the enemy king (shah) by making the king piece helpless or finished (mat). So, the phrase “shah mat” was coined by the Persians to state that “the king is helpless” or “the king is finished.” The phrase lived on in Arabic (as al-shāh māta), but was interpreted differently, translating into something akin to “the king is dead.” The phrase traveled to medieval France, where it was translated into “eschec mat” and then appeared in the Middle English language as “chekmaten.” Over time, the victory phrase simplified and modernized into the current English statement of “checkmate.”

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture attribution: ("Buzurgmihr Masters the Game of Chess" by Ferdowsi (940–1020), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• https://www.britannica.com/topic/chess  
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Khosrow-I
• https://www.etymonline.com/word/checkmate 
• https://www.jstor.org/stable/594376?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents 
• https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2011/the-game-of-kings-medieval-ivory-chessmen-from-the-isle-of-lewis/exhibition-blog/game-of-kings/blog/shah-mat 
• http://etymology.enacademic.com/9184/checkmate 
• https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/checkmate