Word of the week

• flyting n. a scolding (match), quarrelling; a contest between poets in mutual abuse
• howf(f) n. a favourite haunt, a meeting place, freq a public house
• petted lip n. the expression on a sulky face (esp. of a child); a sulky mood
• gar v. make (a person or thing do something)
• hotchin, hoatchin, adj. seething, infested, overrun (with); restless, eager

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flyting n. a scolding (match), quarrelling; a contest between poets in mutual abuse

“flyting n. a scolding (match), quarrelling; a contest between poets in mutual abuse”

30th April 2007

Flyting can simply denote an everyday stooshie. The Records of Elgin from 1596 record that Isobel and Margaret Tailyour were required 'to do thair repentance on Sonday nixt for thair public flytting'. Yet flyting is also a word we may encounter when studying Scotland's medieval makars, who managed to turn abuse into an poetic technique, the most famous example being that of William Dunbar's battle of words with Walter Kennedy. Other cultures have similar traditions. Last October, the Herald discussed 'a Dutch literary tradition called scheldkritieken, which literally means "abusive criticism". Like flyting, its Scottish equivalent, scheldkritieken is taken seriously and, at its best and most venomous, is an art form of sorts'.

In the introduction to the 1997 edition of Neil Munro's Para Handy, the editors note that 'The persecution or "roasting" of Para by his crew is a most amusing example of a traditional kind of Scottish humour; something kindlier than satire and more subtle than ridicule. It may be descended from the ancient Scottish literary custom of "flyting", as found in the poems of Dunbar and his contemporaries'. In an article on Hamish Henderson in Sunday Herald (2002), readers were reminded that he and Hugh MacDiarmid 'both indulged in the letters page of The Scotsman in the wondrous Scottish sport of flyting which, alas, is no longer part of the cultural scene'.

Yet perhaps this sport is not so dead as all that. David McCrone's online article for Edinburgh University's Institute for Governance, 'Peeblin' Wi' Stanes: Assessing the Scottish Parliament, 1999-2003', described Donald Dewar as 'a politician who genuinely enjoyed debate and flyting'. The Scottish Parliament certainly provides the perfect arena for public debate, inviting political incarnations of Dunbar's flyting spirit to battle words and wits in the run-up to the May elections.