Cut off your nose to spite your face

Posted by Graham cambray on January 18, 2009 at 23:06

In Reply to: Cut off your nose to spite your face posted by ESC on January 18, 2009 at 16:56:

: : Has anyone heard of a reference to the Scottish priory at Coldingham, in reference to the origin of "cut off your nose to spite your face"?

: All I know is here: www.phrases.org.uk bulletin_board 43 messages 689.html Didn't see anything about a priory.

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From:
Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon Royal Houses
By Barbara Yorke
Continuum International Publishing Group, 2002
ISBN 0826460402, 9780826460400

"St AEbbe the younger of Coldingham is said to have preserved her virtue in the face of a viking attack by cutting open her nose and lips with a razor, and action which was imitated by her fellow nuns. The ruse was successful in deflecting the vikings from rape, but only encouraged them to burn down the nunnery with its disfigured inmates inside. The fact that an almost identical story was told of Eusabia and her virgins in Mardeilles does nothing to encourage belief in the historical validity of this account ...."

So probably just a local story, without much foundation, I'm afraid.

• Cut off your nose to spite your face David FG 21/January/09
  • Cut off your nose to spite your face Graham Cambray 22/January/09