SOURCE: Allen, Richard E. “The Voices of The Owl and the Nightingale.” In Studies in Medieval Culture III, edited by John R. Sommerfeldt, pp. 52-58. Kalamazoo: Western Michigan University, 1970.

In the following essay, Allen discusses the The Owl and the Nightingale in terms of aesthetic differences between the songs of the two birds and their personification of the tension between progressive and traditional artistic forms.

The anonymous debate of about the year 1200 called The Owl and the Nightingale is a remarkable poem, and not the least remarkable thing about it is the fact that although everyone who has dealt with the poem seems to admire it immensely, few can agree on anything else connected with it. The author, the date, and the meaning of the work have all been extensively discussed over the past hundred years. The authorship controversy centers on the question of whether the Nicholas of...