Kings, bodyguards, and castles (Viking ring fortresses, ramparts, burgs etc.) are deeply ingrained in the Viking’s culture, not the Sami‘s. “The king often fought at the head of his army, surrounded by a bodyguard of his best men.” (Roesdahl, 1987). Sound familiar? This trait is unique to the Vikings. Viking kings fought beside their men for several reasons, primarily because unlike the rest of Europe, Vikings did not believe in the Divine Right of kings. Another interesting example of this is that Viking kings themselves were not immune to being sacrificed to a god if the situation was dire enough (Ferguson, 2009). A Viking chieftain/king had to not only be wealthy, but had to have successfully led a war-band to a victory in battle. Else, you could not be a chieftain.

Sources:
Roesdahl, Else. The Vikings. Penguin Press. 1987. Page 144.
Ferguson, Robert. The Vikings. Penguin Books. 2009. Page 33.

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Getting into the setup of the game, it is first worth noting the number of squares on a tablut board. The board is nine by nine squares. In addition, the number of defending pieces is nine (including the king). “Germanic and Norse pagans believed that the numbers 3 and 9, as well as their multiples, had special powers.” (Field, 2009). The two most well-known recurring Viking festivals, Leire in Denmark and Uppsala in Sweden, “were enneadic events, announcing a mystical attachment to the number nine.”(Ferguson, 2009).

Sources:
Field, William. Numerology. Parragon Books. 2009. Page 16.
Ferguson, Robert. The Vikings. Penguin Books. 2009. Page 28.

I’d like to continue and get into the setup of the pieces and its characteristic shape (which is the shape of the Viking cross (a "plus" sign with "serifs" at the ends), one of the most important Viking religious symbols and appears unrelentingly in Viking architecture, money, jewelry, and art), but will have to wait as it is going to take several hours of writing.