'The Mystery of the Lewis Chessmen' - What Are They & Where Did They Come From?
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- Опубликовано: 24 дек 2020
- A short 'mock-lecture' presented by the President of The Cape Breton University Society (Avery).
Even if you've never played chess, odds are, you have heard of it. In this short 'mock-lecture,' The Cape Breton University Society will explain what The Lewis Chessmen are. Believed to have originated in Norway, but were later discovered in Scotland in 1831, the Lewis Chessmen are not all that they seem. Beyond their simple, but quaint ascetic, the Chessmen hold many secrets.
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The symbol on right the pawn is actually the Anglo-saxon rune letter G, called "Gar" ( spear ). As in Gerald and other names starting with Ger or Gar. ( Gerard - skillfull with the spear).
Fun fact: Medieval chess moves were different. The queen could only move one space diagonally, the bishop moved like a checker, knights, rooks and the king move the same. Pawns were mostly the same but there was no pawn skip or en passant.
Another Pop Culture reference would be in the first season of the Hulu series Castle Rock. They are featured quite prominently in the series.
Pop culture reference in Searching for Bobby Fischer: The chess piece that Josh finds in the park at the beginning of the movie appears to be a replica of a knight from the Lewis Chessmen.
Further pop culture reference between Agatha Christie and Harry Potter is "Noggin the Nog" an animated children's TV programme in the 1960s from Peter Firmin who based his characters on the Lewis chessmen
Interesting, as I've never heard of this before (mind you it's much before my time). I'm definitely going to look this up! Thanks for sharing!
Just looked it up. Absolutely love the animation style! So adorable and innocent looking. Why can't modern cartoons look like this?! Thanks again for sharing this!
The Queen was actually the weakest on the early time of Chess, it got much better as an attacking piece in the 15th Century, also the pawns aren't bad, they are the backbone of the game, and they can be as powerful as a rook in certain positions. But that being said, it's really interesting the history of the pieces.
Wow, that's actually really interesting, as I never knew that. Thanks for sharing!
Great video, thanks for making. Yes, as said, the Queen at this time moved one square diagonally and therefore was weak. Pawns are important in chess, they kind of like hold it all together, without them, the game would be 'chaos'. And yes, as someone said, pawns can become very powerful and of course, they can promote on the final rank.
You can buy at good game shops these pieces, around 250 Australian dollars, made of a hard stone, fairly big size, I have 2 sets, on a big nice wooden board, they are beautiful, more like art than chess. Anyways, terrific video, well done.
Thank you! Really appreciate it! I'm in Canada, so it would be interesting to see what the conversion and shipping would be from Australian to Canadian dollar. I imagine it would be quite pricey, but I'll definitely check it out nonetheless! Thanks for the suggestion!
I love the look of the chessmen, as they're just so quaint and really, are just a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. I'd love to own a set one day.
Very interesting video
I wondered if all the pieces appear to be carved by the same artist? If so, I wonder if perhaps the location was where the carver lived or worked and that's why there were so many. 96, I believe you said? That carver may have been the go-to for folks to commission pieces. Your video has peaked my interest in these pieces so I'm gonna go google so I can hopefully see what all of them looked like! Thanks for the great vid, Avery.
Upon first read I see that 78 were found. My bad, I didn't listen very well :)
Further pop culture reference would be “Noggin The Nog”, an animated children’s tv program by Peter Firmin whom based the character on the “Isles of Lewis Chessmen Warder” and “Castle Rock” Netflix Original series season 1 (episode 7) proving the “worldwide sensation” of the “Isles of Lewis Chessmen” that even invaded “Hollywood’s Silver Screen & Television’s Giant App Netflix”!!! “CIAO!”
Any chance you could give some size dimensions of the pieces so that those of us not lucky enough to see them in real life , can get a feel or sense of their size and the space they inhabit.
Cheers:)
Hey Peter.
Thanks for the question! Apologies for the tardy response, as I typically don't check my notifications as much now, since it's the summer. I actually haven't seen them in person either, as I still need to make my way to the British Museum or the National Museum of Scotland one of these days (preferably when there's no Covid). That said, I do remember recording some of the size dimensions when I did my research, but can't recall what they were off the top of my head. I'll look through my notes and get back to you as soon as I can. If you have any other questions, feel free to let me know!
Hey Peter. I have a couple dimensions here for you. I checked my notes and it turns out I only had the size dimensions recorded for the king, which was about 10.8 cm tall. So, I did a quick Google search and found out that the pawns are about 3.5cm - 5.8cm tall (depending on the set), while the other pieces are about 7-10cm tall. The largest piece being the king.
Hopefully this answers your question and if you have any other questions, feel free to let me know, as I'd be happy to answer them!
great little documentary, maybe its just me, but the horse facing forward looks similar to the Icelandic horse
Great observation! I definitely think you're on to something there, as the Icelandic horse has the long hair in front of its face, like the chessmen's horse does. Could just be a coincidence though, but what's the fun in thinking that way ;)
Wouldn't surprise me if it were based on that type of horse though, as there is evidence to say that the Vikings were in Iceland at some point in history.