In September 1917, the Welsh National Eisteddfod was held at Birkenhead Park, on the Wirral, only the third time it had been held outside the Principality. A huge crowd, including the Prime Minister David Lloyd George himself a Welsh language speaker, had gathered to take part in this annual celebration of Welsh culture and language.
The highlight of the festival was to take place on 6 September when the name of the winning poem along with its author, would be announced to the expectant audience. This was normally followed by the 'chairing of the bard' ceremony when the winning poet would make his way through the crowd to take his seat in the bardic chair, a beautiful, wooden chair especially carved for each Eisteddfod.
At the 1917 festival, it was announced that the winning poem was named as Yr Arwr (The Hero), The Archdruid, the Reverend Evan Rees,known by the bardic name Dyfed, announced the victor’s creativity and originality. Twice he called for the poet who had submitted under the pseudonym “Fleur-de-Lys,” and twice no one answered. When on the third time no one answered the call of victory, the Archdruid solemnly announced that the winner was Hedd Wyn and that Hedd Wyn had died in Europe only weeks before.'YnArwr (The Hero)' and that the winning author had written under the pseudonym Fleur de Lys. The tradition was for trumpets to sound a fanfare to invite the winner to make themselves known.
Three times they sounded; three times the Archdruid called out the nom de plume of the winning bard but when no one came forward, he then solemnly announced to the silenced audience that the winning poet, Ellis Humphrey Evans better known by his bardic name of Hedd Wyn, had been killed in action six weeks earlier.
Welsh language pacifist poet Hedd Wyn,(Welsh for Blessed Peace) was born in Trawsfynydd, Meirionydd, on January 13th, 1887. the oldest of 11 children born to parents Mary and Evan Evans. He left school at 14 to work on his parent's farm Yr Ysgwrn.. He spent most of his life there, apart from a short period working in South Wales.
He began writing Welsh-language poetry aged just 11, mastering the hardest form of Welsh poetry (the cynghanedd) and his talent for poetry became increasingly known and he took part in competitions and local eisteddfodau. He won his first chair (Cadair y Bardd) in Bala, at the age of 20 in 1907. He won his first prize in a local literary competition at the age of twelve, before winning his first chair(Cadair y Bardd) in Bala, at the age of 20 in 1907..
This was the first of the six chairs he would go on to win. He won chairs at Llanuwchllyn in 1913, Pwllheli in 1913, Llanuwchllyn in 1915 and Pontardawe in 1915.
Ellis Humphrey Evans was given the bardic name of Hedd Wyn by a throne of Ffestiniog poets in 1910. He chose to keep the name by submitting further poems in later Eisteddfodau.His poetry drew heavily on the influences of the Romantic era, including themes of nature and spirituality,
In 1915 he wrote his first poem for the National Eisteddfod of Wales—Eryri, an ode to Snowdon. The following year he took second place at the Aberystwyth National Eisteddfod with Ystrad Fflur, an awdl written in honour of Strata Florida, the medieval Cistercian abbey ruins in Ceredigion.
With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the mood of Hedd Wyn's poetic work changed to discuss the nightmare of the war. He wrote poems in memory of friends who died fighting in Europe,
One of his most powerful poems that I have found translated is “Y Rhyfel” (War), which I post below.
Y Rhyfell /War- Hedd Wyn (Translated by Gillian Clarke)
- Gwae fi fy myw mewn oes mor ddreng,
- A Duw ar drai ar orwel pell;
- O'i ôl mae dyn, yn deyrn a gwreng,
- Yn codi ei awdurdod hell.
- Pan deimlodd fyned ymaith Dduw
- Cyfododd gledd i ladd ei frawd;
- Mae swn yr ymladd ar ein clyw,
- A'i gysgod ar fythynnod tlawd.
- Mae'r hen delynau genid gynt,
- Ynghrog ar gangau'r helyg draw,
- A gwaedd y bechgyn lond y gwynt,
- A'u gwaed yn gymysg efo'r glaw
- Bitter to live in times like these.
While God declines beyond the seas;
Instead, man, king or peasantry,
Raises his gross authority.
- When he thinks God has gone away
Man takes up his sword to slay
His brother; we can hear death's roar.
It shadows the hovels of the poor.
- Like the old songs they left behind,
We hung our harps in the willows again.
