So, as we have occasionally discussed … while Einstein et co were pondering upon God playing dice with the universe – Indo-European Gods were not only playing dice, but also an array of other games, as well.

Here’s an illustration from the cover of a Tamil magazine (‘Kalki’, so I’m told) featuring Shiva playing a game akin to Chess [c.f Chaturanga] with His Wife, Parvati.

Now, it occurs to me that these games might be fairly ‘high stakes’ – in addition to the rather famous circumstances of the dice game between Shiva and Parvati (which we’ve written upon elsewhere -suffice to say the scale of consequence becomes literally ontological; and Two Omniscient Beings gambling becomes more a contest in how well Each is able to ‘cheat’ effectively and attempt to get away with it … ), there’s a Tamil legend wherein Shiva in fact wins the right to marry Parvati by besting Her [then incarnated as Rajarajeshwari] at Chess [a game of which She was and is a master].

Yet the most remarkable ‘Game of the Gods’ that I can think of is that presented in the Nordic sphere – more specifically, the inference we are seemingly invited to draw from the detailing found within the Voluspa beginning at the point wherein the next ‘Cycle of Creation’ [post-‘Pralaya’] is described as featuring the ‘playing pieces’ being picked up and reset for another go.

I shall let a prior work of mine take over the narration duties:

“As the Voluspa puts it, speaking of the situation at Iðavöllr following the ‘clearing of the board’ at the conclusion of Ragnarok :

“Þar munu eftir undrsamligar
gullnar töflur í grasi finnask,
þærs í árdaga áttar höfðu.”

Now, Bellows has rendered that verse [ 61 ] as the following:

“In wondrous beauty | once again
Shall the golden tables | stand mid the grass,
Which the Gods had owned | in the days of old,”

Except I believe there’s a slight error there – in the manner in which he’s translated töflur. It most certainly can mean ‘Table’ – although even there, it should most likely be approximated to ‘Board’, as in ‘Game-Board’.

However, there is also another sense in which töflur may be meant – ‘playing pieces’. We find this directly referenced in the Riddles (‘Gátur’) of ‘Gestumblindi’ (actually Odin in disguise) as reported in Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks.

The verse [ 19 ] reads:

“Hverjar eru þær drósir, er vega vápnlausar um dróttin sinn?
Inar jarpari hlífa um alla daga, en inar fegri fara.
Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.”

“Who are those girls, who fight weaponless around their lord?
The darker ones protect [him] during all the days, but the fairer ones go forth [to attack].
King Heiðrekr, think about the riddle.” [Burrows translation]

The answer comes back:
“þat er hneftafl; tǫflur drepaz vápnalausar um hnefann ok fylgja honum enar rauðu”
“That is hneftafl; the töflur kill each other without weapons around the hnefi, and the red ones escort him”

So .. ‘Golden Playing-Pieces’, indeed (perhaps intended to mean Gods and Their Champions – ‘Shining Ones’). That are collected up and re-set for another round as one of the foundational exercises for the New Cycle of Creation.

Just as it was, we may surmise, In The Beginning … or, at least, the beginning of This Cycle.

For, again, per the Völuspá [7-8]:

“Hittusk æsir á Iðavelli,”
[…]
“Tefldu í túni, teitir váru,”

“At Ithavoll met | the mighty Gods,”
[…]
“In Their dwellings at peace | They played at tables,” [Bellows translation – note once again, ‘Tefl-‘ rendered as ‘Tables’]

The immediately preceding lines to the mention of the board-games there, and which immediately follow the mention that the Gods have congregated at Iðavöllr, are of significant interest – as they present particular Gods engaged in the process of ‘forging’ and ‘smithing’ : we may presume of the Universe at this early stage of (literally) Creation and its unfurling. Perhaps we may even surmise that the ‘Gold’ spoken of in the next lines connects also to these ‘Playing-Pieces’ and Game-Boards. Certainly it seems implied to have depleted in quantity following the appearance of three Thurs [‘Giants’ / ‘Demons’] there. Although other interpretations are possible, and it is not our intent to get into that herein.

And what is the significance of this Iðavöllr at which all of this has happened, is happening, and shall once day recur?

