What board games did the Vikings like to play?

Scientists have discovered a figurine that was used in board games more than 1200 years ago.

In September 2019, an amazing little thing, whose age is estimated at 1,200 years, was discovered on the English island of Lindisfarne. Experts say that a figurine carved from expensive materials is the king from Hnefatafl, a Scandinavian analogue of chess. Apparently, once this figurine belonged to one of the rulers of the Vikings, and it found itself in England during one of the raids. What is interesting is that there used to be a monastery on the Lindisfarne territory, which was ravaged by the Vikings in 793. Perhaps this is how the king from the Viking board game ended up on an English island. 

There is also another version: a number of historians argue that the Scandinavian game was known in other lands. The fact is that the Vikings loved board games, and could even teach potential enemies to play them. Thus, the found figurine could have been made in England, and the raid has nothing to do with it. Whatever it was, now Hnefatafl is not exactly popular, giving way to more familiar to us chess. People in modern Scandinavian countries love it just as much.