Ballads of boys blow on the wind,
Their blood is mingled with the rain.
As a Christian pacifist Ellis at first did not enlist when war broke out, believing he could never kill anyone.Throughout the 19th century, the Welsh predominantly adopted pacifism as a leading philosophy due to the prominence of the Nonconformist movement. According to Alan Llwyd the Welsh chapels were, understandably, much opposed to war. There was also a strong peace movement in Wales, and politicians such as the pacifist Henry Richard, the ‘Apostle of Peace,’ were held in high esteem by the Welsh people. (Llwyd, Out of the Fire of Hell xv).
Whether pacifism pervaded the Welsh people, prominent Welsh people included it in the narrative defining Welshness. Nonconformist ministers advocated for peace and moderation; subsequently,
Wales and opposition to universal military service remained strong. The governing Liberal Party opposed the idea, as did large sections of the Labour Party and some Conservatives.
Even after war had broke out in August 1914, the Cabinet unanimously dismissed Winston Churchill's proposal for 'compulsory [military] service'.
However, the high casualty rates on the Western Front and the falling number of voluntary recruits for the'issue of conscription went to the top of the political agenda. After the formation of a coalition government under Asquith in May 1915, the Conservative Party and the Liberal minister David Lloyd George orchestrated a powerful media campaign in favour of universal military service.
In January and May 1916, Military Service Acts were passed by Parliament, ensuring that all those eligible to serve 'king and country' were now forced to report for duty.
At the outbreak of the First World War Lloyd George who was already an influential and popular politician before the First World War. A proud Welshman, he had opposed the Second Boer War partially because of the appearance of the British Empire inflicting defeat on a smaller country.
At the time of the start of the war he held the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer. There was some debate in the weeks leading to war over whether Lloyd George would support military intervention or no but eventually decided to back the declaration of war on Germany..
He continued in his position as Chancellor until 1915 and the Shell Crisis in Britain. The British Expeditionary Force in France had failed in their recent Battle of Aubers Ridge and its commander General Sir John French let it be known that he blamed faulty artillery shells and the inability of factories back in Britain to keep the army supplied.
The resulting scandal brought about the collapse of the Liberal government, at the time lead by Herbert Asquith, and cost Lord Kitchener much of his power and prestige. It would also eventually cost General Sir John French his job. Asquith maintained control as Prime Minister but only within a coalition government that now included Lloyd George as the Minister for Munitions, charged with bringing armament production to acceptable levels.
Following the death of Lord Kitchener, Lloyd George expanded his own power base by rising to take the position of Secretary of State for War and in June 1916.reached out to his countrymen, even convincing some of the traditionally pacifistic Nonconformist ministers that war against Germany was the moral duty of all Britons. His people responded passionately enough that Lloyd George celebrated the fact that “the martial spirit has been slumbering for centuries, but only slumbering ...The great warlike spirit that maintained independence of these mountains for centuries woke up once more”
Given the loss of life brought about in Wales due to the First World War, it is easy to see why the perception of Lloyd George would sour after the war’s conclusion..
Despitere inevitably told that they had to send one of their sons to join the British Army. Hedd Wyn enlisted rather than having to see his younger brother Robert sent to war. Like 280,000 other Welshmen he was conscripted to fight in the first world war and in 1916 he was forced.to join the Royal Welch Fusiliers .
In March 1917, he was allowed to return briefly to Trawsfynydd to help with the ploughing and planting at the family farm, Yr Ysgwrn. While he was at home, he began work on a new poem, Yr Arwr (The Hero) inspired by Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Prometheus Unbound. which was to be his submission for the forthcoming eisteddfod. The work on the farm took longer than expected and Ellis overstayed his leave of absence, leading to an abrupt departure as the military police arrived to return him to his post. In the confusion, the uncompleted poem was left behind
pres Salient and there in the mud of the trenches he completed the ode. Bearing the pseudonym Fleur de Lys he posted his work back to Wales on July 15, 1917.
On July 31, Hedd Wyn went over the top with his regiment in a major offensive to capture Pilckem Ridge in what would become known as the Battle of Passchendaele (or the Third Battle of Ypres).
Men were falling on all sides, amongst them Hedd Wyn who was hit by a shell and mortally wounded.
