Icelanders are enthusiastic about playing cards, from the simplest solitaire to the very complicated mass-playing nerve-wracking Bridge. Poker has also proven popular, although the game is frowned upon by authorities because gambling is illegal in Iceland.

In every cabin in Iceland you’ll find at least one deck of cards which comes in handy in cold and rainy weather when you feel like canceling your hike and killing time in the warmth inside instead.

The first card game every child in Iceland learns to play is Olsen Olsen, which is similar to the English game Crazy Eights. It’s a very simple game which only requires two players. It has made such a strong impact on the lives of some people that it is even the title of a song by Sigur Rós.

Veidimann (“Fisherman”) is probably the second card came taught to Iceland’s youth, which apart from being easy to learn, pays tribute to Iceland’s largest industry. It’s about collecting as many tricks as possible, “fishing” the right cards out of a pile on the table and asking the one or more playmates for the cards you need. Recently a special deck of cards dedicated to Veidimann was released also containing 58 fish recipes.

My favorite card game is Kani, which is the Icelandic nickname for Americans. It is very similar to Euchre, which was once considered the national card game in the US, so that could explain why it is called Kani in Icelandic. Maybe it was brought here by American soldiers in World War II?

Kani is designed for four players where two and two pair up according to the cards they get. Each player has a hand of 13 cards and then estimates how many tricks he or she will be able to get based on the number of cards of a certain sort, the higher value the cards have, the better. The player with the highest estimate then puts forth a low card in his or her favorite sort and asks for a high card which he or she doesn’t have.

The player who does have that particular card has to submit it and then those two players become teammates. Their goal is to collect as many tricks as estimated, or more, and the other two players are supposed to make them fail their mission.

After one round each player gets as many points as the tricks he or she and the teammate got. But if the team failed getting as many tricks as estimated, they get zero points. The four players can play as many rounds as they please and the one who has the highest score when they finish is the winner.

Another popular card game in Iceland is Manni, or Chap in English. It is so popular that a Manni tournament is held during the Lobster Festival in Hornafjördur, southeast Iceland, attracting more than 100 people every year.

Board games are even more popular than card games. At almost every family gathering (of which there are quite a few in Iceland) a board game is brought out of the closet and then the entire family plays Risk, Pictionary, Monopoly, Scrabble or Trivial Pursuit until late in the night. Christmas is the prime time for board games and the hottest new board game can be found underneath most Christmas trees in Icelandic homes.

There are some excellent all-Icelandic board games as well, like Haettuspilid where the goal is to avoid drugs and lead a healthy and successful life or Fimbulfamb where players take a stab at defining silly Icelandic words.

My favorite board game is Gettu betur, the board game version of one of the most popular television program on national broadcaster RÚV, the eponymous quiz competition between high schools in Iceland aired on radio and television every winter since 1986.

Icelandic gaming traditions took on a new level with the birth of massive multiplayer online role-playing space game EVE Online in 2003, which is so popular on an international scale that the creator of the game CCP hosts an EVE Online fanfare in Iceland every year.

Last weekend I attended the harvest festival of the senior students of The School of Multimedia in Reykjavík. Most of the students presented either websites or animation movies, which were interesting enough, but one project, incidentally created by IR’s film reviewer, really stood out.

The project seemed to be the perfect cross between a board game and a computer game and would thus be likely to hit home with the average Icelandic gaming enthusiast if it goes into mass production. It was fresh, original, colorful and exciting—an adventure game for the entire family. It seemed to attract the most attention from attendees at the harvest festival.

You can look at the game’s website here. The site is in Icelandic but the graphics should give you a pretty good idea of what the game is like. If you click on “Um spilid” and the linked “Leikreglur” (not the pdf version) you can watch a short introduction video to the game.

The next generation of Icelandic games has been born. Game on.

ESA – eyglo@icelandreview.com