A Roman Tic Tac Toe

So Tic Tac Toe can be fairly boring. That is what I always thought. Well not so much. Tic Tac Toe and its variations go back a long way. The Roman version (perhaps) of the game was played on a wheel and one continually moved pieces until one had three in a row.

You can read a little more here.

It may have been called rota - but really its anyone's guess.

Rota is also the name of one of the Valkyrie. Her name may mean sleet or storm. See the wikipedia link for more.

Which leads to the word valr. This is an old norse noun referring to a person slain on the battlefield. I don't know of a specific word in the english which refers to a person slain on the battlefield. Might ask Tim to chime in on that one. It always fascinates me when I come across a word so specific as it connotes much about that culture.

Thinking about it, I had the thought that the word valor may have derived from valr. Alas it did not but came to us by way of ancient Rome from the word valor, meaning essentially the same thing but more specifically in combat.

But where did the romans get it.

Perhaps while playing an ancient game from the northern Europe called taabel they picked up the word and maybe even the game rota.