The Owl and the Nightingale

The Owl and the Nightingale
Altercatio inter filomenam et bubonem
Opening page of The Owl and the Nightingale: Oxford, Jesus College, MS. 29, fol. 156r
Also known as	Hule and the Nightingale
Date	12th or 13th century
Manuscript(s)	(1) British Library Cotton MS Caligula A IX; (2) Oxford, Jesus College, MS 29. Written in the 2nd half of the 13th century

The Owl and the Nightingale (Latin: Altercatio inter filomenam et bubonem) is a twelfth- or thirteenth-century Middle English poem detailing a debate between an owl and a nightingale as overheard by the poem's narrator. It is the earliest example in Middle English of a literary form known as debate poetry (or verse contest).^[1]

Verse contests from this time period were usually written in Anglo-Norman or Latin. This poem shows the influence of French linguistic, literary, and rhetorical techniques. After the Norman conquest, French became a predominant language in England, but English was still widespread and recognized as an acceptable language for poetry, if only burlesque debates.

The dating of the poem is uncertain. The poem includes a prayer for the soul of the "king Henri", but it is unclear from the context if the deceased monarch mentioned in the prayer is Henry II of England (who died in 1189) or his grandson Henry III of England (who died in 1272). According to one scholarly theory, the nightingale of the poem specifically represents Henry II. Which would mean that the rival character of the poem (the owl) represents one of Henry's political rivals, Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury.