Welsh bardic tradition According to Jan Morris, "Welsh creativity is unusually disciplined, for since the earliest times the Welsh artistic tradition has been governed by codes and conventions – perhaps since the Druids, relying as they did entirely upon their memories, drew up rules of composition to make it easier for themselves. In the Wales of the Independence the Bards and Harpers were institutionalised, with their own allotted places in society, their established functions to perform. They regarded poetry and music as professions, for the practice of which one must qualify, like a lawyer or a doctor. There were agreed measurements of value for a work of art, and the subjects of poetry were formalized, consisting at least until the fourteenth century mainly of eulogies and elegies. Musicians were restricted by intricate rules of composition. Poets were governed by the
Twenty-Four Strict Metres of the classical Welsh tradition. Among the the Metres still prevail." According to Hywel Teifi Edwards, "The Eisteddfod, then, has evolved from a medieval testing-ground-cum-house of correction for professional Bards and Minstrels into a popular festival which annually highlights the literary scene with the aid of the Gorsedd. Lectures and discussions in , followed by reviews of the in a variety of publications help to encourage a deeper and more abiding interest in Welsh literature. That 'The National' acts as a means of heightening an awareness of language and literature as humanizing forces which no society can neglect with impunity is not too large a claim to make for it." Also according to Morris, "literature is the first Welsh glory,
poetry its
apotheosis, and the company of poets is the nobility of this nation."
Eisteddfod origins According to Edwards, there is a legend that the first eisteddfod took place at the royal behest of
Maelgwn Gwynedd at
Conwy during the 6th century. It was Maelgwn's wish that the assembled bards and minstrels would compete against each other. First, however, Maelgwn decreed that they must all swim the
River Conwy first and that the minstrels must do so carrying the harps on their backs. For this reason, the bards, whom Maelgwn favoured, ended up winning the contest. According to legend,
Gruffudd ap Cynan (1055–1137), the
Dublin-born King of
Gwynedd from the
House of Aberffraw and the descendant of
Rhodri Mawr,
Sigtrygg Silkbeard, and
Brian Boru, not only reformed the Welsh bardic schools to accord with those that trained the
Irish language bards, but also served as patron to an eisteddfod at
Caerwys during his reign.
1176 Cardigan 'eisteddfod' The
first documented 'eisteddfod' was hosted by
Rhys ap Gruffydd, the grandson of
Gruffudd ap Cynan through the maternal line and monarch of
Deheubarth through his paternal descent from the
House of Dinefwr, at
Cardigan Castle on Christmas Day, 1176. According to Hywel Teifi Edwards, what few details are recorded of the event in the
Brut y Tywysogion, "encourage the view that it could not have been the first of its kind." Rhys awarded two chairs as prizes, one for the winner of the poetry competition and the other for music. The bardic chair went to a poet from
Gwynedd, while the musical chair went to the son of Eilon the Crythwr, a member of Rhys's court. Armchairs were a valuable asset, normally reserved for people of high status. In 2007, Welsh historian Roger Turvey, writing of
Dinefwr Castle, suggested that The Lord Rhys's idea for a competitive festival of music and poetry at Cardigan Castle may have been inspired by similar contests in other parts of
Catholic Europe. The Lord Rhys, Turvey suggested, may have learned about the Puy tradition from the
Cambro-Normans in the
Welsh Marches or from Welsh mercenary soldiers returning from France. In those other countries, aspiring poets were trained through apprenticeship to
master craftsmen or by attending schools run by poets'
guilds such as the
Puy of France, the
Meistersingers of the
Holy Roman Empire, or the
Rederijkerskamers of
the Netherlands, all of which also organized eisteddfod-like contests between poets on
patronal feast days of the
Roman Catholic liturgical year.
