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==Description== |
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==Description== |
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The word flyting has been adopted by [[Social history|social historians]] following the example of Walter J. Ong<ref>Ong, Walter J. (1981). ''Fighting for Life: Contest, Sexuality and Consciousness'' Ithaca: University of Cornell Press. ISBN 0801413427</ref> from [[Scots language|Scots]] usage of the fifteenth and sixteenth century, in which [[makars]] (''makaris'') would engage in public verbal contests of high-flying, extravagant abuse structured in the form of a poetic [[Jousting|joust]]; the classic written example is ''[[The Flyting of Dumbar and Kennedie]]'', which records a gloriously [[scurrilous]] contest between the poets [[Walter Kennedy]] and [[William Dunbar]]. The term '''"flyt"''' is Scottish for “quarreling,” or “contention.”<ref name="BritFlyt" /> After the Renaissance, flyting became obsolete in Scottish literature, though the tradition itself never completely died out among Celtic authors.<ref name="BritFlyt">{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/211736/flyting |title=Flyting|work=Encyclopædia Britannica Online |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica |accessdate=2009-01-07}}</ref> |
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|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. |
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|source = ''[[Lokasenna]]'' |
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|quote = Like ane boisteous bull, ye rin and ryde<br/>Royatouslie, lyke ane rude rubatour<br/>Ay fukkand lyke ane furious fornicatour |
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|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 = Ajax: Thou bitch-wolf's son, canst thou not hear? Feel then.<br/> |
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Thersites: The plague of Greece upon thee, thou mongrel beef-witted lord! |
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|source = [[William Shakespeare]], ''Troilus and Cressida '' Act 2, Scene 1. |
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Flyting is a ritual, poetic exchange of insults practiced between the 5th and 16th centuries. The root is believed to the be the [[Old Norse]] worse ''flyta'' meaning provocation. Examples if flyting are found throughout Norse, [[Anglo-Saxon]] and [[Medieval]] literature. The exchanges would become extremely provocative, often involving accusations of [[cowardice]] or [[sexual perversion]]. |
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Norse literature contains stories of the gods flyting. For example in ''[[Lokasenna]]'' the god [[Loki]] insults the other gods in the hall of [[Ægir]] and the poem ''[[Hárbarðsljóð]]'' in which Hárbarðr (generally considered to be [[Odin]] in disguise) engages in flyting with [[Thor]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Byock |first=Jesse |authorlink= |title=Feuds in Icelandic Saga |publisher=University of California Press |date=1982 |location=Berkeley |pages= |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=yPUnnVkWf4sC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false |isbn=0-5020-08259-1}}</ref> |
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Flyting is similar in both form and function to the modern [[African American]] practice of [[freestyle battle]]s and the historic practice of [[the dozens]].<ref name="rap">{{cite web |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3998862/Rap-music-originated-in-medieval-Scottish-pubs-claims-American-professor.html |title=Rap music originated in medieval Scottish pubs, claims American professor |accessdate=2008-12-30 |last=Johnson |first=Simon |work=telegraph.co.uk |publisher=Telegraph Media Group |date=2008-12-28 |quote="Professor Ferenc Szasz argued that so-called [[rap battles]], where two or more performers trade elaborate insults, derive from the ancient Caledonian art of "flyting." According to the theory, Scottish slave owners took the tradition with them to the United States, where it was adopted and developed by slaves, emerging many years later as rap; see also John Dollard, "The Dozens: the dialect of insult", ''American Image'' '''1''' (1939), pp 3-24; Roger D. Abrahams, "Playing the dozens", ''Journal of American Folklore'' '''75''' (1962), pp 209-18.}}</ref> |
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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>Clover, Carol (1980). "The Germanic Context of the Unferth Episode", ''Spoeculum'' '''55''' pp. 444-468.</ref> |
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In [[Germanic peoples|Germanic cultures]], the convention can be detected earlier, for example in the confrontation of [[Beowulf (hero)|Beowulf]] and [[Unferð]] in ''[[Beowulf]]''.<ref>Clover, Carol (1980). "The Germanic Context of the Unferth Episode", ''Spoeculum'' '''55''' pp. 444-468.</ref> Flytings were used as either a prelude to battle or as a form of combat in their own right. The exchange is regular, if not ritualized, and the insults usually center on accusations of cowardice or sexual impropriety or perversion. Several [[Norse Mythology|Norse mythological]] poems contain flyting (or consist solely of flyting), including the poem ''[[Lokasenna]]'' , wherein [[Loki]] insults the Norse gods in the hall of [[Ægir]] , and the poem ''[[Hárbarðsljóð]]'' in which Hárbarðr (generally considered to be [[Odin]] in disguise) engages in flyting with the god [[Thor]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Byock |first=Jesse |authorlink= |title=Feuds in Icelandic Saga |publisher=University of California Press |date=1982 |location=Berkeley |pages= |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=yPUnnVkWf4sC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false |isbn=0-5020-08259-1}}</ref> |
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In [[Anglo-Saxon England]], flyting would take place in a feasting hall. After an exchange of insults, the winner would drink 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, p43-44, University of Cambridge, 2001.</ref> |
