Nordic Kubb (ages 5+) at Nordic Northwest

The object of the game is to knock over the King. This can be attempted only when you have knocked down all of your opponent’s wooden blocks called Kubbs using the throwing batons (kastpinnar). But be wary, knock over the King before all of the Kubbs and you have lost the game. Game pieces consist of set of ten wooden kubbs, one king, six batons and six field marking pins.

 

 

Kubb’s origin is steeped in mystery. An ancient Scandinavian game, thought to have originated over 1,000 years ago. Legend has it the Vikings used to while away hours on end playing the game during the long light evenings of the northern summers. But the most likely story is woodsman in Sweden created it to keep their kids entertained.

 

 

The earliest mention of a Kubb-like game comes from the second edition of the Swedish Encyclopedia “Nordisk Familjebok” (the Nordic family book) in 1911, where it was called “Kägelkrig: (Skittles war). By the 1930s the game is widely played through Sweden with an explosion of popularity in the 1980s. Kubb translates to “block of wood” in Swedish. Annual World Championship has been held since 1995 on Gotland, a Swedish island. The version we know today started gaining in popularity in the late 1980s when commercial Kubb sets were first manufactured. It is not until the early 2000s before its popularity begins to grow in the United States. Since 2007 the U.S. National Kubb tournament takes place annually in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Now the game is bigger than ever with large tournaments taking place all over the world.