Medieval Wales The next large-scale eisteddfod that is historically known is the three-month-long 1450 eisteddfod at
Carmarthen Castle under
Gruffudd ap Nicolas. At the eisteddfod the ('Silver Chair'), which is said to have been fashioned by Gruffudd ap Nicolas himself, was won by a
cywydd in honour of the
Holy Trinity composed by
Dafydd ab Edmwnd, a Welsh poet who did not depend on noble patronage, from
Hanmer, Flintshire. Welsh poet and Roman Catholic priest
Llawdden, however, accused Gruffudd ap Nicolas of accepting a bribe from
Dafydd ab Edmwnd in return for the Silver Chair. Dafydd ab Edmwnd's exemplified the
24 strict metres of
Welsh poetry, previously codified by
Einion Offeiriad and
Dafydd Ddu o Hiraddug, as Dafydd ab Edmwnd had personally reformed them. He deleted two metres and replaced them with the more complicated
Gorchest y Beirdd and the
Cadwynfyr. The reform of the 24 metres presented by Dafydd was formally accepted at the 1450 Carmarthen eisteddfod and was widely adopted by bards throughout Wales. The consequence of Dafydd's reforms was that greater emphasis was placed by the bardic elite upon adhering to the stricter metres rather than to the theme or content of their poetry. Until this time, the training of Welsh poets had always been a secret, with the craft handed down from teacher to apprentice, but, as the poetry of the professional bards became increasingly incomprehensible, less complex and more popularly oriented works of
Welsh poetry began to be composed by bards with humbler origins and less formal training. According to
John Davies, a team of researchers led by Dafydd Bowen has demonstrated that the Welsh bards of the 15th century were completely dependent upon the Welsh nobility and the monks and abbots of monasteries such as
Strata Florida and
Valle Crucis Abbey for both hospitality and
patronage in return for
praise poetry. Davies adds, however, that, "in a notable article",
Welsh nationalist and
traditional Catholic writer
Saunders Lewis argued that the Welsh bards of the era, "were expressing in their poetry a love for a stable, deep-rooted civilization." Lewis added that the bards "were the leading upholders of the belief that a hierarchical social structure, 'the heritage and tradition of an ancient aristocracy', were the necessary precondition of civilized life and that there were deep philosophical roots to this belief." In 1523, an eisteddfod was held at Caerwys under King
Henry VIII's charter and was led by Welsh bard and future
Franciscan friar,
Tudur Aled. At the urging of the
aristocratic Mostyn family of
Talacre Hall, a Statute, which was attributed to King
Gruffydd ap Cynan of
Gwynedd, was used as the basis for the eisteddfod. The Statute listed the rights of bards in Welsh culture and under
traditional Welsh law, while also arguing that bards should not drink to excess, womanize, or gamble. In addition, the Statute further stated that a true bard must never write
satirical poetry and codified the rules of praise poetry at a time when the Welsh bardic tradition of was increasingly under threat and, "demanded that the bard celebrate in elevated language the orderliness of a God-centered world."
The Welsh Reformation Queen
Elizabeth I of England commanded that Welsh bards be examined and licensed by officials of the Crown, who had alleged that those whom they considered genuine bards were, "much discouraged to travail in the exercise and practice of their knowledge and also not a little hindered in their living and preferments." Unlicensed bards, according to Hywel Teifi Edwards, "would be put to some honest work." Although Edwards has compared the unlicensed bards of the era with, "today's abusers of the
Social security system," historian Philip Caraman quotes a 1575 "Report on Wales" that reveals an additional reason for the decree. During the Queen's ongoing
religious persecution of the
Catholic Church in England and Wales, many Welsh ('head bards') were, according to the report, acting as the secret emissaries of
Recusants in the Welsh nobility and were helping those nobles spread the news about secret
Catholic masses and
pilgrimages. in 1583 Welsh Recusant, schoolmaster, and unlicensed bard
Richard Gwyn was put on trial for
high treason before a panel of judges headed by the
Chief Justice of
Chester,
Sir George Bromley, at
Wrexham. Gwyn stood accused of refusing to take the
Oath of Supremacy, denying the Queen's claim to be
Supreme Head of the Church of England, of involvement in the local Catholic underground, but also of composing satirical poetry aimed at the
established church and reciting, "certain rhymes of his own making against married priests and ministers." Gwyn was found guilty and condemned to death by
hanging, drawing and quartering. The sentence was carried out in the Beast Market in Wrexham on 15 October 1584. Just before Gwyn was hanged he turned to the crowd and said, "I have been a jesting fellow, and if I have offended any that way, or by my songs, I beseech them for God's sake to forgive me." The hangman pulled at Gwyn's leg irons hoping to put him out of his pain. When he appeared dead they cut him down, but he revived and remained conscious through the disembowelling, until his head was severed. His last words, in Welsh, were reportedly "" ('Jesus, have mercy on me'). Following
