Lewis Chessmen: The Medieval Chess Pieces Found in Scotland

The Lewis Chessmen are a hoard of 93 carved gaming pieces and other objects found on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland in 1831. Made mostly from walrus ivory, probably in Norway between about 1150 and 1200, they include kings, queens, bishops, knights, warders and pawns with vivid, expressive faces. They are among the most famous medieval objects in Britain and a rare window into the culture of the Norse world in the 12th century.

Discovery on Lewis

The pieces came to light in 1831 at or near Uig, on the west coast of Lewis. Local tradition speaks of a stone chamber or cist uncovered in a sand dune, but the earliest accounts were written down years later and differ in detail. The name of the finder is uncertain, and later stories about a cowherd who fled believing he had found fairies are folklore.

The hoard was exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in Edinburgh in April 1831 by Roderick Ririe, a merchant from Stornoway. Most of the pieces were soon sold to the British Museum, encouraged by the antiquary Frederic Madden, who published the first scholarly study in 1832. Another eleven pieces passed through private hands, including those of the collector Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, before being bought for Scotland in 1888.

What the hoard contains

The hoard is usually counted as 93 objects: 78 chess pieces, 14 plain disc-shaped pieces for a game of tables (a relative of backgammon), and a belt buckle. The chess pieces include 8 kings, 8 queens, 16 bishops, 15 knights, 12 warders and 19 pawns.

Taken together they could make up parts of at least four chess sets, though no set is complete. The figures vary in size: the largest kings are about 10 centimetres tall. Differences in size and style suggest that the pieces were not carved as one matching group. A detailed study published in 2009 by David Caldwell, Mark Hall and Caroline Wilkinson compared facial features and carving techniques and suggested that several different craftsmen, perhaps four or five, were involved. Traces of red colouring were noted on some pieces when they were found, suggesting that one side of each set was stained red, as was usual in medieval chess.

Kings, queens and berserkers

The figures are carved in a lively style. Kings sit on elaborately decorated thrones with swords across their knees. Queens rest their chins on their hands, an expression often read as thoughtfulness or sorrow. Bishops wear mitres and hold croziers, and some of the earliest known chess pieces shown as bishops are among them.

The knights ride small, sturdy horses and carry spears and kite-shaped shields. The warders, which took the place of the modern rook or castle, are standing soldiers with swords and shields. Several of them bite the tops of their shields, a gesture associated in Norse literature with berserkers, warriors said to fight in a frenzy. The pawns are simple, slab-like shapes with little decoration.

Where were they made?

Most specialists believe the chessmen were carved in Trondheim, then called Nidaros, the seat of an archbishopric from 1152–1153 and a centre of skilled craft production. Similar carving has been found there, including a fragment of a queen piece and decoration on the city’s cathedral.

Other theories exist. Some Icelandic writers have proposed a workshop at Skálholt in Iceland, and others have suggested that some pieces were made elsewhere around the North Sea. The question is still debated, but a Norwegian origin remains the majority view.

Walrus ivory itself tells a story of long-distance trade. It came from hunting grounds in the far north, including Greenland, where the Norse settlements founded by Erik the Red shipped tusks to Norway. In the 12th century this ivory was a luxury material, used for church carvings as well as games. Its high value helps explain why such a large group of pieces was made and transported together, and why their owner may have taken pains to hide them.

Why were they on Lewis?

In the 12th century the Outer Hebrides belonged to the Kingdom of the Isles, which was under Norwegian overlordship. The islands lay on a busy sea route between Norway, the Norse settlements in Ireland such as Viking Dublin, and the Isle of Man. The Hebrides only passed to the Scottish crown under the Treaty of Perth in 1266.

How the hoard came to be buried is unknown. A popular suggestion is that the pieces were the stock of a merchant travelling to Ireland or the Hebrides, who hid them and never returned. Other possibilities include a buried treasure belonging to a local chief or a church. None can be proved. The authors of the 2009 study also suggested that some of the pieces could have been used for other board games, such as the Norse game hnefatafl, as well as for chess.

A divided collection

The division of the hoard between London and Edinburgh has been the subject of recurring debate in Scotland, with periodic calls for all the pieces to be brought together on Lewis. The two museums have cooperated on touring exhibitions, and a selection has been displayed at the Museum nan Eilean in Stornoway since its reopening in Lews Castle in 2016.

Not every piece found its way into a museum. In 2019 a warder that had been bought by an Edinburgh antiques dealer in 1964 for £5 was identified as one of the missing pieces from the hoard and sold at auction in London for £735,000.

Legacy

The Lewis Chessmen have become a symbol of medieval northern Europe. Replicas are sold widely, and the pieces have inspired children’s television, books and films, including the wizard’s chess game in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001).

They are also important evidence for the history of chess. The game had reached Europe from the Islamic world by around the year 1000, and the Lewis pieces show how Europeans reinterpreted it in terms of their own society, with bishops, mounted knights and queens replacing the counsellors and elephants of the Arabic game.

Medieval chess was played under rules that differed from today’s. The queen was a weak piece that moved only one square diagonally, and the bishop jumped two squares diagonally. The modern, more powerful queen appeared only in the late 15th century. The Lewis pieces therefore belong to a slower, more cautious version of the game, played by elites as a test of skill and a mirror of courtly society.

Timeline

• c. 1000: Chess becomes known in Christian Europe, having spread from the Islamic world.
• c. 1150–1200: The Lewis Chessmen are carved, probably in Trondheim.
• 1266: The Treaty of Perth transfers the Hebrides from Norway to Scotland.
• 1831: The hoard is found near Uig on the Isle of Lewis.
• April 1831: The pieces are exhibited in Edinburgh by Roderick Ririe.
• 1831–1832: The British Museum acquires 82 objects.
• 1888: Eleven pieces are acquired for the national collection in Edinburgh.
• 2019: A missing warder is sold at auction for £735,000.

Why it matters

The Lewis Chessmen bring together art, trade, religion and play in a single small find. They show the reach of Norse craft and commerce in the 12th century and remain one of the most recognisable images of the Middle Ages.