Daldøs

Daldøs [dal'døs] is a running-fight board game only known from a few coastal locations in Scandinavia, where its history can be traced back to around 1800. The game is notable for its unusual four-sided dice (stick or long dice). In Denmark it is known as daldøs in Northern and Western Jutland (Mors, Thisted and Fanø), and possibly as daldos on Bornholm. In Norway it is known under the name of daldøsa from Jæren, where, unlike in Denmark, a continuous tradition of the daldøs game exists. A rather similar game called sáhkku, using virtually identical dice, is known in a number of variants from the Sea Sami in Northern Norway, Finland and Russia. Otherwise, the closest relatives of this game appear to be the tâb games from Northern Africa and South-western Asia, possibly apart from one unlabelled diagram in a codex from Southern England.

Typical materials

Board

The board is boat-shaped and has three parallel rows of holes, two of which (A and B) have 16 holes each, while the middle row (C) has an extra hole in the prow of the ship.