Play with Hugin and Munin

Almost everyone knows it; almost everyone grew up with it. It's a universally popular game for young and old that trains memory and recall. We're talking about Memory. Hugin and Munin is a variation that differs from the standard game:

Odin, the father of the gods in the Germanic pantheon, sends his two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, to explore the world. The two ravens roam through the nine realms, the twenty-four runes, experience the eight central festivals of the year, and discover the nine most important gods. Whoever has collected the most cards at the end of the game is the bearer of the message and therefore the winner.

The 50 designs are divided into 4 groups (runes, seasonal festivals, gods and worlds), so the number of cards can be adjusted to the children's ages. For example, it is recommended to use only 2 groups (seasonal festivals and gods or gods and worlds) for younger children, while older children or teenagers can play with all the designs together.

The child-friendly illustrations were designed by the artist and children's book illustrator Iris Fischer. The explanations of the motifs in the 24-page accompanying booklet were written by Holger Kliemannel, who has been intensively studying the Germanic tribes for many years.

The game consists of 100 cards (50 different designs) divided into 4 groups. The number of card pairs used in the game can therefore be adjusted to the age of the children and the number of players.

The cards are thoroughly shuffled and laid face down on the table. The first player turns over two cards of their choice. If the images match, they keep the pair and turn over two more cards of their choice. If they don't match, the cards are turned face down again, and the next player to their left takes their turn.

The meaning of the 50 motifs can be found in the accompanying booklet. Each motif contains a variety of symbols, which are presented in a child-friendly way thanks to the illustrations by children's book illustrator Iris Fischer. To make it easier to distinguish which motif belongs to which group, each group is separated by a colored border, so that players can immediately see which group they need to look up for an explanation.

In another game variation, each motif group can be assigned a point value. The Runes group is the most frequently represented with 24 motifs and receives a point value of 1; the Worlds and Gods groups each appear 9 times and receive a point value of 2; while the Year Wheel Festivals group appears 8 times and receives a point value of 3. This means that the winner is not necessarily the player with the most pairs, but rather the player with the highest point value.