GALLERY - NINE MEN'S MORRIS

Nine Men's Morris a board game of strategy played from about 1440 BC, through medieval times, and still today. In the story, ...a rib from Eve, this is Malgven's favorite game.

    Grandmother Levinia told Malgven that the two halves and four quarters of the Morris Square represent the sacred calendar. Grandmother had been very uneasy with this game because, as the players symbolically crossed the boundaries of time with their tokens, sacred ritual demanded each half and quarter to be greeted with ceremony.
 
    Many people, both pagan and Christian, enjoyed this game, but to the Ban Drui, the Morris Square was a symbol of death and rebirth as well as the changing of the seasons. For eons Levinia's ancestors had called upon powerful spirits, celebrated the laws of time, and invoked incantations while performing the Morris Dance. When at battle on the board, in a symbolic dance, one might cast a spell and not even realize it.
 
    Levinia’s sister had been quite adept at reading one’s future while engaging with the Morris Square. In Melusina’s words . . .
 
    “Levinia, it is so easy! You see how there is a square within, a square within, a square, and all are divided into four quarters? Each place where the line intersects is a groove, which makes twenty-four grooves. Each player has nine tokens. They take turns placing or moving one of their tokens into the groove. When a player gets three of his tokens in a row, that’s a mill, thus, he can eliminate one of his opponent’s tokens. To divine the messages, you must merely watch the strategy of the players, observing where, and in what order they move their tokens among the squares. The patterns are endless and delightful to behold.
 
    “The innermost square is the Great Mother Goddess and the birth or beginning. The middle square is influenced by powerful spirits, entangling or guiding life paths as they are engaged. The outer square represents those who enter and leave their paths. Beyond the outer square is the end… death. . . or a new beginning. Now as the tokens move about or are surrendered among the squares within squares, that is where the details unfold . . .

Play It

The object of the game, similar to checkers and chess, is to capture your opponent's tokens. You win when your opponent is down to two tokens. There are three phases to the game.

Phase I: You take turns placing your tokens on the board, one at a time.

Phase II: Capture your opponent's tokens by getting three tokens in a row, which is called a mill. During this phase you may only move one space at a time and must stay on the strait lines when you move.

Phase III: You only have three of your tokens left. At this point you may move your token anywhere on the board, without following the lines.

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