Catholic Emancipation in 1829, six works of
Christian poetry in the Welsh language by Richard Gwyn, five carols and a satirical
Cywydd composed in
Wrexham Gaol following the assassination of
Dutch Revolt leader
William the Silent by
Balthasar Gérard, were discovered and published. Similar Welsh poetry in strict metre survives from other Recusant Bards of the era, such as
Robert Gwin,
Catrin ferch Gruffudd ap Hywel, and
Gruffydd Robert. Despite their battles being so similar to his own against government censorship, Sir
Philip Sidney, in
An Apology for Poetry, expressed both admiration for and envy of the prestige that poets enjoyed in
Welsh culture, which he contrasted with what he described as the
Elizabethan era tendency in
English culture to treat poets as unwanted stepchildren, "In Wales, the true remnant of the ancient Brittons, as there are good authorities to show, the long time they had poets which they called Bards: so through all the conquests of
Romans,
Saxons,
Danes, and
Normans, some of whom, did seek to ruin all memory of learning from among them, yet do their poets even to this day last: so as it is not more notable in the soon beginning, then in long continuing." Likely due to the continued existence of Recusant Bards, the 1567 and 1568 Caerwys eisteddfodau were patronized by the Queen, so that, "all or every person or persons that intend to maintain their living by name or colour of Minstrelsy, rhymers, or bards... shall.. shew their learning thereby", and overseen by the officials of her
Council of Wales and the Marches. By royal decree, only Welsh bards licensed by the officials of the Queen were permitted to compete. At the eisteddfod held in Caerwys in 1568, the prizes awarded were a miniature silver chair to the winning poet, a little silver
crwth to the winning fiddler, a silver tongue to the best singer, and a tiny silver harp to the best harpist. The chief chaired bard of the event was
Robert Davies (from
Nant-glyn) and the second being "". The
official Anglican translation of the
Bible into the Welsh language, first published in 1588, continues to have an enormous influence on the Welsh poetry submitted to the eisteddfodau. The translator, Reverend
William Morgan, based his Biblical translation on the
Hebrew and Greek original Bibles, while also consulting the
English Bishops' and
Geneva translations.
Y Beibl cyssegr-lan, as it was called, also included original translations as well as adaptations of
William Salesbury's Welsh
New Testament. No other book in the
Welsh language has been anywhere near as influential in linguistic or literary terms. Bishop Morgan skillfully moulded the
Middle Welsh literary language of the medieval bards (, or 'the old language') into the
Elizabethan-era ('literary Welsh') still in use today. Even though there is a major difference between and all 21st century spoken dialects of the Welsh language, eisteddfod submissions are still required to be composed in the literary language of Bishop Morgan's Bible, which remains the foundation upon which all subsequent Welsh literature has been built.
Decline According to Marcus Tanner, Queen Elizabeth I's experiment at royal patronage of the eisteddfod did not catch on and, as the 16th and 17th centuries progressed, the Welsh nobility became increasingly
Anglicized and ceased to grant employment or hospitality to Welsh-language poets. Although eisteddfodau continued, the gatherings became more informal; Welsh poets would often meet in taverns, cemeteries, or inns to have "assemblies of rhymers". But the interest of the Welsh people dwindled to such a point that the eisteddfod held at
Glamorgan in 1620 attracted an audience of only four people. The winners, however, continued to receive a chair, which was a highly prized award because of its perceived social status. Throughout the medieval period, high-backed chairs with arm rests were reserved for royalty and high-status leaders in military, religious, or political affairs. As most ordinary people sat on stools until the 1700s, the award of an
armchair immediately changed the social class of a winning bard. In 1701, an eisteddfod was held at
Machynlleth in order, "To begin to renew the eisteddfod of bards (as they were in olden times), to reprimand false
cynghanedd, to explain the difficult things, and to confirm what is correct in the art of poetry in the Welsh language." The 1701 eisteddfod was followed, according to Edwards, by a series of , so called because they were widely advertised in the cheap almanacs that were widely available. The and composed for these events "owe more to the beery atmosphere at which they were composed than to genuine inspiration and craft." In 1734,
Siôn Rhydderch organized an eisteddfod adjudicated by a panel of 12 judges at
Dolgellau, but upon his arrival there was greeted by only six poets, "and all the signs of apathy and dejection." Comparing this disappointing response to what he saw as the glory of the Elizabethan-era eisteddfodau at Caerwys, Rhydderch vowed that he would have no role in further efforts to revive the tradition, "unless some others may feel like restarting and setting up the thing. And if it will be like that, if I am alive and well, I shall not be hindered from coming to that."
