What type of game are Grandfather`s Cock, Klondike and Lovely Lucy?
Which very old game which is still played, was once known as `Fippery
Morell` and was described as follows in 1626: `Thrice three stones,
set in a crossed square, where he wins the game that canset his three
stones in a row`?

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Request for Question Clarification by leli-ga on 06 Oct 2002 07:32 PDT

Hello again puzzle-ga

Well, I think I've got the answers you want. I can find games called
'klondike' and 'lovely lucy', and also 'grandfather's clock' (surely
you made a typo there?), and I can see what they have in common.

I'm also pretty sure I know what your 'Morell' game is, though
admittedly I can't find any trace of the 'Fippery' part of its name.

But I just wanted to check with you about the typo and about the
absence of 'Fippery' before answering. We like to make sure the
customer gets the right answer!

Thanks - Leli

Hello and thank-you for giving us some interesting challenges today
with your questions.

Since my researcher colleague, pinkfreud, has kindly cleared up the
mystery over 'fippery', I'm going to go ahead and post this answer
without waiting for your reply to my clarification request.


The first three are all card games for one person. (Solitaire)

KLONDIKE is particularly well known in its computer version.

See the layout and rules here:

http://www.solitairecentral.com/rules/klondike.html

GRANDFATHER'S CLOCK

See the game here:

http://www.123freesolitaire.com/games/grandfathers_clock.htm

LOVELY LUCY

More commonly known as La Belle Lucie - which is the French for
'lovely Lucy'.

"La Belle Lucie is an old, classic game of solitaire. It is also known
under many other names, including Fair Lucy and Midnight Oil."

http://www.solitairegames.com/week/011127.html



MORELS

This is the same game as nine men's morris.

I thought your description of 'morels' sounded like nine men's morris
where each player has nine stones and was interested to find that it
has had a variety of names. It's also had some variations on the rules
over the centuries as you'll find out on the following site:

"This game, with an ancestry so old it is another contender for the
prize of 'Oldest game in the world', is known by a number of different
names in England - Nine Mens Morris or Morelles or Merrills or Merels
or Mill or just plain Morris."

http://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Nine-Mens-Morris.htm


Another site on the history of games gives these possible names:

"The game has many related names in different languages - Mill or
Morris games in English, Mérelles in French, Morels in Spanish, Mühle
in German, Mølle in Norwegian for example. Some scholars indicated
that the name of the game may have come from an Old French word
"merel" - the word for a coin or counter (marker)"

http://www.ahs.uwaterloo.ca/~museum/vexhibit/board/rowgames/mill.html

The Oxford Dictionary confirms that merels and morris are the same
game and gives the same etymology (merel - French for coin) but the
nearest word it has to 'fippery' is 'fippenny', i.e. fivepenny.

And here we come to pinkfreud-ga's contribution. She was already
familiar with 'fippenny meril' as a medieval gambling game and kindly
pointed me to these sources:

First is Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) 

Merils \Mer"ils\, n. [F. m['e]relle, marelle, marelles, LL.
   marella, marrella. Cf. {Morris} the game.]
   A boy's play, called also {fivepenny morris}. See {Morris}.

http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/Merils

and this explanation of fippeny:

http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=Fippenny%20bit


I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you have any trouble with the
links or need any clarification.

Regards - Leli

search terms used:

klondike "grandfather's clock" "lovely lucy" "la belle lucie"

"nine men's morris" "seventeenth century" morels game

Many thanks for your help. I thought the `Fippery Morell` question
sounded as though it could be `Noughts and Crosses` but I didn`t seem
able to match it up as only `Tic-Tac Toe` came up. (I`m a `coputer
illiterate` Granny !!)