Hagbard wrote:According to Murray the king is armed, and Bell does not write that the king is weaponless. Both Murray and Bell writes that the king can reenter the throne. And Linnaeus has Muscovite base camps forbidden to the Swedes and the king, and the king armed.
The following to clarify. I'll here describe the path Carolus Linnaeus 1732 -> J. E. Smith 1811 -> H. J. R. Murray 1951 -> R. C. Bell 1960 -> Filip Rachunek 2002.
Linnaeus diary 1732.
1. Arx regia. Konokis Lappon., cui nullus succedere potest.
Transl.: Royal Citadel (or throne). Called Konokis in Lapp, no one is allowed to enter here.
Could mean "no one else than the king", or could be "the king included" which would mean no reenter.
O. Vacua loca occupare cuique licitum, item Regi, idem valet de locis characterisatis praeter arcem.
Transl.: Empty spaces can be occupied by any piece legally, including the King in addition to the throne.
From the description of the board set up. Base camps are not legal areas. Looks like the king can reenter the throne.
Linnaeus then gives many examples of moves which will be legal in course of the game, all example moves happen outside the base camps.
Rule 3 and 4 explains that the king wins if he reaches any parameter square outside the base camps.
9. Si qvis hostem 1 inter 2 sibi hostes collocare posit, est occisus et ejici debet, item Rex.
Transl.: If 1 piece finds itself trapped between 2 enemies, it is captured and must be removed from the board, including the King.
King is captured by 2 men like any other piece. If the king is included in the term "enemy", he would participate in the captures. Whereas if general reference to pieces does not include the king, he would not (as above where possibly rule O. indicates that "no one" in rule 1. does not include the king?)
Linnaeus then explains the exception that it takes 4 or 3 men to capture the king on the throne or next to the throne.
14. Arx potest intercludere, aeque ac trio, ut si miles in 2 et hostis in 3 est, occidat.
Transl.: The citadel can block, just as a third piece would, so that if a soldier is in 2 and an enemy in 3, he is killed.
The throne square (and base camps?) are hostile. Potest - can: could be that it is only hostile to Swedes when empty.
1811 Smith translates the Linnaus diary into English and introduces errors in the translation.
Murray 1951.
bases his reconstruction of Tablut on the Smith translation.
Murray introduced the escape of the king to any square on the periphery, and that the king must always be captured by 4 men, 3 men next to the throne. The king can reenter the throne. The king participates in captures. The throne is not hostile to anybody. Swedes move first.
I could not find the original Murray text on the internet, but this site claims to cite the book:
http://pages.cs.brandeis.edu/~storer/Ji ... Tablut.pdf
Bell 1960.
Bell's description of Tablut rules is identical to Murray. The original Bell text is available on the internet.
Filip Rachunek 2002.
Filip Rachunek from the Czech Republic explains that his parents bought a Slovak book of ancient board games around 1982. Rumor has it that the book is the above mentioned R.C.Bell, "Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations", 1960.
2002 Rachunek created a board game web site and
introduced these modifications of his own to the Murray/Bell Tablut rules:
- the king is weaponless
- the king cannot return to the throne
A rather large community has since then played tafl by these rules on the Rachunek site.