Late 18th-century Revival In 1788, Thomas Jones and
Jonathan Hughes asked the London-based
Gwyneddigion Society to donate, "some small present out of goodwill to those who are trying to crawl after their mother tongue." Although the Gwyneddigion Society agreed, they laid down certain conditions to their support that permanently altered the future course of the eisteddfod and its traditions. The Gwyneddigion claimed for themselves the right to proclaim both the eisteddfod and the theme of the main competition which they alone would set, one year in advance. The poems were to be submitted under pseudonyms and would be adjudicated solely upon their literary merits. The poems and the adjudicator's comments would then be forwarded to the eisteddfod in a sealed package. The adjudicators were to be able men for the job and were to choose the winning entry based upon "purity of language and regular composition of the poems to be among their chief merits." The adjudicators were to meet together and give an impartial decision and, in the event of any disagreement, the Gwyneddigion would endeavor to resolve the dispute. The name of the winning poet would be announced upon the first day of the eisteddfod and, owing to the dignity of his status as , the winner was not to compete alongside the other poets in the composition of impromptu verse. In so doing, the Gwyneddigion laid down the framework for the modern
National Eisteddfod of Wales. According to Hywel Teifi Edwards, "there was to be notice given a year in advance of
one organized, annual eisteddfod answerable to a central, controlling authority which would require competitors to submit their compositions pseudonymously to a panel of competent adjudicators." Although the Gwyneddigion did not succeed in their ambition of transforming the eisteddfod "into an Academy that would act as a forcing house for Welsh culture", they have wielded considerable influence over continued requirement for long poems as eisteddfod submissions. Furthermore, in reaction to the incomprehensibility of Welsh poetry composed in
strict meter, the Gwyneddigion held up the recent poetry of Reverend
Goronwy Owen as a better model. Long before his death on his tobacco and cotton plantation near
Lawrenceville, Virginia in 1769, Owen had often expressed the desire to compose an
epic work of
Christian poetry which would be the equal of
John Milton's
Paradise Lost. Owen felt, however, that the rules of
Welsh poetry in
strict meter prevented him from doing so. Therefore, by holding Owen up as a model, the Gwyneddigion ensured that his literary legacy is that, as late as 1930, both the adjudicators and the poets composing submissions to the National Eisteddfod of Wales were aspiring to produce the Welsh
national epic that Owen had longed to write in vain. The first eisteddfod of the revival, for which "Thomas Jones simply used" the name of the Gwyneddigion "for promotional purposes", was held at
Corwen in May 1789.
Gwallter Mechain was judged the winner, having illegally been informed in advance by Thomas Jones of the subjects for the impromptu poetry contests. Despite outraged complaints by Gwallter Mechain's competitors, the Gwyneddigion upheld the judges' decision. The first eisteddfod held in full accordance with the Gwyneddigion Society's new rules was held at
Bala in September 1789. The that were submitted for the bardic chair were on the theme ('A Consideration of Man's Life') and, according to Edwards, "heralded the appearance of the new ." According to Hywel Teifi Edwards, while the awarding of a chair is a very old tradition, the now-familiar ceremony of the chairing of the bard who has composed the best
awdl dates from the eisteddfod revival of the early 1790s. During the 1790 eisteddfod held at
St. Asaph,
Gwyneddigion Society member Edward Williams, whose bardic name was Iolo Morganwg, became convinced that he and his fellow Welsh poets were the descendants of the Druids and that the eisteddfod was a survival of Druidic ritual. In response, Iolo Morganwg, according to Marcus Tanner, "reintroduced what he considered the ritual of an ancient Bardic congress to a series of rather ordinary literary proceedings conducted chiefly in hotels." To accomplish this end, in 1792 Iolo Morganwg founded a
