’Running The Gauntlet’ - One Of The Worst Forms Of Punishment In History (Landsknecht Spiessgericht)

The word gauntlet in “running the gauntlet” does not refer to the protective gloves of medieval knights as one might think at first, but to the Swedish word gatlopp, a compound of gata, “lane,“ and lopp, “course,“ and referred to a traditional form of punishment, in which two lines of people beat a person forced to run between them. The German Landsknecht and many other military organizations practiced this punishment throughout the ages. Idioms such as “to pass through the line” or “to run the gauntlet” are not only figures of speech frequently cited by newspapers when referring to someone who has to overcome a series of difficult trials or has to pass by people criticizing him sharply but also mentioned by famous authors such as Tolstoy and Hemingway. However, these sayings also keep alive the memory of one of the most brutal punishments in history. One particularly famous example is the one practiced by the German Landsknechts in the 16th century. The Landsknecht version will be us