Читать книгу Bees Knees and Barmy Armies - Origins of the Words and Phrases we Use Every Day - Harry Oliver - Страница 21

The phrase, which means to destroy someone’s chances or hopes, can be traced back to a sixteenth-century event which may or may not have happened. Either way, the expression has retained currency. King Eric of Sweden had arrived to attack an enemy town. To show their contempt for the King and his small band of soldiers, the town’s burghers hung a goose from a tower and then sent a message to him that asked, in effect, ‘What do you want?’ ‘To cook your goose,’ came the reply, whereupon King Eric’s men set fire to the town, literally cooking the symbolic goose in the process.