Fidchell - WikiHQ

() or (in Welsh, pronounced ) was a board game popular among the ancient Celts. Fidchell was played between two people who moved an equal number of pieces across a board; the board shared its name with the game played upon it.

Etymology

The name of the game in multiple Celtic languages -- Old Irish , Middle Welsh , Breton , Cornish —is a compound translating to "wood-wisdom", "wood-intelligence", or "wood-sense". The fact that the compound is identical in each language suggests that it is of extreme antiquity, with the unattested earlier form being reconstructed *widu-kweillā "wood-understanding" in Common Celtic. The game is often compared to or identified with chess, though chess was unknown in Europe until the 12th century.

| attr1=Amra Colmcille

| attr2=ed. & trans. Whitley Stokes (1899)

suggesting that was played by equal forces.

|attr1=Mac Dá Cherda and Cummaine Foda

|attr2=ed. & trans. J. G. O'Keefe (1911)

Unlike latrunculi with its usual pebble-shaped counters, however, conical pieces may also have been innovated among the Insular Celts, as stone cones for gaming have been found in sites at Shetland, Scotland and Knowth, Ireland.

|attr1=Echtra Nerai

|attr2=ed. & trans. Kuno Meyer

The legends describe as a game played by royalty and by gods. In legend, it was invented by , god of light and inspiration,

Confusion with tafl

In the board games literature, it has often been suggested that is a variant of the Welsh game , itself descended from the Norse games. These games, along with the Irish , are played on a grid, often seven squares by seven, with the king in the middle. The king has a number of defending pieces around it at the beginning of the game, and they are surrounded by twice as many attackers. The object is to make a clear path for the king to the edge of the board, while the attackers must attempt to surround, and thereby capture, the king. However, variants are usually played with unequal numbers of pieces, the attackers being twice as numerous as the defenders. by contrast was played with equal numbers on both sides and there is no indication of a king piece.

thumb|Layout for a game known as fitchneal or fidchell, which is not equivalent to historical and

An artefact found in Ballinderry, County Westmeath in 1932, known as the Ballinderry Game Board, has been suggested to represent fidchell. This is a wooden board with Celtic symbols on it, with a seven-by-seven grid, marked off by 49 holes.

Historically, games, especially , were often played with a die, made of a sheep's knucklebone, and this feature seems absent in . In Wales, a clear distinction is made between and , which, if also true of Ireland, would tend to indicate a similar distinction between and .

Historical impact

, as described in the legends, often has a mystical or divinatory aspect to it. Battles ebb and flow as a result of the ebb and flow of a game of , games play themselves, great events are decided on the outcome of a match. This supernatural aspect is not as clearly reflected in the games.

There is clear archaeological and textual evidence that a variant was played in Ireland in ancient times; however, this is more likely to have been the game of brandub, which had a king piece. Fidchell was played with equal forces, and so was not a form of tafl.

References

Bibliography

External links

Rules and boards

– a very clear set of Fitchneal rules.

– suggested by some scholars to be a Fidchell game.

– information about Fitchneal and other ancient Irish games.

– includes a Fitchneal game, although it uses a different board layout

Computer versions

– a Macromedia Shockwave version

– a Fitchneal widget for the Mac OS‑X dashboard

br:Gwezboell

cy:Gwyddbwyll#Gwyddbwyll Geltaidd