“One night in the spring Thorir could not sleep; he walked out and it rained hard; he heard a loud bleating from where the lambs were separated from the ewes; Thorir walked there and saw that two kids and two lambs were lying tied on the wall of the fold, and in the fold sat two women playing at chess; the pieces were made of silver, but all the red ones were gilded. They were much startled. Thorir got hold of them and seated them at his side, and asked why they stole his sheep.... Thorir agreed that they might take the sheep with them, but that he should have the chessboard and what belonged to it; on the strings of the _taflpung_ (chess-bag) was a gold ring set with stones, and a silver ring was in the chessboard. Thorir took all this, and they parted” (Gullthori’s Saga, ch. 14). The temper of the players did not always remain unruffled. “It happened that Thorgils Bödvarsson and Sám Magnússon quarrelled over a game of chess; Sám wanted to move back a knight which he had exposed, but Thorgils would not allow it. Markús Mardarson advised them to move the knight back and not quarrel. Thorgils said he would not take his advice, and upset the chess, put (the pieces) into the bag, rose and struck Sám on the ear, so that blood flowed” (Sturlunga Saga viii., vol. ii. c. 1). “Fridthjof sat at a hnefa-tafl when Hilding came. He said: ‘Our kings send thee greetings, and want to have thy help for battle against King Hring, who wants to attack their realm overbearingly and unjustly.’ Fridthjof answered nothing, and said to Björn, with whom he played the game: ‘There is an empty place, foster-brother, and thou shalt not make a move but I will attack the red piece (tafla), and see if thou canst guard it.’ Björn said: ‘Here are two choices, foster-brother, and we can move in two ways.’ Fridthjof answered: ‘It is best to attack the hnefi (= the highest piece) first, and then it is easy to choose what to do’” (Fridthjof’s Saga, ch. 3). It seems that the pieces that had just been moved were called out in a loud voice. “The king (Magnus the Good) sat and played at _Hneftafl_, and a man called out the names of the king’s pieces when Ásmund came.” Games with dice were of great antiquity, as seen from the finds, which prove even more than the Sagas how common dice-throwing was. The dice-throwing of the three Northern kings about Hisingen shows that the highest throw won. [Illustration: Fig. 1338.—Die of bone. Real size.—Ultuna find. ]