The story of the Nuns and the Vikings is a story that contains an example of a PersuasionDilemma.
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The Story
The story takes place at an abbey on the North East coast of England sometime in the seventh or eighth century.
Part 1
One day, the nuns in the abbey see a fleet of Viking ships heading towards the shore.
The option Vikings is to rape the nuns. They hold this position and the nuns strongly take the opposite position.
The stated intention of the Vikings is to rape the nuns. The nuns do not doubt this intention and that their position will be flouted. If the positions of the parties do not match and the stated intention of one party is not doubted, there is a PersuasionDilemma. To eliminate a persuasion dilemma, one can either do nothing or act creatively to persuade the other party to give up their position.
Part 2
The nuns achieve this by cutting off their noses to make themselves ugly. Legend has it that this is the origin of the phrase 'to cut off your nose to spite your face'.
When the Vikings arrive at the abbey, they find the horrifically mutilated nuns and give up their option of raping them.
Part 3
On the OptionsBoard the option of the nuns to cut off their noses, the nuns took this position but the vikings did not. The stated intention has been irreversibly taken. The Vikings now also have a persuasion dilemma as their position has been flouted and the stated intention of the nuns is more than credible as the option has already been taken.
The Vikings have a special type of persuasion dilemma . The cannot change the past so they want to persuade the nuns to regret their action. They take revenge by burning the abbey to the ground with all the nuns inside.