Vikings of the Gloves

"Vikings of the Gloves"
Author	Robert E. Howard
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Sailor Steve Costigan
Genre(s)	Boxing, Comedy
Published in	Fight Stories
Publication type	Pulp magazine
Publication date	February 1932

Vikings of the Gloves is a Sailor Steve Costigan short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in the February 1932 issue of Fight Stories.^[1] It was reprinted under the title Including the Scandinavian! after Howard's death and attributed to the Fight Stories housename "Mark Adam". Howard earned $65 for the sale of this short story.^[2]

The story follows Costigan's participation in a "Scandinavians Only" boxing match in Japan and the complications that arise.

Plot

Through a red mist I seen Hakon's eyes blazing with a unearthly light. He was plumb berserk, like them old Vikings which was his ancestors. And all the Irish fighting madness took hold of me, and we ripped and tore like tigers.
We was the center of a frenzied whirlwind of gloves, ripping smashes to each other's bodies which you could hear all over the house, and socks to each other's heads that spattered blood all over the ring. Every blow packed dynamite and had the killer's lust behind it. It was a test of endurance.

— Robert E. Howard, Vikings of the Gloves

Having docked in Yokohama and looking for a boxing match to raise money, Costigan and the crew of the Sea Girl find that the only fight club in town is booked up with Swedes vs. Danes matches because the whaling fleet is in port as well. Luck seems to come, however, when the Swedish sailor Dirck "The Gotland Giant" Jacobsen breaks his wrist and a replacement is needed quickly for the match against the Danish sailor Hakon Torkilsen that night.

The crew try to pass of Costigan as a Swede called Lars Ivarson. The club owner does not believe the ruse but has no other option. The fight goes ahead, although the crowd is unconvinced as well. Further complications soon arise. The first complication is that the match referee turns out to be a man Costigan knocked out earlier in the day for attempting to kick his dog Mike. He knows who Costigan is and tells him he'll reveal everything at the end of the match, at which point the crowd will turn on Costigan for intruding on a Scandinavian matter. The second complication emerges soon after the match starts. A rival captain got the Sea Girl's captain drunk and tricked him into betting the Sea Girl on Hakon Torkilsen to win and signing a contract as proof. Despite the captain's pleas, Costigan refuses to throw the fight, both for himself, for his ship mates who have bet everything on him, and for the Swedes that he is now representing.

The fight continues regardless and Hakon turns out to be an equal for Costigan. The complications distract Costigan and render his performance uneven. He is knocked down several times. The problem of the bet is resolved when the rival captain, Gid Jessup, gets too near the ring while Costigan has almost been knocked out of it. Costigan grabs the contract, the only proof of the bet, and begins to eat it. Jessup tries to retrieve it, but Swedes in the audience, thinking he is trying to interfere with their boxer, attack him. Free of that problem, Costigan decides to fight to the finish regardless of the referee's threat. This too is solved quite soon after when, in the confusion of the fight, the referee accidentally starts to count Costigan out in Spanish (having only used Swedish, Danish and Norwegian so far). Costigan realises that he isn't Scandinavian, either, and the referee admits that he is an American vaudeville linguist called John Jones who took the job because he needed the money.

Costigan and Hakon fight savagely but Hakon eventually collapses in a corner and cannot get up again. The Swedish captain celebrates with Costigan and, after the match they have seen, does not mind that he clearly is not one of his countrymen.

Publication history

Vikings of the Gloves was first published in the February 1932 issue of the pulp magazine Fight Stories. Since that time it has been reprinted in these publications:

Fight Stories, Fall 1940, retitled as "Including the Scandinavian!" and attributed to the housename "Mark Adam"
The Howard Review #2, March 1975
REH Fight Magazine #3, September 1991
Waterfront Fists and Others, 2003
Waterfront Fists and Others, 2004
Boxing Stories, 2005^[1]

The story is now in the public domain.^[3]

References

1 2 Publication history at Howard Works, retrieved 11 October 2007
↑ REHupa Robert E. Howard Fiction and Verse Timeline, retrieved 11 October 2007
↑ The Robert-E-Howard: Electronic Amateur Press Association, The Copyright and Ownership Status of the Works and Words of Robert E. Howard by Paul Herman, retrieved 11 October 2007

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Vikings of the Gloves

List of stories and publication details at Howard Works

Works by Robert E. Howard

Adventure

El Borak	"Blood of the Gods" "The Coming of El Borak" "The Country of the Knife" "The Daughter of Erlik Khan" "Hawk of the Hills" "The Lost Valley of Iskander" "North of Khyber" "Son of the White Wolf" "Three-Bladed Doom"

Fantasy

Conan	"Beyond the Black River" "Black Colossus" "The Black Stranger" "Cimmeria" "The Devil in Iron" "Drums of Tombalku" "The Frost Giant's Daughter" "The God in the Bowl" "The Hall of the Dead" "The Hand of Nergal" "The Hour of the Dragon" "Iron Shadows in the Moon" "Jewels of Gwahlur" "The People of the Black Circle" "The Phoenix on the Sword" "The Pool of the Black One" "Queen of the Black Coast" "Red Nails" "Rogues in the House" "The Scarlet Citadel" "Shadows in Zamboula" "The Snout in the Dark" "The Tower of the Elephant" "The Vale of Lost Women" "A Witch Shall be Born" "Wolves Beyond the Border" "Xuthal of the Dusk"

Solomon Kane	"The Right Hand of Doom"

Kull	"By This Axe, I Rule" "Exile of Atlantis" "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune"

Bran Mak Morn	"The Children of the Night" "Worms of the Earth"

Comedy

Sailor Steve Costigan	"Alleys of Peril" "Blow the Chinks Down!" "Breed of Battle" "The Bull Dog Breed" "Champ of the Forecastle" "Circus Fists" "Dark Shanghai" "Fist and Fang" "General Ironfist" "Night of Battle" "The Pit of the Serpent" "Sailor's Grudge" "The Sign of the Snake" "The Slugger's Game" "Sluggers on the Beach" "Texas Fists" "The TNT Punch" "Vikings of the Gloves" "Waterfront Fists" "Winner Take All"

Breckinridge Elkins	"A Gent from Bear Creek"

Horror

John Kirowan	"The Children of the Night" "The Haunter of the Ring" "The Black Stone"

Other

Other stories	"Almuric" "Black Canaan" "Pigeons from Hell" "Post Oaks & Sand Roughs" "The Shadow of the Vulture" "Skull-Face" "The Sowers of the Thunder" "The Twilight of the Grey Gods"

Other characters	Cormac Fitzgeoffrey James Allison Red Sonya Dark Agnes de Chastillon Steve Harrison Turlogh Dubh O'Brien Kirby O'Donnell The Sonora Kid

See also	List of works by Robert E. Howard List of poems by Robert E. Howard "The Hyborian Age"

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