A popular pastime in which two people try to outdo each other in the richness of their rhetorical scorn. Often seen in disputes between vehicle drivers, in public houses and in families, it provides one of the bases for satire because the participants bind their hostility to the production of elaborate language, rather than to physical action. The dispute between Beowulf and Unferth in “Beowulf” is an example of a a flyting, as is, in more elaborate guise, Pope's “The Dunciad”.
Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.
81 words
Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Flyting". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=422, accessed 15 December 2025.]