secret society of Welsh poets, which he dubbed
Gorsedd Beirdd Ynys Prydain. Morganwg also invented its structure and rituals, for which he drew upon on a mixture of
Freemasonry,
Welsh mythology, modern Druidry, and some
Christian elements. Morganwg alleged, however, that the Gorsedd was a survival from pre-Christian Wales. The fictitious origin of Morganwg's claims and of the Gorsedd's ceremonies were firmly established only in the 20th century by Professor G.J. Williams. In October 1792, ''
The Gentleman's Magazine'' reported, "This being the day on which the autumnal
equinox occurred, some Welsh bards resident in London assembled in congress on
Primrose Hill, according to ancient usage... A circle of stones formed, in the middle of which was the Maan Gorsedd, or altar, on which a naked sword being placed, all the Bards assisted to sheathe it. This ceremony was attended with a proclamation, the substance of which was that the Bards of the Isles of Britain (for such is their ancient name) were the heralds and ministers of peace." In 1814, an observer caught sight of Iolo Morganwg walking behind a banner at
Pontypridd, "at the head of a procession... over the great bridge and then over to the Rocking Stone on the common above. Ancient ceremonies were performed on the great stone by Iolo in the role of
Y Gwyddon, or
Odin, the
Archdruid, not the least being the sheathing the State Sword of Wales to convey the valuable lesson, as in
Gethsemane, that there is more credit in sheathing the sabre than in drawing it forth among the sons of men." The eisteddfod revival, however, was briefly brought to a halt by the
Napoleonic Wars, but was again restarted following the
Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
1801–1860 The earliest known surviving bardic chair made specifically for an eisteddfod was constructed in 1819. Iolo Morganwg and the Gorsedd made their first appearance at the same eisteddfod, which was held at the Ivy Bush Inn at
Carmarthen in 1819, and its close association with the festival has continued since then. Also at the 1819 Carmarthen eisteddfod, Iolo Morganwg presented a freer code of meters. While still defending the superiority of
cynghanedd, Morganwg said this had also been used in
Gwent and
Glamorgan for centuries prior to
Dafydd ab Edmwnd's 15th century reforms. This led, after considerable debate between traditionalists and innovators, to the adoption of the eisteddfod contest for best and the ceremony of the crowning of the bard. Meanwhile,
Archdeacon Thomas Beynon, the president of the Carmarthen
Cymreigyddion Society and a staunch patron of the provincial eisteddfodau, was persistently urging for the adoption of
blank verse, or unrhymed
iambic pentameter, as another alternative to
Welsh poetry in
strict meter. Meanwhile, all poems submitted to eisteddfodau began being published in 1822, which allowed for the first time for the
Welsh people to read the poems and to decide for themselves about their merits and flaws. At the 1824
National Eisteddfod in
Powys,
satirical poetry in the traditional
englyn form was submitted under the pre-announced title "Beddargraff Dic Siôn Dafydd" ("The
Epitaph of
Dic Siôn Dafydd"). According to
Hywel Teifi Edwards, "Ten 'Provincial Eisteddfodau' were held between 1819 and 1834, eisteddfodau on a scale never witnessed before. They were patronized by Anglicized gentry and graced by
royalty when
George IV's brother,
the Duke of Sussex, appeared at
Denbigh in 1828 to be followed at
Beaumaris in 1832 by the young
Princess Victoria and
her mother." Following the 1847
attack by the Blue Books against the moral character of the
Welsh people,
Welsh poetry composed for the eisteddfodau "found itself trapped within the part allotted the Welsh language in the counterattack against the Blue Books." For this reason, much of the poetry written sought to promote an image of the
Welsh people as "God-fearing,
Queen-loving", and, "
Empire-supporting." At the 1850
Rhuddlan Royal Eisteddfod, £25 and a Chair Medallion were offered for the best on the theme ('the Resurrection'). The poets were allowed to choose the meter, excluding blank verse, that best suited them.
