Looked up a phrase while working on a piece tonight and felt compelled to share. This isn't exactly what I envision when a friend describes running the gauntlet at our dojo during belt promotions, where members of equal or superior rank remove their belts and playfully whack at newly-promoted students who walk, jog, shake hands, bunnyhop, kazatski, or cartwheel along the line. While I've been under no illusion as to any possibility of real tenderness in the original practice, I had no idea it existed in realities so severe.
The original Running of the Gauntlet was actually pretty super sucky. Come to think of it, the unique human ability to devise various methods of torture must be the single worst possible incarnation of the use of divine matter. Well, maybe one... amongst many.
Here is part of the entry; I cut and pasted it, just for you. In case your clicking finger is feeling particularly tired today.
"Running the gauntlet (originally gantlet, and, rarely, gantlope or gantelope) is a form of physical punishment wherein a man is compelled to run between two rows ~ a gauntlet ~of soldiers who strike him as he passes.
Roman predecessor
Fustuarium (a Latin abstraction from the Latin fustis, a branch or rod) was a Roman military form of execution by cudgeling (clubbing), the excruciating effects of which are comparable to running the gauntlet. Compare also to breaking on the wheel.
It could also be applied to every tenth man of a whole unit as a mode of decimation.
Post-Roman usage
A very similar military punishment found in later armies was known as 'running the gauntlet.' The condemned soldier was stripped to the waist and had to pass between a double row (hence also known as die Gasse, 'the alley') of cudgeling or switching comrades. A subaltern walked in front of him with a blade to prevent him from running. The condemned might sometimes also be dragged through by a rope around the hands or prodded along by a pursuer. Various rules might apply, such as banning edged weapons, requiring the group to keep one foot in place, or allowing the soldier to attempt to protect his head with his hands. The punishment was not necessarily continued until death. If so, he might be finished off when unable to walk. Running the gauntlet was considered far less of a dishonor than a beating (with exposure to ridicule) on the pillory, pranger, or stocks, since one could 'take it like a man' upright and among soldiers.
In some traditions, if the condemned was able to finish the run and exit the gauntlet at the far end, his faults would be deemed paid, and he would rejoin his comrades with a clean slate. Elsewhere, he was sent back through the gauntlet until death.
A Prussian cavalry variation was to beat the condemned with stirrup straps instead of rods.
It was also common practice in the French army, especially for thieves. Also used in training, notably on military cadets, as in a scene in the movie 'Oberst Redl.'
There was also a naval version of the gauntlet, notably used in the Royal Navy as a punishment for minor theft. The condemned was prevented from rushing by the master-at-arms with a cutlass and pushed forward by a corporal, while being beaten with rope yarns that were plaited into so-called 'knittles' (a word for a string; possibly sound-associated with nettles), which looked like smaller, improvised versions of the cat o' nine tails. The condemned could also receive a dozen lashes from the cat o' nine tails beforehand, so that blows received while running the gauntlet would aggravate the lacerations on his back.
The Yiddish tale 'Drei Matones' ('Three Gifts') by Isaac Leib Peretz recounts the self-sacrificing acts of three Jewish martyrs; one of them, when forced to run the gauntlet, finds that his yarmulka has been thrown off his head and thereupon turns back to retrieve it, being whipped on every extra step he takes. Mild forms, not intended to cause permanent damage, have also been used on or by children.
The inclusion of the word gauntlet in the phrase is a mis-substitution of the French-derived word gauntlet, meaning a protective glove, for the Swedish gatlopp ('street run') by English troops in the Thirty Years' War. The original idiom, before this mistaking of the words, was running the gantlet, although a further variant used the poetic gantelope.
The practice persisted in parts of Germany (mainly Prussia) and Austria as the Spießrutenlaufen, or 'pike-run,' and also in Russia, until the 19th century.
A magnificent description of it is in Tolstoy's short story, 'After The Ball.'
In Ernest Hemingway's, 'For Whom The Bell Tolls,' the aristocrats of the town are subjected to a form of the gauntlet wherein they are led to and run off a cliff by villagers.
In Sweden, running the gauntlet was also a civilian punishment for certain crimes until the 18th century."
Reminds me of the meanings behind Catherine Wheel* (sexy now-defunct British band), Iron Maiden (not-so-sexy non-defunct British band), Paddy Wagon (which I honestly think would make a great name for an Irish taxi company), and Necklacing (sounds nice, no?).
At least "The Pear of Anguish" represents its name more honestly.
"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"
Keep breathing. Just keep breathing.
* The former lead singer of Catherine Wheel ~ as well as custom designer of automobiles ~ Rob Dickinson, is a younger cousin of Bruce Dickinson, commercial airline pilot, world-class fencer, broadcaster, author, director, screenwriter, actor, marketing director, entrepreneur, and lead singer/songwriter for Iron Maiden.
Your post made me remember the wall of paddles my father had on his wall in his home office. They were wood and had the name of his fraternity on it. According to him, to pass the initiation-rite (or whatever they call it) into the fraternity, you had to go through a line of fellow frat-mates and get the living Bajeezus paddled out of you as you tried to run through the line.
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