Editing Flyting (section)

== Description ==
{{Quote box
 |quote  = I will no longer keep it secret:<br />it was with thy sister<br />thou hadst such a son<br />hardly worse than thyself.
 |source = ''[[Lokasenna]]''
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{{Quote box
 |quote  = Like ane boisteous bull, ye rin and ryde<br />Royatouslie, lyke ane rude rubatour<br />Ay fukkand lyke ane furious fornicatour
 |source = [[David Lyndsay|Sir David Lyndsay]], ''An Answer quhilk Schir David Lyndsay maid Y Kingis Flyting'' (''The Answer Which Sir David Lyndsay made to the King's Flyting''), 1536
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{{Quote box
 |quote  = Ajax: Thou bitch-wolf's son, canst thou not hear? Feel then.<br />
Thersites: The plague of Greece upon thee, thou mongrel beef-witted lord!
 |source = [[William Shakespeare]], ''[[Troilus and Cressida]]'', Act 2, Scene 1
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Flyting is a ritual, poetic exchange of insults practiced mainly between the 5th and 16th centuries. Examples of flyting are found throughout [[Scots language|Scots]], [[Fili|Ancient]], [[Medieval]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/art/flyting|title = Flyting &#124; Scottish verbal contest &#124; Britannica}}</ref><ref name="Icelandic vis-à-vis Irish flyting">{{cite web | url=http://journal.oraltradition.org/files/articles/6i/6_sayers.pdf | title=Serial Defamation in Two Medieval Tales: The Icelandic Ölkofra Þáttr and The Irish Scéla Mucce Meic Dathó | work=Oral Tradition | date=1991 | access-date=2016-03-16 | author=Sayers, William | pages=35–57}}</ref> and [[Contemporary_history|Modern]] [[Celts|Celtic]], [[Old English]], [[Middle English]] and Norse literature involving both historical and mythological figures. The exchanges would become extremely provocative, often involving accusations of [[cowardice]] or [[sexual perversion]].

Norse literature contains stories of the gods flyting. For example, in ''[[Lokasenna]]'' the god [[Loki]] insults the other gods in the hall of [[Ægir]]. In the poem ''[[Hárbarðsljóð]]'', Hárbarðr (generally considered to be [[Odin]] in disguise) engages in flyting with [[Thor]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Byock |first=Jesse |title=Feud in the Icelandic Saga |publisher=University of California Press |year=1983 |orig-year=1982 |location=Berkeley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yPUnnVkWf4sC |isbn=0-520-08259-1}}</ref>

In the confrontation of [[Beowulf (hero)|Beowulf]] and [[Unferð]] in the poem ''[[Beowulf]]'', flytings were used as either a prelude to battle or as a form of combat in their own right.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Clover |first=Carol J. |date=1980 |title=The Germanic Context of the Unferþ Episode |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2847235 |journal=Speculum |volume=55 |issue=3 |pages=444–468 |doi=10.2307/2847235 |jstor=2847235 |s2cid=163023116 |issn=0038-7134|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In [[Anglo-Saxon England]], flyting would take place in a feasting hall. The winner would be decided by the reactions of those watching the exchange. The winner would drink a large cup of beer or [[mead]] in victory, then invite the loser to drink as well.<ref>''Quaestio: selected proceedings of the Cambridge Colloquium in Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic'' Volumes 2–3, pp. 43–44, University of Cambridge, 2001.{{ISBN?}}</ref>

The 13th-century poem ''[[The Owl and the Nightingale]]'' and [[Geoffrey Chaucer]]'s ''[[Parlement of Foules]]'' contain elements of flyting.

Flyting became public entertainment in [[Scotland]] in the 15th and 16th centuries, when [[makar]]s would engage in verbal contests of provocative, often sexual and [[Scatology#Literature|scatological]] but highly poetic abuse. Flyting was permitted despite the fact that the penalty for profanities in public was a fine of 20 shillings (over £300 in {{CURRENTYEAR}} prices) for a lord, or a whipping for a servant.<ref name="Hughes" /> [[James IV of Scotland|James IV]] and [[James V of Scotland|James V]] encouraged "court flyting" between poets for their entertainment and occasionally engaged with them. ''[[The Flyting of Dumbar and Kennedie]]'' records a contest between [[William Dunbar]] and [[Walter Kennedy (poet)|Walter Kennedy]] in front of James IV, which includes the earliest recorded use of the word [[shit]] as a personal insult.<ref name="Hughes">{{Cite book |author=Geoffrey Hughes |title=An encyclopedia of swearing : the social history of oaths, profanity, foul language, and ethnic slurs in the English-speaking world |author2=M.E. Sharpe |year=2006 |isbn=9780765612311 |page=175 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |oclc=827752811}}</ref> In 1536 the poet [[David Lyndsay|Sir David Lyndsay]] composed a [[ribaldry|ribald]] 60-line flyte to James V after the King demanded a response to a flyte.

Flytings appear in several of [[William Shakespeare]]'s plays. [[Margaret Galway]] analysed 13 comic flytings and several other ritual exchanges in the tragedies.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Galway |first=Margaret |date=1935 |title=Flyting in Shakspere's Comedies |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23684827 |journal=The Shakespeare Association Bulletin |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=183–191 |jstor=23684827 |issn=0270-8604}}</ref> Flytings also appear in Nicholas Udall's ''[[Ralph Roister Doister]]'' and John Still's ''[[John Still#Gammer Gurton's Needle|Gammer Gurton's Needle]]'' from the same era.

While flyting died out in Scottish writing after the Middle Ages, it continued for writers of Celtic background. [[Robert Burns]] parodied flyting in his poem, "[[To a Louse]]", and [[James Joyce]]'s poem "The Holy Office" is a curse upon society by a bard.<ref>"flyting." ''Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature''. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1995. ''Literature Resource Center''.</ref> Joyce played with the traditional two-character exchange by making one of the characters representing society as a whole.