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The 13th century poem ''[[The Owl and the Nightingale]]'' and [[Geoffrey Chaucer]]'s ''[[Parlement of Foules]]'' contain elements of flyting. |
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Flyting became public entertainment in [[Scotland]] in the 15th and 16th centuries where [[makar]]s would engage in verbal contests of provocative, often sexual and [[Scatology#Literature|scatalogical]] but highly poetic abuse. The classic written example ''[[The Flyting of Dumbar and Kennedie]]'' records a contest between [[William Dunbar]] and [[Walter Kennedy]]. [[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. In 1536 the poet [[David Lyndsay|Sir David Lyndsay]] wrote a [[ribaldry|ribald]] 60 line flyte to James V after the King demanded a response to an earlier flyte. |
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Flytings appear in several of [[William Shakespeare]]'s plays. [[Margaret Galway]] analysed 13 comic flytings and several other ritual exchanges in the tragedies.<ref>Margaret Galway, ''Flyting in Shakespeare's Comedies'', The Shakespeare Association Bulletin'', vol. 10, 1935, pp. 183-91.</ref> Flytings also appear in the Nicholas Udall's ''[[Ralph Roister Doister]]'' and John Still' ''[[John Still#Gammer Gurton's Needle|Gammer Gurton's Needle]]'' from the same era. |
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==Similar practices== |
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Hilary Mackie has detected in the ''[[Iliad]]'' a consistent differentiation between representations in Greek of Achaean and Trojan speech,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mackie |first=Hilary Susan |authorlink= |title=Talking Trojan: Speech and Community in the Iliad |publisher=Rowmann & Littlefield |date=1996 |location=Lanham MD |pages= |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=A3F_so8HNg4C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false |isbn=0-8476-8254-4}}, reviewed by Joshua T. Katz in ''Language'' '''74'''.2 (1998) pp. 408-09.</ref> where Achaeans repeatedly engage in public, ritualized abuse: "Achaeans are proficient at blame, while Trojans perform praise poetry."<ref>Mackie 1996:83.</ref> |
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Hilary Mackie has detected in the ''[[Iliad]]'' a consistent differentiation between representations in Greek of Achaean and Trojan speech,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mackie |first=Hilary Susan |authorlink= |title=Talking Trojan: Speech and Community in the Iliad |publisher=Rowmann & Littlefield |date=1996 |location=Lanham MD |pages= |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=A3F_so8HNg4C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false |isbn=0-8476-8254-4}}, reviewed by Joshua T. Katz in ''Language'' '''74'''.2 (1998) pp. 408-09.</ref> where Achaeans repeatedly engage in public, ritualized abuse: "Achaeans are proficient at blame, while Trojans perform praise poetry."<ref>Mackie 1996:83.</ref> |
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Taunting songs are part of many cultures predating Scottish flyting, such as [[Inuit]] civilization. Flyting also existed in [[Arabic poetry]] in a popular form called ''naqa'id'', as well as the competitive verses of Japanese [[Haikai]]. |
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Taunting songs are part of many cultures such as [[Inuit]] civilization. Flyting also existed in [[Arabic poetry]] in a popular form called ''naqa'id'', as well as the competitive verses of Japanese [[Haikai]]. |
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Echoes of the genre continue into modern poetry. [[Hugh MacDiarmid]]'s poem ''[[A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle]]'', for example, has many passages of flyting in which the poet's opponent is, in effect, the rest of humanity. |
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Echoes of the genre continue into modern poetry. [[Hugh MacDiarmid]]'s poem ''[[A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle]]'', for example, has many passages of flyting in which the poet's opponent is, in effect, the rest of humanity. |
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Robert Hendrickson, ''The Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins'' refers to flyting as a form of logomachy (i.e., word fighting) and cites its use by pre-Islamic Arabs, who hurled curses at the enemy as they went into combat, as a colorful example. |
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Robert Hendrickson, ''The Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins'' refers to flyting as a form of logomachy (i.e., word fighting) and cites its use by pre-Islamic [[Arabs]], who hurled curses at the enemy as they went into combat, as a colorful example. |
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Flyting is similar in both form and function to the modern [[African American]] practice of [[freestyle battle]]s and the historic practice of [[the dozens]].<ref name="rap">{{cite web |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3998862/Rap-music-originated-in-medieval-Scottish-pubs-claims-American-professor.html |title=Rap music originated in medieval Scottish pubs, claims American professor |accessdate=2008-12-30 |last=Johnson |first=Simon |work=telegraph.co.uk |publisher=Telegraph Media Group |date=2008-12-28 |quote="Professor Ferenc Szasz argued that so-called [[rap battles]], where two or more performers trade elaborate insults, derive from the ancient Caledonian art of "flyting." According to the theory, Scottish slave owners took the tradition with them to the United States, where it was adopted and developed by slaves, emerging many years later as rap; see also John Dollard, "The Dozens: the dialect of insult", ''American Image'' '''1''' (1939), pp 3-24; Roger D. Abrahams, "Playing the dozens", ''Journal of American Folklore'' '''75''' (1962), pp 209-18.}}</ref> |
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==Notes== |
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==Notes== |