Meadowfell Hand Made Beech Kubb Viking Lawn Game Set | 21 Pieces with Vegvisir Engraved King | Waxed Canvas Bag and Leather Base | Outdoor Garden Gift | RK-1762

The Meadowfell is a complete kubb game turned from warm toned beech: ten square kubb blocks, a taller king with a turned crown carrying a Vegvisir burned into the face, six cylindrical throwing batons and four corner stakes. It packs into a waxed green canvas bag with a leather base panel and a webbing strap, which is the part most sets get wrong, because a bag that will not survive being dragged across wet grass is not really part of the set.

Kubb is one of the very few outdoor games where a careful thrower beats a strong one. The batons must go underarm and rotate end over end in the vertical plane, and that single rule turns the whole thing into a problem of timing rather than force. Children beat adults at this game regularly, which is not a claim you can make about many things played on a lawn. Every Meadowfell set is cut, turned, sanded, burned and packed in our shop in Memphis, Tennessee.

Specifications

How to actually throw a baton

Hold the baton at one end, not in the middle. Let it hang straight down beside your leg, swing it forward underarm, and release at about knee height. The baton should turn end over end in a vertical plane, like a wheel rolling away from you, and it should land flat rather than spearing into the turf. If it helicopters sideways, you released with your wrist rolled over and the throw does not count in most rule sets.

The number of turns is what you are actually controlling. At close range a baton wants one full turn before it arrives, and at long range two. Fixing your grip and your release and changing only the height of the swing is how good players adjust distance, because it keeps the rotation predictable. Aim at the base of the kubb rather than the top: a hit low knocks the block over cleanly, and a hit high sometimes spins it and leaves it standing.

There is one more thing that separates people who have played a few games from people who have played a season. Where a knocked down kubb lands in your half decides your next turn, so the throw back matters as much as the knock down. Group your thrown kubbs close together and you can clear them with one or two batons. Scatter them and you will burn your whole turn walking your throws across the field.

An honest word about the Vegvisir on the king

The eight spoked stave burned into the king is a Vegvisir, and it is not a Viking Age symbol. Its earliest known appearance is in the Huld manuscript, compiled in Iceland in 1860, and in related Icelandic books of staves from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The accompanying text says the bearer will not lose his way in storms or bad weather, even when the way is not known. That is a genuine piece of Icelandic tradition and it is roughly eight hundred years younger than the Norse settlement of Iceland.

Kubb itself has a similar story. The game as played today was codified on Gotland and spread through Sweden from the 1990s, with a world championship on the island since 1995. There is no kubb set in any Viking grave. Both of these things are worth knowing and neither of them makes the game or the symbol less good to have on a lawn.

The beech and the bag

Beech is the classic European timber for this game and it behaves differently from maple. It is slightly softer, noticeably heavier for its size, and it has a fine even grain that turns beautifully on a lathe, which is why the batons come out so smooth. The extra weight is an advantage: a heavier baton flies flatter in wind and a heavier kubb stands up better on uneven ground.

Everything is sanded through the grits and the edges are eased by hand so nothing is sharp. We leave the wood unsealed. A varnished game piece chips the moment wood hits wood and the chips go white, whereas bare beech simply weathers to a soft grey and can be sanded back whenever you want it fresh. The bag is waxed canvas with a leather base, because the underside of a game bag is the part that gets dragged, and a plain cotton base wears through in one summer.

Engraving, runes and your own design

Use the rune converter on this page to turn a name, a date or a short phrase into Elder Futhark and we will cut it into the steel, the leather or the wood. If you would rather have a Viking pattern than a rune line, choose your own design in the engraving option above the add to cart button and tell us where it goes. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it. On the Meadowfell a chosen design on the front face of the king replaces the Vegvisir, and a rune line on a second face leaves it where it is. People commonly put a family name on the king and a year on the leather base panel of the bag. See the engraving page.

Setting out the pitch and packing it away

Push the four stakes into the ground to mark a rectangle roughly five metres wide by eight metres long. Line five kubbs along each baseline, evenly spaced, and stand the king in the middle. If you are on ground too hard for stakes, pace the pitch and agree the edges before the first throw, because arguments about whether a kubb was out are the only thing that spoils this game.

Grass, sand and firm dirt are all fine. Gravel and paving are not, and they will chew the ends of the batons within a couple of games. When you finish, knock the grass off, let anything damp dry before it goes in the bag, and hang the bag somewhere ventilated rather than sealing it in a plastic tub. Waxed canvas breathes, but not if you lock it in a box with wet wood.

Care

Dry cloth after play, and never leave the set out in the rain overnight. If pieces get soaked, stand them upright somewhere airy and let them dry slowly. Drying wood fast next to a heater is what causes end checks, not water itself. Once a season, a light sand along the grain with fine paper and a wipe of outdoor timber oil will lift the fuzz off the batons and even out the colour. The waxed canvas bag should be brushed clean rather than machine washed, since a hot wash strips the wax. Rewax it every couple of years with a canvas wax bar and the leather base with a neutral conditioner. Nothing here belongs in a dishwasher.

Made in Memphis

Cut, turned, sanded, burned and packed in our shop in Memphis, Tennessee, and the bag is cut and stitched here too. Nothing about this set is an importer product with a symbol added afterwards. Allow one to two weeks of processing before it ships, and a few days more if you have ordered custom burning, because the king has to be marked and sanded again. Shipping in the United States is free, and the lifetime warranty against defects in the timber, the turning and the bag runs with no end date and no receipt needed.

A note on handmade variation

This set is made by hand and not machine produced in bulk, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. Beech carries a fine fleck in the grain that shows differently on every piece, and the colour of a set ranges from pale straw to a warm pink brown depending on the board. The burned Vegvisir is drawn by hand, so the spokes will not be identical to the picture. Waxed canvas varies in shade from roll to roll. The dimensions, the piece count and the build are the same every time. The character is not, and a set that has spent a summer outdoors looks like nothing you can buy new.

Frequently asked questions

How big a garden do I need

A pitch of about five metres by eight is standard, which is roughly the size of two parked cars end to end. You can shorten it for children or for a smaller lawn without changing anything else about the game.

What is the difference between beech and maple sets

Beech is a little heavier and a little softer, which makes the batons fly flatter in wind and the kubbs stand more stubbornly on rough ground. Maple is lighter and paler and dents less. Both are good, and this one is beech.

Can I play on the beach

Yes, and sand is one of the best surfaces for it because a fallen kubb stays where it lands. Brush the sand off the pieces before bagging them, since grit trapped in a canvas bag sands the wood every time it moves.

Is the king engraved on more than one face

One face carries the Vegvisir as standard and the others are left blank. That is deliberate, because it leaves room for a name, a date or a chosen design without crowding the symbol.

Do I need to oil the wood

Not at all, and the set will grey gently if you leave it. If you prefer it to keep its colour, one wipe of outdoor timber oil at the start of each season is enough.

How long does shipping take

Processing takes one to two weeks because the set is made rather than pulled off a shelf, and custom burning adds a few days. Shipping in the United States is free and returns are accepted within seven days.

What is in the box

• 10 beech kubbs and 1 turned king with a burned Vegvisir
• 6 turned throwing batons
• 4 corner stakes for marking the pitch
• Waxed green canvas carry bag with a leather base and a webbing strap
• Printed rule sheet with pitch dimensions and throwing rules
• Lifetime warranty against defects in the timber, the turning and the bag
• Made and finished in Memphis, Tennessee

Explore the range

Browse the rest of the Viking games, our home decor, the wider accessories, and the guides.