Caledfryn submitted an , while
Eben Fardd and
Evan Evans (Ieuan Glan Geirionydd) submitted
Alexandrine . In a judgment unheard-of in Eisteddfod history: Ieuan Glan Gerionydd's Alexandrine was judged superior and was awarded the £25 and Chair Medallion over Caledfryn's in
strict metre. Upon the publication of all the Eisteddfod's submissions, however, Eben Fardd's attempt at an
epic work of Christian poetry was "hailed by the
literati as a work of distinction far surpassing the pallid, common-sense poem written by Ieuan Glan Gerionydd". As Eben Fardd's had been relegated to third place by the judges, it was widely felt that something was seriously wrong with adjudication standards and "talk of eisteddfod reform was in the air." In 1858
John Williams, whose bardic name was
Ab Ithel, held a "national" eisteddfod with the
Gorsedd Cymru in
Llangollen. "The great Llangollen Eisteddfod of 1858" proved highly significant for several reasons. For example, John Williams (the event's organiser), offered £20 and a Silver Star for the best essay on the theme,
The Discovery of America in the 12th-century by Prince Madoc ab Owain Gwynedd. This was, according to Hywel Teifi Edwards, a subject inspired by Iolo Morganwg. Instead, Welsh historian
Thomas Stephens submitted an essay that, in what Edwards has described, as a "scholarly tour de force, demolished the cherished myth". In response, Ab Ithel decreed, "that the essay broke with the spirit of the competition", and would not be awarded the prize. In response, a scandalized crowd followed Stephens into the Cambrian Tent, where he read his essay aloud before them despite Ab Ithel's efforts to drown him out with a convenient brass band. Despite having been denied the prize, Stephens succeeded in persuading his audience that Prince Madoc did not in fact discover the New World. The Llangollen eisteddfod also saw the first public appearance of
John Ceiriog Hughes, who won a prize for the
love poem,
Myfanwy , which contradicts the Blue Books by describing a virtuous Welsh woman. As may be expected, the song became an instant hit. This eisteddfod outraged the English-language press. The
Daily Telegraph called it "a national debauch of sentimentality". A writer for
The Times went even farther, calling the eisteddfod "simply foolish interference with the natural progress of civilization and prosperity – it is a monstrous folly to encourage the Welsh in a loving fondness for their old language." Before the 1858 Llangollen eisteddfod was over, however, a meeting of Welsh literati had taken place and decided that an annual national eisteddfod, conducted with due regard for standards, was long overdue. , a national body guided by an elected council, was formed and the Gorsedd subsequently merged with it. The Gorsedd holds the right of proclamation and of governance while the council organizes the event. The first true National Eisteddfod organized by the council was held in
Aberdare in 1861 on a pattern that continues to the present day.
1861–1900 According to Hywel Teifi Edwards, "The 1860s found the eisteddfod poet beset with doubt, as the words of
Eben Fardd and
Talhaiarn (
John Jones 1810–69), two of the foremost poets of the time, prove. Both accepted the subservience of their mother tongue and the diminished role of the poet in the
steam age. If poetry
per se was of questionable value, how much more so Welsh poetry, and strict meter poetry at that? What could be less marketable in an age that marketed English was with
progress than Welsh poetry? It was galling when
Fleet Street taunted Wales with its want of a
Shakespeare, a
Milton, a
Wordsworth or a
Tennyson. It was shattering when
Matthew Arnold, scourge of
philistinism and hawker of Celtic magic, insisted that any Welsh poet with anything worth saying should say it in English.
Edward Dafydd, in
1655, expressed the sense of desolation he felt as he pondered the passing of the old order and the coming of a bleak age: ('This world is not for poets.') He could well have been speaking for the poets of the 1860s." Also during the
Victorian era, the poets who won the chair or the crown at the National Eisteddfod were praised to a degree that subsequent
literary critics and historians have found not only excessive, but "ludicrous". According to Edwards, however, "It is easy to laugh at the besotted rhetoric of the period, but let us remember how starved of respect Welsh literature was for most of the time and how marginal was the role allotted to most writers. The Eisteddfod, with its huge audience, offered both glory and economic reward. It is perfectly natural, given the circumstances, that the accolade 'National Winner' should be surrounded with so much hype and sought after so frantically." Perhaps for these reasons, during the late 19th century, according to Edwards, "Wales still pursued 'the one poem' that alone, the
Renaissance had taught, justified a literature's claim to greatness." The Welsh poet
Lewis William Lewis (1831–1901), whose bardic name was Llew Llwyfo, repeatedly attempted in his eisteddfod submissions to, "achieve the
national epic that would merit translation into the major literatures". He chose subjects such as
Caractacus, the
Arthurian legend,
Llewellyn the Last, and even the
Old Testament King David. Although Edwards is very critical of Llew Llwyfo and accuses him of following the then common practice of imitating Victorian-era
English poetry, Lewis's poetry repeatedly won first prize at multiple eisteddfodau held both in Wales and within
Welsh-American immigrant communities. Tragically, however, "a Welsh epic refused to materialize. A succession of aspirants rifled the works of authorities from
Homer to
Bulwer-Lytton in the hope of hitting upon a formula that would take." According to Jan Morris, "By the end of the century,
Hubert Herkomer, one of the most fashionable painters of his day, had created for [the Gorsedd]'s functionaries gloriously neo-Druidical robes and insignia of gold, velvet, and ermine (the
Archdruid's breastplate was designed to choke him, Herkomer said, if he gave a false judgement)."