We must look at the etymology. It has been theorized as ‘Splendour Plain’, perhaps drawing from the ‘Golden’ associations aforementioned. It has also been thought of as an ‘Eddying Plain’ – presuming a meaning effectively that of Icelandic ‘iða’, which refers to an ‘eddy’ or a ‘whirlpool’. The interpretation thusly given, which is not necessarily inaccurate in a figurative sense, is that it is the place where everything happens and then happens ‘again’ (this being built, in part, from ‘ið’ meaning ‘again’): that is to say, it is a space for and of ‘Cyclical Creation’, things going ‘around and around’ and thence drawing inexorably to a center as with a Whirlpool’s fluid motion. The ‘center’ in question being, of course, the End of the World where seemingly everybody (and most every Power or Force) able to do so congregates at Vigrid for the Last War.

However, I think that this is ‘missing’ something. ‘Iða’, can also refer to ‘motion’ – especially of the ceaseless variety. This is how it has also come to pertain to the visually apparent motion within bodies of water of an eddy or a whirlpool.

I should therefore propose that Iðavöllr is, in point of fact, the ‘Space for Motion’; from the aforementioned ‘Iða’ plus ‘vǫllr’ as in ‘field’, ‘open ground’. This should accord positively with Bellows’ own interpretation as the ‘Field of Deeds’. Perhaps we may term it ‘Playing-Field’.

And what sort of ‘Motion’ is it? What sort of ‘Going’, which is ‘Ceaseless’ do we find ‘played out’ here? Why, it is the Divine Play. The Gods (and everything, all else – it should seem; at least, in terms of the ‘major players’) playing Their Parts, Their Roles.

That ‘Open Space for Ceaseless Motion’ is the Stage. In Sanskrit, we should refer to this as the Divya Abhinaya-Mantapa. The Divine (Divya) Theatrical-Performance/Expression (Abhinaya) Hall or Pavillion (Mantapa).

There, the ‘Motion’ in question is that of the Krida ( क्रीड ) or Nataka ( नाटक ) ; the former with more of the sense of a ‘Sport’ (particularly an amorous one – the pursuit of the Other Half by One of the Divinities in question, we may surmise), the latter with a root incorporating ‘Dance’ (‘Nata’ – नाट , like ‘Nataraja’ for Lord Shiva as Lord of the Dance and Controller of the Universe therethrough; and it must be remembered that, as with prominent Ancient Greek drama, ‘dance’ is directly integrated into ‘drama’ for the Hindu performance art), and both very definitely also meaning ‘Performance’ in the context of the Divine Play.

We find this most eloquently mentioned in a line of the Mahishasura Mardini Stotram [‘Hymn of the Destroyer of the Buffalo-Demon’] dedicated to Devi Durga –

नटित नटार्ध नटी नट नायक नाटितनाट्य सुगानरते
Nattita Natta-Ardha Nattii Natta Naayaka Naattita-Naattya Su-Gaana-Rate
Acting/Dancing (Nattita) [as] Half (Ardha) the Actor/Dancer (Nata), Actress (Nati) [and] Actor (Nata) [are the] Protagonist/Lead (Nayaka) [of the] Act/Drama (Naattita) [being] Performed (Naattya), Delighting In / Engrossed In (Rate) the Beautiful (Su-) Song / Performance (Gaana). “

Where am I going with this?

Well, we are accustomed to two general senses of ‘play’ in English – to ‘play’ as in ‘to play a game’, and to play as in to ‘perform’ (for instance – play a piece of music, play a role in a drama).

Perhaps the fact of both of these approaches – the unfurling of the grand story of the universe as (war)game, and as Cosmic Drama (Cosmic … Play?) – seeming to describe what is fundamentally the same thing, may suggest that the actual ‘game’ is both far more complex than what the Nordic mytho-metaphor would seem to (upon its most surface levels, at least) imply … and perhaps, correspondingly, the ‘game’ element might suggest to us that the strict understanding of ‘drama’ in the imagination (wherein there’s a script, you stick to it, you know you’re sticking to it, you’re performing a role, etc.) as applies the Hindu end of things is likewise ‘not the full story’ [at least – from our perspective ‘in universe’. Hers may, of course, be rather different due to being so far ‘up’ and with all else moving according to Her most subtle of designs : whether we know this or we do not].

It may prove an interesting notion – this subtle yet pertinent degree of distinction between ‘playing a role’ [in the dramaturgical and prescriptive follow-the-script sense] versus ‘role playing’ [a rather more free-form approach to the whole thing, albeit certainly whilst having donned a Masque].

And maybe there are even dice-rolls in the course of the latter paradigmatic approach, also.

But I am rambling. More upon various of this at some other time.