Daldøs

Daldøs [dal'døs] is a running-fight board game only known from a few coastal locations in southern 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. Daldøs has much in common with some games in the sáhkku family of Sámi board games. Sáhkku is known to have been played among Sámi on the northern coast and eastern-central inland of Sápmi, far away from Jæren and Denmark. 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.

==Etymology== In the name daldøs, the first syllable refers to the throw dal. The marking A on the daldøs dice probably stands for ace or the like, but the etymology of the name dal remains a mystery. One theory connects dal to Medieval English daly, meaning die. Døs is probably a variant of a Nordic word traditionally used for the "two" on a die, related to old French doues, surviving in the Danish word sinkadus, originally meaning a dice throw from another dice game of a 5 and a 2. Most of the tâb games and the Samít sáhkku game are likewise named after the dice throw "one", which is required to release the pieces so that they can start moving; there is no obvious reason why the throw "two" should be included in the name of the game, unless "daldøs" actually means "two dals" (dal-dal).