He was one of 9,300 British troops who were slaughtered in the first three days of the Battle of Passchendaele.Soon after being wounded he was carried to a first-aid post and still conscious he asked the doctor "Do you think I will live?" although he had little chance of surviving. Hedd Wyn died at around 11am
During the fighting in Ypres, over 500,000 men lost their lives. Hedd Wyn was one of 310,000 allies to die alongside 260,000 Germans during some of the bloodiest battles of the First World War, which was known as the Great War.
Only six weeks later, on 6 September 1917,he National Eisteddfod of Wales took place in Birkenhead Park, Liverpool. An abbreviated occasion due to the war, it lasted three days instead of the traditional seven. David Lloyd George, by then Prime Minister, attended the eisteddfod as he had for many years. Evans’s mentor, Silyn Roberts, attended the eisteddfod and later depicted the scene that followed the bews of Hedd Wynn's death, stating that “The wave of emotion that swept over the vast throng is undescribable and can never be forgotten. The bards enfolded the chair in a great black shroud”
By all accounts, Lloyd George himself, whose push for conscription had led to Evans’s participation in the war and his subsequent death, sat there in the assembly also overcome with emotion. Because of the black sheet that the druids draped over the empty bardic chair, the event became known as the to as "Eisteddfod y Gadair Ddu" ("The Eisteddfod of the Black Chair").
The shockwaves at the time were palpable. “No words can adequately describe the wave of emotion that swept over the vast audience when Wyn’s bardic chair was draped with the symbols of mourning," the Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard newspaper reported at the time.
The Black Chair which had been expertly carved by Belgian refugee Eugeen Vanfleteren, was brought by train and then horse and cart to his parents farm, Yr Ysgwrn, on a hillside above the village of Trawsfynydd in the Prysor Valley,, the whole village turned out in mourning. The stone farm cottage, which dates back to the early 16th century, quickly became a place of pilgrimage, where visitors were warmly received by the poet’s family and descendants.
Today, the ornately carved bardic throne can be seen at Yr Ysgwrn as well as many other artefacts from the poet’s short life Yr Ysgwrn is not an ordinary Welsh farmhouse. In 1917, it and Hedd Wyn became a powerful and lasting symbol of a lost generation of young lives senselessly slaughtered and the bereavement of communities following the enormous losses of the First World War on the killing fields of Europe
People have visited the house to pay tribute and see the Black Chair ever since.Hedd Wyn’s nephew, Gerald Williams, continued to farm Yr Ysgwrn, always keeping the door open to a steady stream of visitors who made the pilgrimage to the poet’s home. As he reached his mid-80s, Gerald began to think about the farm’s legacy. In 2012 he sold it to Eryri (Snowdonia National Park), with conditions attached: it should remain open to visitors, and it should feel like a home, and not a museum.
After careful restoration, Yr Ysgwrn re-opened as a visitor centre.The Bardic chair that Wyn was never able to claim in 1917 remains there as a poignant reminder of the generation of young men from Wales lost in the war. To find out more about Yr Ysgwrn visit https://www.yrysgwrn.com/home
Aberystwyth’s National Library of Wales hosts the original manuscript of the ode ‘Yr Arwr’,Hedd Wyn’s final draft of the poem which won him the chair at the 1917 Birkenhead Eisteddfod. The collection also includes a number of personal notes and items and notes of the bard.
Hedd Wyn's poem Yr Arwr ("The Hero"), is still considered his greatest work. The ode is structured in four parts and presents two principal characters, Merch y Drycinoedd ("Daughter of the Tempests") and the Arwr. There has been much disagreement in the past regarding the meaning of the ode. It can be said with certainty that Hedd Wyn, like his favourite poet Shelley, longed for a perfect humanity and a perfect world during the chaos of war.
Merch y Drycinoedd has been perceived as a symbol of love, the beauty of nature, and creativity; and Yr Arwr as a symbol of goodness, fairness, freedom, and justice. It is wished that through his sacrifice, and his union with Merch y Drycinoedd at the end of the ode, a better age will come.
While the poem ends hopefully, the hope is found when the “Hero” rescues his beloved and brings her to an otherworldly land of summer and joy. Peace seems not to dwell in this world; rather, it exists only in imagination and hopefully in the afterlife.
