Norman legal disputation is reflected in the…

Norman legal disputation is reflected in the charming twelfth- or thirteenth-century poem, The Owl and the Nightingale, 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).

Verse contests from this time period are usually written in Anglo-Norman or Latin.

This poem shows the influence of French linguistic, literary, and rhetorical techniques.

French had become a predominant language in England after the Norman Conquest, but English is still widespread and recognized as an acceptable language for poetry, if only burlesque debates.