Flyting

The poem contains more than one "flyting" -- to use the Scottish term -- and the high war of words between Satan and Abdiel in heaven, or between Satan and Gabriel on earth, could not have been handled save by a master of all the weapons of verbal fence and all the devices of wounding invective. ❋ Walter Alexander Raleigh (1891)

He cites lines from the "flyting" scene that contain examples of this metaphor and then argues that the poet is criticizing Unferth in the way he refers to the contents of Unferth's mind. ❋ Prof. De Breeze (2008)

Bussy's invectives against courtly practices (I, i, 84-104) and hypocrisy in high places (III, ii, 25-59), while the "flyting" between him and Monsieur is perhaps the choicest specimen of Elizabethan ❋ George Chapman (N/A)

His epigrams (most of which are contained in _The Scourge of Folly_, undated, like others of his books) are by no means despicable; the Welsh ancestors, whom he did not fail to commemorate, seem to have endowed him with some of that faculty for lampooning and "flyting" which distinguished the Celtic race. ❋ George Saintsbury (1889)

Drinking sets in seriously after dark, and is known by the violent merriment of the men, and the no less violent quarrelling and "flyting" of the sex which delights in the "harmony of tongues." ❋ Richard Francis Burton (1855)

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". ❋ Unknown (2009)

'flyting' the great hulking lout for his awkwardness, and threatening to ❋ Andrew Lang (1900)

Update: Paul sez, "Old Norse and Old English poetry (written down in the 13th and 8th-11th centuries respectively, but often of earlier oral origins) know the tradition of" flyting, "insulting speech esp. before battle. ❋ Unknown (2006)

He would have done better to look up some Early Scots examples of flyting insult exchanges or taken some lines from Shakespeare. ❋ DC (2010)

Savvier lovers woo by flyting -- sexy bickering -- which allows them to hammer out a partnership. ❋ Unknown (2008)

“Hold your tongue, ye flyting fools,” said the Doctor; ❋ Unknown (2008)

Take off the ring, sweetling, and get thee to thine hunting, for if thou come home empty-handed there will be flyting awaiting thee, or worse. ❋ Unknown (2007)

Anthropologists describe shame-cultures in which public ridicule will cause a man to retire to his house and die, and we hear of flyting contests in which two opponents stand and hurl insults at one another until the weaker is overwhelmed by sheer vituperation. ❋ ALVIN B. KERNAN (1968)

She 's warring and flyting frae mornin 'till e'en, ❋ Various (N/A)

So Gotwar, sorrowing at the destruction of her children who had miserably perished, and eager to avenge them, announced that it would please her to have a flyting with Erik, on condition that she should gage a heavy necklace and he his life; so that if he conquered he should win gold, but if he gave in, death. ❋ Grammaticus Saxo (N/A)

His wife came every day to the door of Monkbarns to sell fish to Miss Griselda, the Antiquary's sister, when the pair of them would stand by the hour "skirling and flyting beneath his window like so many seamaws," as Oldbuck himself said. ❋ Samuel Rutherford Crockett (N/A)

Never a guid word did I hear on his lips, nor naebody else, but just fleering and flyting and profane cursing—deil hae him! ❋ Unknown (1889)

She was talking to herself, and "flyting on" the patient cows, who now stood chewing the cuds of their breakfast. ❋ Unknown (1887)