Hedd Wyn as well as all the young men slain in the First World War, came to be associated with the “Hero” and his tragic life redeemed only in death. The poem and a translation can be found here https://www.liverpool-welsh.co.uk/images/HeddWyn.pdf
The first page of Hedd Wyn's poem Yr Arwr (The Hero) in his own handwriting.
Buried initially on the battlefield (out of necessity Hedd Wyn's body was subsequently moved to Artillery Wood cemetery, Boeinghe, near Ypres, Flanders following the armistice.Visitors can also pay their respects to him and all Welsh people involved in World War One at the Welsh National Memorial Park near Langemarck, Here, a red dragon looks out in the direction of Passchendaele.
In 1918 the decision was made that Ellis' poems should gave a wider audience, and they were published in a collection called "Cerdi'r Budail" (Shepherd's Songs). The money raised by the sale of the book paid for the bronze statue by L.S. Merrifield of Hedd Wyn was unveiled by his mother in 1923 in his home village of Trawsfynydd. A plaque on the statue bears the words that Hedd Wyn had written in memory of a friend, Tommy Morris, who died earlier in the war..
He is portrayed not as a soldier but as the shepherd they knew. The cross which marked his grave at Boesinghe is now displayed at his former school, which was renamed "Ysgol Hedd Wyn" in his honour, and there is a memorial plaque at St George's Church at Ypres which has become a place of pilgrimage for Welsh men and women.
A memorable, Welsh-language film based on Hedd Wyn's life has also helped bring his story and verse to a wider audience and was produced in 1992. Shot on location in the Prysor Valley. The film was written by the Alan Llwyd, who has also written biographical works on the poet, and directed by Paul Turner, starring Huw Garmon in the title role and Judith Humphreys as his lover, Jini Owen.
This compelling and moving drama was the first British film to be nominated at the Academy Awards for a Best Foreign Language Film in 1993 and was the first Welsh film to be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, in 1993, at the Oscars. The film (Hedd Wyn), is available to watch for free on the BFI Player https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-hedd-wyn-1992-online
In August 2014, the Welsh Memorial Park was opened at Pilckem Ridge in Ypres, Belgium. The memorial is located near where Hedd Wyn was killed during the war in 1917.
In commemoration of his death 100 years ago in 2017, a new Bardic chair was created and presented by the Welsh Government at a special ceremony in Birkenhead Park. A memorial was also unveiled there,
The 2017 opera 2117/Hedd Wyn, with music by Stephen McNeff and libretto by Gruff Rhys, was inspired by the life of Hedd Wyn; set in the year 2117, it imagines a group of schoolchildren in a post-apocalyptic Trawsfynydd learning about the life and work of the poet. It was recorded by Ty Cerdd Records and released in 2022
This poet/Bardd continues to represent a lost generation that could have further enriched our literature and national life had they been spared. I will end this post with the following poem by Hedd Wynn, translated by Alan Llwyd..
Y Blotyn Du
Nid oes gennym hawl ar y sêr,
Na'r lleuad hiraethus chwaith,
Na'r cwmwl o aur a ymylch
Yng nghanol y glesni maith.
Nid oes gennym hawl ar ddim byd
Ond ar yr hen ddaear wyw;
A honno syn anhrefn i gyd
Yng nghanol gogoniant Duw.
The Black Spot
We have no claim to the stars
Nor the sad-faced cloud that immerses
Itself in celestial light.
We only have the right to exist
On earth in its vast devastation,
And it's only man' strife that destroys
The glory of God's creation.
The Poet's Grave in France reads Hedd Wyn Chief Bardd
Statue of Hedd Wyn , Trawsfynnyd
Na'r lleuad hiraethus chwaith,
Na'r cwmwl o aur a ymylch
Yng nghanol y glesni maith.
Nid oes gennym hawl ar ddim byd
Ond ar yr hen ddaear wyw;
A honno syn anhrefn i gyd
Yng nghanol gogoniant Duw.
The Black Spot
We have no claim to the stars
Nor the sad-faced cloud that immerses
Itself in celestial light.
We only have the right to exist
On earth in its vast devastation,
And it's only man' strife that destroys
The glory of God's creation.
The Poet's Grave in France reads Hedd Wyn Chief Bardd
Statue of Hedd Wyn , Trawsfynnyd
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