"It is ostensibly an example of medieval debate poetry between the principles of the oppressive figure of "Mum" ("Silence", as in "to keep mum") and the unruly, wild "Sothsegger" ("Truth-Speaker", cognate with the modern word "soothsayer").Beneath the surface of the debate form, the content is primarily that of a medieval satire, meditating on statecraft and attacking state institutions that oppress and exploit the poor.