Date: Wed, 6 Aug 1997 13:54:00 +0100
From: Stuart Dagger (s.dagger@maths.abdn.ac.uk)
Subject: Tafl
Ken,
A postscript to Daniel Thibault's excellent article on Tafl:
He began by quoting a translation of a poem by Earl Rognvald. Rognvald was a twelfth century Earl of Orkney (when Orkney and Shetland were still independent) and, with his father, the builder of one of Scotland's most magical buildings, St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall. His claim to the earldom was through his mother, who was sister to the martyred Earl Magnus, and he followed his uncle not only as an Earl of Orkney but in being canonised. So if boardgamers need a patron saint, I reckon that he is our man.
I also have a question for Daniel. Back in the early seventies, when 3M was still publishing games, they had an excellent two-player abstract called Ploy. Its designer was Frank Thibault. The combination of name, nationality and interests sounds like too much of a coincidence. Are the two of them related?
Stuart