Flyting or fliting, is a contest consisting of the exchange of insults between two parties, often conducted in verse.
1545 woodcut by 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."
The Norse gods Freyja and Loki flyte in an illustration (1895) by Lorenz Frølich
The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie
The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie is the earliest surviving example of the Scottish version of the flyting genre in poetry. The genre takes the form of a contest, or "war of words", between two poets, each trying to outclass the other in vituperation and verbal pyrotechnics. It is not certain how the work was composed, but it is likely to have been publicly performed, probably in the style of a poetic joust by the two combatants, William Dunbar and Walter Kennedy, before the Court of James IV of Scotland.
Evill farit and dryit, as Denseman on the rattis... (The Flyting, l.51)