Neunkart ("Nine Cards") or Fett und Mager ("Fat and Lean") was a traditional
North German
Northern Germany (german: link=no, Norddeutschland) is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony an ...
card game played with 36
French-suited cards
French-suited playing cards or French-suited cards are cards that use the French suits of (clovers or clubs ), (tiles or diamonds ), (hearts ), and (pikes or spades ). Each suit contains three or four face/court cards. I ...
.
History and description
The game is mentioned as early as 1800 by
Johann Friedrich Schütze as Neegenkaart and Fett un Mager in his
Holstein
Holstein (; nds, label= Northern Low Saxon, Holsteen; da, Holsten; Latin and historical en, Holsatia, italic=yes) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germ ...
dictionary, where it is described as a favourite game of Holstein farmers and townsfolk. Players were dealt 9 cards each and there was a trump suit. The first, "higher paid"
tricks were the "fat ones" and the last tricks, paid at half the value, were the "lean ones."
The game was also spelt Negenkaart. Around 1865 it is one of the many card games played by
Eiderstedt farmers at Christmas alongside,
Brausbart,
Dreikart,
Fünfkart,
Fips,
Karnüffel,
Scherwenzel,
Hahnrei and others.
But by around 1890, it was one of only two card games still being played by farmers in the
Eiderstedt region alongside
Dreekort.
As Nikort or Fedt og Magert it was played in Denmark in the 19th century alongside numerous other games.
[Feilberg (1864), p. 81.]
Footnotes
References
Bibliography
* _. (1865). "Weihnachten in Schleswig-Holstein" in ''Die Grenzboten'', Vol. 4; Vol. 24, pp. 974–986.
* _. (1892). ''Zeitschrift für deutsche Kulturgeschichte'', Volume 3, Bauer & Raspe.
* Berghaus, Dr. Heinrich Karl Wilhelm (1883). ''Der Sprachschatz der Sassen: ein Wörterbuch der Plattdeütschen Sprache''. Vol. 2 (J–R). Berlin W.: R. Eisenschmidt.
* Feilberg, Henning Frederik (1864)
''Fra Heden''Hadersley.
*
Schütze , Johann Friedrich (1800). ''Holsteinisches Idiotikon''. Part 1. Hamburg: Heinrich Ludgwig Villaume.
French deck card games
German card games
Shedding-type card games
Four-player card games
Card games of Schleswig-Holstein
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