Home Philosophy Haretavl – Hare and Hounds as a board game
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Haretavl – Hare and Hounds as a board game

Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Explore this Subject How to publish with us
Sport und Spiel bei den Germanen
This chapter is in the book Sport und Spiel bei den Germanen
Haretavl– Hare and Hounds as a board game197Peter MichaelsenHaretavl– Hare and Hounds as a board gameThe French Military GameIn 1887 the French mathematician Édouard Lucas described and analyzed a boardgame namedLe Jeu Militaire (“The Military Game”). He wrote an article about it in themagazineLa Nature.1 In this game three game pieces chase one single piece on a linedboard consisting of twelve triangles. The hunted piece may move in all directionswhile the hunters are only allowed to move left, right or forward. There is no captureand the object of the game is for one player to immobilize the hunted piece, and for theother to let it slip behind »enemy lines”. The three pursuing pieces are placed at oneend of the board with the pursued piece on the point in front of them. The player withthe single piece opens the game by moving it to the centre of the small board with 11crossing points. According to Édouard LucasLe Jeu Militaire had obtained great popu-larity in French military circles and at theCafé de la Régence in Paris. Lucas assisted atan event at the Parisian café in which a champion of draughts defeated a strong chessplayer in the new game, and solved problems without watching the board.Édouard Lucas quotes a passage from the military magazineLe Bulletin de la Réu-nion des officiers, from August 1886, according to which this game was invented by aretired sub lieutenant, Knight of the Legion of Honour, Monsieur Louis Dyen. In thesame passage the game is recommended as being very useful for officers. The game issaid to give an idea about the strategic manoeuvres that three cavalry brigades,namedtours (towers), may use in their fight against a military corps. Furthermore,Lucas quotes from a flyer accompanying the box with Dyen’s game. In this flyer Dyen,who names himself “inventor” of the game, offers money rewards to players who candefeat him in a match. However, it seems that opinions differed concerning who wasactually the inventor of the game. Lucas mentions in a note that according to MartinGall, who wrote articles about abstract games in the magazineGil Blas, the inventor ofLe Jeu Militaire was Monsieur Constant Roy, from Saint-Mandé (Seine), one of the east-ern suburbs of Paris. Constant Roy, a graduate engineer, did actually take out a patentfor an identical game,Le Stratagème militaire, in January 1886. All the rules, and eventhe game terminology, are identical with those used by Dyen, except that in this casethe towers fight against an officer.21Lucas 1887: 402–404, and 1893: 105–116.2Boutin 2004: 53. I am thankful to Michel Boutin for sending a photocopy of patent no. 173655 fromJanuary 21, 1886, with a description of Constant Roy’s game. “Martin Gall” was a pseudonym of theFrench chess champion Jules Arnous de Riviére (1830–1905).

Haretavl– Hare and Hounds as a board game197Peter MichaelsenHaretavl– Hare and Hounds as a board gameThe French Military GameIn 1887 the French mathematician Édouard Lucas described and analyzed a boardgame namedLe Jeu Militaire (“The Military Game”). He wrote an article about it in themagazineLa Nature.1 In this game three game pieces chase one single piece on a linedboard consisting of twelve triangles. The hunted piece may move in all directionswhile the hunters are only allowed to move left, right or forward. There is no captureand the object of the game is for one player to immobilize the hunted piece, and for theother to let it slip behind »enemy lines”. The three pursuing pieces are placed at oneend of the board with the pursued piece on the point in front of them. The player withthe single piece opens the game by moving it to the centre of the small board with 11crossing points. According to Édouard LucasLe Jeu Militaire had obtained great popu-larity in French military circles and at theCafé de la Régence in Paris. Lucas assisted atan event at the Parisian café in which a champion of draughts defeated a strong chessplayer in the new game, and solved problems without watching the board.Édouard Lucas quotes a passage from the military magazineLe Bulletin de la Réu-nion des officiers, from August 1886, according to which this game was invented by aretired sub lieutenant, Knight of the Legion of Honour, Monsieur Louis Dyen. In thesame passage the game is recommended as being very useful for officers. The game issaid to give an idea about the strategic manoeuvres that three cavalry brigades,namedtours (towers), may use in their fight against a military corps. Furthermore,Lucas quotes from a flyer accompanying the box with Dyen’s game. In this flyer Dyen,who names himself “inventor” of the game, offers money rewards to players who candefeat him in a match. However, it seems that opinions differed concerning who wasactually the inventor of the game. Lucas mentions in a note that according to MartinGall, who wrote articles about abstract games in the magazineGil Blas, the inventor ofLe Jeu Militaire was Monsieur Constant Roy, from Saint-Mandé (Seine), one of the east-ern suburbs of Paris. Constant Roy, a graduate engineer, did actually take out a patentfor an identical game,Le Stratagème militaire, in January 1886. All the rules, and eventhe game terminology, are identical with those used by Dyen, except that in this casethe towers fight against an officer.21Lucas 1887: 402–404, and 1893: 105–116.2Boutin 2004: 53. I am thankful to Michel Boutin for sending a photocopy of patent no. 173655 fromJanuary 21, 1886, with a description of Constant Roy’s game. “Martin Gall” was a pseudonym of theFrench chess champion Jules Arnous de Riviére (1830–1905).

