Rose & Pentagram Wood Games

Customer Comment: C. Swanson wrote:
Your games are absolutely beautiful. I studied Celtic archaeology at Harvard University and these games capture the true essence of Celtic culture. Your commitment to quality is certainly evident.

Morris is simple enough for children, yet the strategies can interest adults. The object is to form "mills" (3-in-a-row). When a you make a mill, you can steal an opponent's piece. You win by reducing the opponent to just 2 men. Early versions were played with 9 pieces, but in the 14th century diagonal lines were added to the board and it was played with 12 men. Our 14-inch square, inch-thick oak board can be used for either version.

We are offering two different styles of pewter game pieces in the shape of armor helmets.

A 14-inch square oak board with real buffalo/bison toe bones (from ranch raised animals) as the game pieces. One side is left natural bone and the other is stained a dark brown. Like the oak and pewter sets above it can be used to play both 9-man Morris, or 12-man Morris.

Coming Soon
Hnefatafl & Morris Game
game piece We are reworking our Hnefatafl game for 2010. The new version will be a two-sided board with a Hnefatafl game on one side and Morris on the reverse inspired by a two-sided game board found in the excavation of the 9th century Gokstad Ship Burial

Email us if you want to be notified when these are ready.

Our version of a game said to be a Norse Hnefatafl ("King's Table") game with "bone" game pieces inspired by a surviving English bone game piece found in Woodperry, Oxfordshire. "Tafl" games are said to have been played by Norse cultures as early as 400 A.D., and were imported by the Vikings to Iceland, Britain, Ireland, and Wales. They were the primary strategy games in Northern Europe prior to Chess. Unlike Chess, or Checkers which are fought by armies from opposite sides of the board, "Tafl" games involve a single king and his defenders in the center of the board surrounded by an army of attackers twice their number. Our version is inspired by an unusual fragment of a game board found with the the 9th century Gokstad Ship Burial discovered in Norway. The board fragment appeared to have a 13 x 13 grid. Traditionally, surviving boards are fairly plain, but to make it easier to set up we have identified the starting layout with simple knotwork designs. The boards are about 3/4" thick and 16-inches square. We also include facsimile sheep knucklebones as an option for playing "Tawlbwrdd" a Welsh variation which may have used dice.

Real Deer Bone* "Hnefatafl" Sets

These pieces are made from the toe bones from inside the deers' hoofs. The defending army is stained a dark brown, and the attackers are left the natural bone color. The sizes can vary from about 1 to 2 inches.
These are limited edition sets that we are able to offer only 3, or 4 times a year.
*Legal note
Hnefatafl Game with bone pieces
$130.00, Shipping: $18.00

These boards are "recycled" from drab old giant cribbage boards and have been given a new life, hand decorated with Celtic bird patterns so they make beautiful wall decorations when not in use. They all come with hand turned wooden pegs and our booklet of 14 variations on cribbage games. Keep an eye on our work in progress blog to see other boards we are working on

Limited Edition, Hand Colored
Pentalpha/Celtic Pentagram

Pentalpha is a solitaire or puzzle game believed to date to ancient Greece. The object is to discover how to get all 9 pieces on either a point or an intersection of the star. Each game piece can start on any empty point or intersection of the star, and each piece must move three spaces in a straight line to land on an empty space.

Contrary to popular belief, the Pentagram, or five-pointed star is not a symbol of evil. Few people realize that a five-pointed star was actually once a Christian symbol. In a 13th century version of the story "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" Gawain rides off carrying a shield with a five-point star on it that symbolized that the five wounds that Christ received on the cross, strengthened by the five joys that the Virgin Mary had in Jesus (The Annunciation, Nativity, Resurrection, Ascension, and Assumption). Another interpretation is that the points represent the four elements (earth, air water and fire), plus man (or spirit).

We have incorporated both interpretations in the designs of our pentagram. The rose in the center represents the crown of thorns and the Celtic motifs around the outside represent man and the elements. The hand painted board includes the rules and our own "Greenman" game pieces. We have made this game before, but this is a limited run, only 25 have been made.

$50.00 + $12.00 shipping

Tables of the Four Seasons
game table

The Backgammon game decorating this "recycled" table is inspired by a 4-player game "The Tables of the four Seasons" described in The Book of Games, a manuscript commissioned by Alphonso X of Spain in about 1280. Players used game pieces color-coded to represent the seasons. The knotwork decorating Backgammon board is an original pattern, as are the "Greenman" designs in the corners reflecting the changing seasons. The Celtic bird and dog patterns in the Chessboard, and the birds on the border of the table were inspired by similar designs in the Book of Kells. The table opens in the center to reveal a felt-lined compartment for storing the pieces.

game table detail The accompanying Chess set is a reproduction of a 12 century set found in the 1800's on the Isle of. It is considered one of the most important early Chess sets of Europe. The table comes with the Lewis Chessmen, Backgammon pieces, a complete set of our historic dice, playing cards plus booklets with 30 variations on Backgammon games and early card and dice games. The table is about 40" across.

Price reduced now, $2000.00