Back to the past, and a rainy game of old-school chess.
Áine is feeling a bit down about her failure in becoming a witch, but something else is on her mind? More next week…
Bata Neart
Irish Magical Girls!
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Back to the past, and a rainy game of old-school chess.
Áine is feeling a bit down about her failure in becoming a witch, but something else is on her mind? More next week…
Being the trivia obsessed nerd that I am, this sent me scurrying to Wikipedia, where I found out that chess probably originated in India before the 7th century, from where it spread both east and west along the silk road. However, it doesn’t seem to have arrived in Western Europe until the 9th century. So they probably aren’t actually playing chess, but board games in general are very old and very widespread. For example, Senet is known to have existed in Predynastic Egypt in the 4th millennium BCE
Awwwww, Múinteoir. You sank Áine’s battleship. 😛
@Azrael: I think you mean she sank Aine’s trireme, don’t you? 😉
@Kessy: Good spot Kessy, however to fuel the fire a bit, this isn’t modern chess I’m showing…it is the mysterious chess-like game Fidchell.
“Fidchell” is now the Gaelige word for Modern Chess, however the game that it’s name is derived from is cloaked in a lot of mystery. We don’t actually know how it was played and has only been mentioned in legend. One legend suggests that Tuatha Dé Danann brought the game to Ireland when they invaded. That doesn’t help a lot though, since they were an equally mysterious race of people with ‘God-like’ abilities whose rule was suddenly ended when they simply “Disappeared” when the Milesians (Spanish Celts) invaded. So there probably was a game like this during Áine’s lifetime, but we know very little about it. I’m making a guess here by using classic chess pieces and not showing too much of the board 😀
“Let a Bata Neart be your umbrella”?
Wait until Aoife finds out about this feature. ^^
I need an umbrella like that, man. Do they sell Bata Nearts at the corner store, or is breaking my spine in a cave the only way to get one?
@melaredblu: I think breaking your spine is the only way to get a *good* one. I think you stub your toe really hard a few times you might get a Mini Neart, which will give you the ability to dodge rain for about a minute….better than nothing I guess? 😀