Fidchell (pronounced fickle) is spoken of in many of the old tales including: 'Cuchulainn's Boyhood Deeds' in the Tain Bo Cuailnge; 'Cuchulainn's Boyhood Deeds' in the Tain Bo Cuailnge; and 'The Cattle Raid of Froech’. What then is this game?

The ancient Irish attributed Fidchell to the God Lugh. The other Irish and Welsh board games had strong associations with ravens, sacred to the goddess Morigna, goddess of battle in both cultures. The games were games of the nobility, played by the Druids and The Wise as a form of ritual divination, and associated with magic. In 'The Magic Gaming Board' the game pieces move by themselves, and one of Ireland's main 'treasures', it is recorded, was 'The Board of Crimthann'. This was brought from 'the depths of the sea'. Although the Celtic Christian Church was fairly tolerant in many aspects regarding traditional pagan practices. It was firmly opposed to Druidism, and all things affiliated with it. This association of Fidchell and Gwyddbwyll with magic and Druids may thus explain why these games were abandoned

Scholars believe Fidchell to be related to the Welsh game, Gwyddbwyll, which is mentioned in 'The Dream of Rhonabwy' in the Mabinogion, and 'The Magic Gaming Board' by an unknown 12th century Welsh author. The Welsh translates into ‘Wood Wisdom’. Tawl Bwrdd ("Throw Board") is the other main Welsh strategy game, which is basically a larger scale version of Gwyddbwyll. It is unclear whether or not Fidchell is directly related to another Irish game, Brandub (literally 'Black Raven') for which stronger documentation exists. There is no clear example of an original fidchell set in existence, nor any complete and reliable description of one. Medieval monks transcribing the old tales more often than not simply replaced Fidchell or Gwyddbwyll with chess.

Today, the most commonly accepted versions of the games are based on the Norse game Tablut. This would indeed fit most accounts of the game, and would simply be a larger version of Brandub or of Nine Men’s Morris, a British variant. However strong arguments can be made for other board arrangements, of Fidchell, such as a quartered circle, which would also meet the old descriptions. In 1932 archaeologists found a wooden board while excavating a crannog (lake dwelling) in Ballinderry, Ireland. It was marked with a 7 x 7 grid of holes, and was decorated with designs popular in the 10th century. Pegs were inserted in the holes, a bit like a cribbage board. Known as the Ballinderry artifact, this has been assigned the Fidchell label, and would be a strong argument to accept the Tablut hypothesis if this label is correct.

Other theories on the origin of Fidchell exist. One theory is that Fidchell was originally more like Roman Latrunculi and was later replaced by a tafl variant under Nordic influences. Again, there is no clear evidence either for or against this theory. Finally, there is a theory that Fidchell, Gwyddbwyll, and Tawl Bwrdd all derive in fact from an earlier Celtic game form uidu-queisla (wood's intelligence), common to both Wales and Ireland, and later replaced by the tafl versions under the influence of the Norse invaders.

There are no complete accounts regarding rules for Fidchell, Gwyddbwyll, or Tawl Bwrdd. Accounts would indicate that at least some of the time dice were used as a part of the games. How dice would fit into a Tablut like game is unclear. However, if Tablut is accepted for guidelines, and the Ballinderry artifact is used for a guide on the game board. Then we can deduce most of the likely rules, at least for Fidchell. Tafl games place a single king and his defenders in the center of the board surrounded by an army of attackers twice their number. The basic rules are that the defender starts with the king in the very center of the board and defended by his pawns. The defender wins if the king is able to break the siege by escaping to the edge of the board (or to a corner hole in some variations). The attacking army wins by surrounding the king on four sides to capture him. All of the pieces move any number of spaces left, or right, or up, or down, in the same manner as a rook in Chess.
Print Resources:
Games of the Gods, Nigel Pennick, Rider. 1988
Early Irish Myths and Sagas, trans. Jeffery Gantz, Penguin Classics, 1981
Web Resources
THE ORIGINS OF FIDCHELL http://www.unicorngarden.com/fidchell/origins.htm
"Lost Celtic Games", Renaissance Magazine , 2001. http://www.historicgames.com/learnmore/fid.html
Pagan Earth History Articles, Avalon Nuttair, http://ipc.paganearth.com/diaryarticles/history/games.html
Hnefetafl, Fidchell. A Preliminary Introduction http://www.geocities.com/solarguard/celtic/hnef.html
The enigmatic game of the Celts http://www.boardgamesstudies.org/studies/issue5/article.shtml?sanvito.txt