"Running the gauntlet" refers to taking part in a form of

corporal punishment A corporal punishment or a physical punishment is a punishment which is intended to cause physical pain to a person. When it is inflicted on Minor (law), minors, especially in home and school settings, its methods may include spanking or Padd ...

in which one or more individuals is forced to run between two rows of people who attack them with weapons. Metaphorically, the term is also used to convey a public trial that one must overcome.

Etymology and spelling

The word ''gauntlet'' originates from Swedish , from 'lane' and 'course, running'. It was borrowed into English in the 17th century, probably from English and Swedish soldiers fighting in the Protestant armies during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

. The punishment itself was rarely used in the

Swedish Army The Swedish Army () is the army, land force of the Swedish Armed Forces of the Kingdom of Sweden. Beginning with its service in 1521, the Swedish Army has been active for more than 500 years. History Svea Life Guards dates back to the year 1 ...

during the reign of the monarch

Gustav III Gustav III (29 March 1792), also called ''Gustavus III'', was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of King Adolf Frederick and Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden. Gustav was a vocal opponent of what he saw ...

in the 1770s and was abolished in the

in 1851. The word in English was originally spelled ''gantelope'' or ''gantlope'', but soon its pronunciation was influenced by the unrelated word ''gauntlet'', meaning an armored glove, derived from the . The spelling changed with the pronunciation. Both senses of ''gauntlet'' had the variant spelling ''gantlet''. For the punishment, the spelling ''gantlet'' is preferred in

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...

usage guides by

Bryan Garner Bryan Andrew Garner (born November 17, 1958) is an American legal scholar and lexicographer. He has written more than two dozen books about English usage and style such as ''Garner's Modern English Usage'' for a general audience, and others for l ...

and Robert Hartwell Fiske and is listed as a variant spelling of ''gauntlet'' by American dictionaries''.'' British dictionaries label ''gantlet'' as American.

Usage and severity

A naval version of the gauntlet was historically used in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

as a punishment for minor offences such as leaving the crew berths in an unsanitary state, or failing to return on time from leave. The condemned was ordered to make a prescribed number of circuits around the ship's deck, while his shipmates struck him with improvised versions of the

cat o' nine tails The cat o' nine tails, commonly shortened to the cat, is a type of multi-tailed whip or flail. It originated as an implement for physical punishment, particularly in the Royal Navy and British Army, and as a judicial punishment in Britain and ...

. Runs of the gauntlet could also be preceded by a dozen lashes from the boatswain's cat o' nine tails, so that any subsequent blows from the crew would aggravate the lacerations on his back.''The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea'', Peter Kemp ed., 1976 The effectiveness of the punishment would somewhat depend on the popularity of the sailor being punished, and the seriousness of the offence. In 1760, Francis Lanyon, a seaman aboard the guardship , was sentenced to three runs of the gauntlet, for failing to return from leave. The crew clearly disagreed with the punishment, as the ship's lieutenant later recorded that Lanyon received no substantial injury from the process. The naval punishment of running the gauntlet was abolished by Admiralty Order in 1806. In the early records of the Dutch colonial settlement of

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...

appears a detailed description of running the "Gantlope/Gantloppe" as a punishment for the "Court Martial of Melchior Claes" (a soldier). It states "... The Court Marshall doe adjudge that hee shall run the Gantlope once the length of the fort, where according to the Custome of that punishment the souldyers shall have switches delivered to them with which they shall strike him as he passes through them stript to the wast, and at the fort gate the Marshall is to receive him and there to kick him out of the Garrison as a cashiered person where hee is no more to returne ..."

Native American usage

Several Native American tribes of the

Eastern Woodlands The Eastern Woodlands is a cultural region of the Indigenous people of North America. The Eastern Woodlands extended roughly from the Atlantic Ocean to the eastern Great Plains, and from the Great Lakes region to the Gulf of Mexico, which is now ...

cultural area forced prisoners to run the gauntlet (see

Captives in American Indian Wars Captives in American Indian Wars could expect to be treated differently depending on the identity of their captors and the conflict they were involved in. During the American Indian Wars, Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous peoples and ...

). The Jesuit

Isaac Jogues Isaac Jogues (10 January 1607 – 18 October 1646) was a French missionary and martyr who traveled and worked among the Iroquois, Wyandot people, Huron, and other Native populations in North America. He was the first European to name Lake Geo ...

was subject to this treatment while a prisoner of the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...

in 1641. He described the ordeal in a letter that appears in the book ''The Jesuit Martyrs of North America'': "Before arriving (at the Iroquois Village) we met the young men of the country, in a line armed with sticks...", and he and his fellow Frenchmen were made to walk slowly past them "for the sake of giving time to anyone who struck us." In 1755, Charles Stuart was taken prisoner by

Lenape The Lenape (, , ; ), also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. The Lenape's historica ...

warriors during the Great Cove massacre, and upon arriving at the village of Kittanning, was forced to run the gauntlet. He provides a description of the practice: Many years before he became a hero of the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

at the Battle of Bennington,

John Stark Major-General John Stark (August 28, 1728 – May 8, 1822) was an American military officer who served during the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. He became known as the "Hero of Bennington" for his exemplary service at the Ba ...

was captured by natives and forced to run a gauntlet. Knowing what was about to happen Stark stunned them by grabbing the weapon away from the first person about to strike him and proceeded to attack the warrior with it. The warriors and the chief were so surprised by this that they stopped the gauntlet and adopted him into their tribe. He was later ransomed along with Amos Eastman for $163 and returned home.

Modern use

''Fitness trail'' in communist Poland

During the days of the Polish People’s Republic, the

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

authorities forced political dissidents, criminals, protestors, and prisoners through a gauntlet-like process, which they called the (literally 'health path', but idiomatically used to mean early fitness trails). In ''KOR, A History of the Worker's Defense Committee in Poland, 1976–1981'',

Jan Józef Lipski Jan Józef Lipski (26 May 1926 in Warsaw – 10 September 1991 in Kraków) was a Polish critic, literature historian, politician and freemason. As a soldier of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa), he fought in the Warsaw Uprising. Editor of collected w ...

documents the experience of one such criminal during the

June 1976 protests The June 1976 protests were a series of protests and demonstrations in the Polish People's Republic that took place after Prime Minister Piotr Jaroszewicz revealed the plan for a sudden increase in the price of many basic commodities,

Military custom

Similar practices are used in other initiations and rites of passage, as on pollywogs (those passing the equator for the first time includes a paddling version) In one Tailhook Association convention for

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

and

Marine Corps Marines (or naval infantry) are military personnel generally trained to operate on both land and sea, with a particular focus on amphibious warfare. Historically, the main tasks undertaken by marines have included raiding ashore (often in supp ...

pilots, female participants were allegedly forced to run the gauntlet in a hotel hallway as male participants fondled them.

Sports

In certain team sports, such as

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

and

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

, the gauntlet is a common name for a type of drill whereby players are blocked or checked by the entire team in sequence. In Brazilian jiu-jitsu, when a student is promoted to their next coloured belt, they are sometimes required to run between two rows of their fellow students, who strike them with their own belts.

References

{{Reflist, refs= KOR, A history of the Worker's Defense Committee in Poland, 1976–1981, by Jan Jósef Lipski, Translated by Olga Amsterdamska and Gene M. Moore, University of California Press, 1985, page 35

External links

A relevant section of the extensive Corpun (corporal punishment) archive

(in Spanish) Corporal punishments Physical torture techniques Swedish words and phrases