Academic shared story of fascinating Rosemount treasure at Viking event in Oslo

By Eilís Ryan

An Irish academic has just returned from a conference in Oslo, where she used a poster presentation to share information on a fascinating 1,000-year-old artefact found in Westmeath.

The Ballinderry Gameboard was discovered in 1932 during archaeological excavations at Ballinderry, near Rosemount. It is now in the possession of the National Museum of Ireland.

Square in shape and richly carved, the wooden board is believed to have been used for the old Norse game known as ‘Hnefatafl’ in Scandinavia and ‘Brandub’ in this country, explains the National University of Ireland’s Dr Emer Purcell, who lives near Kinnegad, and who is coordinator of the Forum for Medieval and Renaissance Studies in Ireland.

Dr Purcell, who has long been intrigued by the item, was keen to bring knowledge of it to other historians with an interest in northern Europe’s Viking past.

“Years ago, as part of my masters, I had to do a minor thesis in archaeology and a major thesis in history. So, for my minor thesis in archaeology, I looked at this 10th-century game board that was found in Ballinderry in County Westmeath,” says Dr Purcell.

She never actually published the work at the time, but has recently found her attention drawn back to it, as in her research she developed material which she believes does merit publication.

“It’s a beautiful board, as you can see,” she says of the item, which consists of a frame of interlacing and Celtic-style carvings surrounding a dark wooden panel pierced by 49 small holes, into which it is likely that pegs were placed.

From one edge there is a human head protruding, and from the opposite edge there is an animal head – almost like handles.

“So there are suggestions that people would have held the board on their lap, so they wouldn’t even have needed a table or any kind of a structure to hold it on,” says Dr Purcell, adding that there are references in the Irish sagas and ancient literature to the game Brandub.

“I suppose for me, one of the things that I love about the board is that, if you look at it, it’s decorated in lots of different art styles, both Irish and Scandinavian. One of the main Scandinavian motifs would be the ring-chain motif, and you can see that there if you look at it – and then you would have interlaced motifs, which would be more Irish.”

An aspect that really interests Dr Purcell is that the design gives an indication of how the Irish and the Scandinavians interacted.

“Oftentimes when people think – even today – about the Vikings, they still think about them as raiders, or, if they’re kind, they might think about them as traders. But we forget how much they actually interacted with the Irish, and you can really see that in the board, in terms of the mingling of the two different art styles that are used on the board and the name of the game.”

Since it was first recovered, the board has provoked a lot of debate and speculation.

“When it was first discussed, in the 1930s and 1940s, they thought maybe it was made on the Isle of Man. And then, when you had the excavations in Dublin, and again could see how much the Irish and the Vikings were interacting, they thought maybe the board was made in Dublin, and then there have even been suggestions that the board might have been made on site in Ballinderry Crannog Number One, from where the board was excavated,” she says.

One route that may yet give more of an indication as to where, in fact, the board was actually crafted would be analysis of the wood from which it was carved, and that possibility came up for discussion among interested parties at the conference in Oslo.

Other game boards – or fragments of them, at least – have been found in Ireland, but none of the quality of the Ballinderry game board, in the sense that none are as beautiful or as decorated.

Other examples have also been found in Scandinavia, and finds in the Shetlands have revealed that there were also slate versions in use. The quality of the board used was probably an indicator of the wealth of the owner of the object – and it is likely that the person who owned the Ballinderry board would have had to invest quite a lot to obtain such an ornate piece.

According to Dr Purcell, it appears that Hnefatafl/Brandub are based on a game played by Roman soldiers – Ludus Latrunculorum.

“So they think the Roman soldiers would have played these games perhaps when they were in camp, waiting around for battles or whatever, to amuse themselves. But it’s funny because in the Irish and in Norse tradition, being able to play a board game is important for a king because it meant you understood strategy. The game that was played on the Ballinderry board was like a war game. It was a strategy game. You had to be clever. It wasn’t a game of chance.

“It’s likely with Brandub that the important thing was to protect the king, and to get the king to move around the board. So if you were good at board games, then as a king you were also good at strategy and at battle.”

Dr Purcell points out that an indication of that is contained in the work Cogad Gaedel re Gallaib, which describes some of the Irish kings playing another boardgame – Fidchell – before the Battle of Clontarf. Fidchell has sometimes been thought to be chess – and, in fact, the word is often translated as chess.

“But it wasn’t chess: chess didn’t really come to Ireland or England until much later, till around the 12th century,” says Dr Purcell.

The event at which Dr Purcell had her poster presentation on display was the 20th Viking Congress.

“The congress happens every four years, of scholars from all around, Scandinavia, Norway, Iceland, England, Scotland, the Hebrides, Ireland, Wales, of all people who work on Viking studies.

“It hasn’t been held in Ireland since 2005. It was held in Cork, but it’s coming back to Ireland in 2030. It’s our turn to host it. The host country takes you around sites that would be of interest to Viking scholars.

"So, for example, last time when it was held here in Ireland, we took them around and gave them a guided tour of Medieval Cork. The Viking settlement at Woodstown, County Waterford, had just been found, so we took them over, and they had a look around Woodstown. And we took them to Skellig Michael.”

Ballymore

Interestingly, 17 ancient gaming pieces were discovered at Lough Sewdy, Ballymore, and they are believed to have been used in Hnefatafl, the game played on a board such as that found at Ballinderry.

The large sculpture in the tranquility garden beside the Westmeath County Council offices is in the shape of one of the gaming pieces.

To see an interactive 3D model of the Ballinderry Game Board, made by the Discovery Programme, see https://skfb.ly/psIzD.

Vikings

If you are interested in Vikings, hear more about Viking Woodstown and Viking Dublin in October at the Dublin Festival of History. For the ninth year running, NUI, Dublin City Council Archaeology Section, the Norwegian Embassy in Dublin, and Dublinia are collaborating to present the Viking studies seminar ‘Viking Ireland and the Wider World’.

The event is from 10am to 12pm on Friday October 9 at the Wood Quay Venue, Dublin City Council Offices, Dublin 8, and participants can attend online or in person.

Booking will open in September. Further details at www.nui.ie.