1901–1920 Even though the title had been previously chosen by the eisteddfod judges, almost certainly in the hope of inspiring a Welsh equivalent to
Lord Tennyson's
Idylls of the King,
Thomas Gwynn Jones's hugely influential ,
Ymadawiad Arthur ("The Passing of Arthur") won its author the bardic chair at the National Eisteddfod in 1902. The poem, according to Hywel Teifi Edwards, "brought back some of the
mythopoeic grandeur which
John Morris-Jones yearned for." In 1905,
Thomas Marchant Williams was
knighted by King
Edward VII for his part in the revival of the
Cymmrodorion Society and the establishment of the National Eisteddfod Association. One of the most dramatic events in the 900-year history of the eisteddfod took place on 6 September 1917, during
World War I. It was the award of the bardic chair during the second day of the
1917 National Eisteddfod of Wales at
Birkenhead Park in the
English town of the same name. The three adjudicators in the chair competition agreed unanimously that the best by far on the set theme ('The Hero') had been submitted under the pseudonym
Fleur-de-lis. The bard was then summoned three times by the Archdruid
Dyfed to stand up, in vain. The Archdruid then announced that the poet who submitted the winning had died during the short time between mailing his submission and the date of the eisteddfod. His name was Private
Ellis Humphrey Evans, whose bardic name was
Hedd Wyn ('Blessed Peace'), of the 15th Battalion,
Royal Welch Fusiliers, and he had fallen during the
trench warfare, "somewhere in France". The bardic chair was covered with a black sheet and, according to newspaper reports, "there wasn't a dry eye in the
pavilion." Ever since, the 1917 National Eisteddfod of Wales has been referred to as "" ('The Eisteddfod of the Black Chair'). Cynan drew for his winning upon both the poetry of
John Masefield and upon his own experiences in the
Macedonian front and in the trenches of France. "tells, in a gushingly romantic, lyrical style how a young
gwerinwr, scarred by the horrors of war, turns from the fetid city to seek spiritual renewal in the natural beauty of his home and the love of a pure country girl." Cynan's poem has been called the best-loved ever composed during the 20th century and many
Welsh people, according to
Hywel Teifi Edwards, are still able to recite long passages of it from memory.
Alan Llwyd, who has translated part of into English for the 2008 book
Out of the Fire of Hell: Welsh Experience of the Great War 1914–1918 in Prose and Verse, has argued that Cynan, rather than the far more famous
Hedd Wyn, is the greatest Welsh
war poet. At the 1936 National Eisteddfod held at
Fishguard, the set title for the Bardic Crown was ('The Wasteland'), which was almost certainly inspired by
T.S. Eliot's famous
Modernist poem of
the same name. Instead of copying Eliot, however, Welsh poet
David Jones (of the bardic name, , ) of
Cilfynydd won the Crown with a about
black lung disease and the damage it was wreaking upon the coal-mining communities in the
South Wales valleys. Reverend Albert Evans-Jones (Cynan) served a term as the Recorder of the
Gorsedd Cymru in 1935, and another as joint-secretary of the National Eisteddfod Council in 1937. According to Hywel Teifi Edwards, "The
Second World War, which plumbed new depths of bestiality culminating in the
atomic bomb, put the fear of national extinction in a world-wide context. The Welsh, fighting a long battle for cultural survival, found themselves subsumed, as it were, in a universal army. The cry that went up after
Nagasaki and Hiroshima,
We are all survivors now!, was easily understood by Welsh writers. At that point, the age-old fight to perpetuate a culture steeped in the Christian tradition was more clearly discerned as the crazy
militarism of the superpowers moved the world ever nearer to the abyss. The loss of Welshness now, far from being a sign of
progress, would merely conduce to the spread of the uniformity of mind so beloved of
totalitarians everywhere. Such a conviction has served to intensify the fight for the language, for to lose would be to ease the path of those forces that threaten the whole of mankind."
