Stýrivolt
The Stýrivolt [ ˈstʊirɪ.vɔlt ] ( Danish styrvolt , from Niederd. Stürewold "wilder, rampant man") is an old Scandinavian card game , which today is (almost) only known in the Faroe Islands .
Stýrivolt comes from the German carnival game . It is believed that it was introduced to Denmark in the 17th century. There is evidence of a game in Sweden with the name stýr-wålt in the poem "Hercules" by Georg Stiernhielm 1648.
It has been played in the Faroe Islands since the 18th century and is mentioned, for example, in Jens Christian Svabos Indberetninger fra en Reise i Færöe, 1781 - 1782 . The Danish Styrvolt game is described, for example, in Politiske Spille Regulator for de tilladelige og meest brugelige Spil i Vertshusene (1774), a copy of which is in the Royal Library in Copenhagen . It shows that the Faroese Stýrivolt has changed little over time.
Stýrivolt is played by four people who form two teams. There are two selected colors that are a kind of trump card . They differ from trumps in other card games in that
- only certain cards of a selected color have a special power,
- some trump cards can only trick certain cards of the other suits,
- and other trump cards are only powerful if they lead to the trick .
Some Faroese terms of Stýrivolt come directly from German. There is the karniffil (from “Karnöffel”), the boy , or the pavstur (from “Pope”) for the six.
Stýrivolt has become rare in the Faroe Islands, and according to an article in the cultural magazine Varðin from 1975, it is critically endangered while in Denmark it has practically disappeared. The same article describes it as "a little tricky to understand", but also as "extremely entertaining" once you've learned all the specialized terms. This article was published in English in 1998 (see literature) and describes the rules of the game as we know them in Kvívík .
literature
- Jógvan Bærentsen: "Stýrivoltur", in Varðin , Volume 43, Issue 3/4, (1975) pp. 162–168
- English translation and revision on Pagat.com - Stýrivolt