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Vorwort v
  3. Inhaltsverzeichnis vii
  4. Einleitung 1
  5. Die Schachterminologie des Altwestnordischen und der Transfer des Schachspiels nach Skandinavien 29
  6. Das Brettspiel in der skaldischen Dichtung 87
  7. Das Spiel der Engländer. Backgammonspiele im Ms. Royal 13 A xviii der British Library 109
  8. Board of the Kings: the Material Culture of Playtime in Scotland AD 1–1600 163
  9. Haretavl – Hare and Hounds as a board game 197
  10. Die Brettspiele des mittelalterlichen Irland und Wales 217
  11. Das Losbuch Ett litet Tidhfördriff des Grubenschreibers Gisle Jacobson und das mittelalterliche dobbel-Spiel 245
  12. „Für den Trinker gibt es Rat, für den Doppler selten.“ Das Doppel-Spiel in skandinavischen Rechtstexten des Mittelalters 307
  13. Das Schlagballspiel der Wikinger. Aspekte einer Real- und Literaturgeschichte des Knattleikr 341
  14. “Tennis-balls, my liege.” Zu den kultur- und literaturhistorischen Hintergründen einer Provokation in William Shakespeares Henry V. 359
  15. „Var talad mart um glímur“ – Ringkampf im alten Island 377
  16. At preyta sund vid konunginn – Wettkampf mit dem König 401
  17. Game grounds in western and ship races in eastern Scandinavia: an archaeological-interdisciplinary view 429
  18. Horse-fights and cow-fights in Norwegian folk tradition 457
  19. (Nur) Ein Spiel? Spieltheoretische Überlegungen zu den Pferdekämpfen der Sagaliteratur 467
  20. „Beizjagd“ auf den Rothirsch – Asiatische Jagdmethoden im Norden, keltische Vorbilder oder germanisches Jägerlatein? 481
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110338294.197

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Vorwort v
  3. Inhaltsverzeichnis vii
  4. Einleitung 1
  5. Die Schachterminologie des Altwestnordischen und der Transfer des Schachspiels nach Skandinavien 29
  6. Das Brettspiel in der skaldischen Dichtung 87
  7. Das Spiel der Engländer. Backgammonspiele im Ms. Royal 13 A xviii der British Library 109
  8. Board of the Kings: the Material Culture of Playtime in Scotland AD 1–1600 163
  9. Haretavl – Hare and Hounds as a board game 197
  10. Die Brettspiele des mittelalterlichen Irland und Wales 217
  11. Das Losbuch Ett litet Tidhfördriff des Grubenschreibers Gisle Jacobson und das mittelalterliche dobbel-Spiel 245
  12. „Für den Trinker gibt es Rat, für den Doppler selten.“ Das Doppel-Spiel in skandinavischen Rechtstexten des Mittelalters 307
  13. Das Schlagballspiel der Wikinger. Aspekte einer Real- und Literaturgeschichte des Knattleikr 341
  14. “Tennis-balls, my liege.” Zu den kultur- und literaturhistorischen Hintergründen einer Provokation in William Shakespeares Henry V. 359
  15. „Var talad mart um glímur“ – Ringkampf im alten Island 377
  16. At preyta sund vid konunginn – Wettkampf mit dem König 401
  17. Game grounds in western and ship races in eastern Scandinavia: an archaeological-interdisciplinary view 429
  18. Horse-fights and cow-fights in Norwegian folk tradition 457
  19. (Nur) Ein Spiel? Spieltheoretische Überlegungen zu den Pferdekämpfen der Sagaliteratur 467
  20. „Beizjagd“ auf den Rothirsch – Asiatische Jagdmethoden im Norden, keltische Vorbilder oder germanisches Jägerlatein? 481
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 21.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110338294.197/html?srsltid=AfmBOoppL8Wb-wq8KCeskW8Xw5AnnidnfSjm9SK3YvGBVfob0ecz8Bjd
Scroll to top button