flyting

thumb|upright=1.2|1545 woodcut by Lucas Cranach the Elder|Lucas Cranach referencing (and possibly illustrating) flyting. German peasants respond to a papal bull of [[Pope Paul III. Caption reads: "Don't frighten us Pope, with your ban, and don't be such a furious man. Otherwise we shall turn around and show you our rears."]] thumb|The Norse gods Freyja and [[Loki flyte in an illustration (1895) by Lorenz Frølich.]] Flyting or fliting (Classical Gaelic: immarbág, , "counter-boasting") is a contest consisting of the exchange of insults between two parties, often conducted in verse.

==Etymology== The word flyting comes from the Old English verb meaning 'to quarrel', made into a gerund with the suffix -ing. Attested from around 1200 in the general sense of a verbal quarrel, it is first found as a technical literary term in Scotland in the sixteenth century. The first written Scots example is William Dunbar, The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie, written in the late fifteenth century.