1961–2000 In response to the 1961 census, which showed a radical decrease in the percentage of Welsh speakers,
Saunders Lewis gave a 1962 radio address '''' ('The Fate of the Language') in which he predicted the imminent extinction of the Welsh language unless immediate action was taken. Lewis hoped to motivate
Plaid Cymru into directly fighting for the language. Instead, his address led to the 1962 foundation of
Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (
The Welsh Language Society) at a Plaid Cymru summer school held in
Pontardawe in
Glamorgan. In 1985, the long-term effects of Saunders Lewis's were listed by Gwyn Williams: the formation of in 1962, direct action against
English-language offices, roadsigns, and TV masts,
sit-ins and demonstrations,
Welsh-language schools, the 1973 adoption of
adult education in the Welsh language based upon the
Ulpan system created in the
State of Israel for teaching the
Hebrew language and
Israeli culture to adult immigrants, the 1964 creation of the office of
Secretary of State for Wales, the 1967 passing of the
Welsh Language Act, the creation of
S4C, and the mushrooming of Welsh-language publishing, film production,
pop and rock, as well as youth and urban music. as Archdruid Reverend
Albert Evans-Jones (Cynan) served as Archdruid twice and is the only person ever to have been elected to that position for a second term. His two terms were from 1950 to 1954 and from 1963 to 1966. He was also the first Archdruid to accept that the Gorsedd is an 18th-century invention by Iolo Morganwg and that it has no links to Welsh mythology or to the ancient Druids, thus healing rifts between the academic and ecclesiastical establishments and the eisteddfod movement. Cynan is also responsible for designing the modern ceremonies of the crowning and chairing of the bard in the eisteddfod as they are now performed, by creating ceremonies which, he thought, better reflected the
Christian beliefs of the Welsh people. In 1969, Cynan was
knighted by
Queen Elizabeth II as part of the honours at the
Investiture of the Prince of Wales for Cynan's services to both Welsh culture and literature. He remains the only Archdruid ever to have been so honoured. Although it has been held since 1929, the most notable event in the history of the Welsh youth festival known as the
Urdd National Eisteddfod took place at
Aberystwyth, also in 1969.
Charles, Prince of Wales was invited, so giving him a public platform from which to address the crowd. It was the same year as his investiture as
Prince of Wales, which had outraged many
Welsh nationalists, particularly those with leanings towards
republicanism. For this reason, as the Prince arrived on stage, more than one hundred people stood up and walked out in protest. The fallout afterwards was heated and an editorial in the Welsh-language newspaper
Y Cymro severely angered the director of the Urdd National Eisteddfod. In a parallel with the simultaneous
literary movement known as
New Formalism in
American poetry, the late 20th century witnessed a renaissance in Welsh poetry composed in strict meter, especially
englynion and
cywyddau. This renaissance is largely inspired by the poetry of
Alan Llwyd. Llwyd, a native of
Dolgellau, Gwynedd, first came to prominence with the almost unheard of feat of winning both the chair and the crown at the 1973 National Eisteddfod and then repeating the same feat in 1976. The 1982 bardic chair was awarded to
Gerallt Lloyd Owen for the
awdl Cilmeri, which Hywel Teifi Edwards has called the only 20th-century
, that matches
T. Gwynn Jones's 1902 masterpiece ('The Passing of Arthur'). In 1999 the centenary of early
Gaelic revival poet and
Easter Rising leader
Patrick Pearse's initiation into the
Gorsedd at the 1899 Pan Celtic Eisteddfod in
Cardiff (where he took the
Bardic name of Areithiwr) was marked by the unveiling of a plaque at the
Consulate General of the
Irish Republic in Wales.
21st century In a ceremony held entirely in the Welsh language during the 2002 National Eisteddfod at
St. David's,
Rowan Williams, the
Anglican Archbishop of Wales, was sworn into the Gorsedd as a "White Druid" under the bardic name "Ap Aneurin". According to Marcus Tanner, "The hour-long ritual, which took place at dawn inside a circle of improvised standing stones, seemed culled from the pages of
Tolkien's
The Lord of the Rings, not least because the more intrusive signs of modern technology, such as loudspeakers, had been concealed beneath wreaths of foliage. After a fanfare of trumpets and the playing of a harp, the Archbishop, dressed in white, laid his hands on a huge sword before being escorted into the heart of the
stone circle to meet the
horn of plenty. For all its appeal to antiquity, the rite that the company followed was one Iolo Morganwg would have recognized, since he invented it." In response to sharp criticisms of Archbishop Williams by the English-language media and other
Christian clergy, "for having taken part in a Pagan ritual", the Archdruid
Robyn Lewis said, "Iolo did create his Gorsedd while fantasizing about Pre-Christian times, but as it developed it rapidly became a mainstream Christian organization." ==Current eisteddfodau==