title: 2019 Thai general election

text: Note: The Rangsit University poll is often criticised for its alleged bias towards Prayut and Palang Pracharat. Sangsit Phiriyarangsan, who leads the polling effort, is a staunch public supporter of Prayut's and sceptics accuse him of artificially inflating Prayut and Palang Pracharat's poll numbers.


title: 2019 Thai general election

text: After the publication of the December poll, Sangsit announced that he will no longer publish polls under the university's name to protect the institution from criticism. However, in February, Sangsit and Rangsit University released another poll.


title: 2019 Thai general election

text: Traditionally, political parties support their party leader as the prime minister. However, in this election, multiple parties have declared support for Prayut Chan-o-cha as the next prime minister. Prayut is not an official member of any political party, however, several of his cabinet ministers and advisors are leaders of the Palang Pracharath Party. Palang Pracharat is widely acknowledged as the political vehicle for Prayut to return as prime minister in a democratic regime. On 8 February, Prayut officially became Palang Pracharat's candidate for prime minister.


title: 2019 Thai general election

text: In a December 2018 interview, Satitra Thananithichoti, an academic with expertise in polling and analysis, raised concerns with prime minister candidate polls. He revealed that from the polling data he has seen, a significant number of people said their preferred prime minister candidate was Prayut but also stated that their preferred political party was Pheu Thai, which does not support Prayut. Satitra pointed out that this could explain why Prayut regularly wins PM polls while Palang Pracharat often loses in party polls.


title: 2019 Thai general election

text: The election was widely seen as unfree and unfair, due to the creation of an electoral system designed to favour the junta's newly created Myanmar-style civil-military state-sponsored political party, Palang Pracharat, which developed a 'Pracharat' ('People's State) brand accompanied by state handouts up to the eve of the election; deliberate manipulation of election rules typical in electoral authoritarianism, including gerrymandering and the poaching of politicians from other parties; a biased voting environment; and a pattern of biased decision-making by the Election Commission. The Election Commission, which was appointed by the junta-appointed 2014 National Legislative Assembly, was widely criticized for perceived biases and incompetency. The polling process saw many reports of irregularities, and the counting process and initial results were very confused, as the live figures released by the EC contained large amounts of errors. Unofficial results, which typically would be known by the same night and announced next morning, were repeatedly delayed (for 44 days), as the Election Committee revised the method of allocating votes, until the Palang Pracharat Party was able to form a coalition government.


title: 2019 Thai general election

text: In addition, Human Rights Watch cited political repression, media censorship, unequal media access, the role of a military-appointed Senate in appointing an unelected prime minister (the junta leader), and lack of independence and impartiality of the Election Commission as factors preventing a free and fair election. Election monitors have also criticized the election process. The Asian Network for Free Elections commented on the environment being tilted to benefit the junta, and the confused vote-counting process that created mistrust. The People Network for Elections in Thailand (P-NET) released a statement that the election was not free and fair. They cited prevalent and rampant cases of vote-buying in the North, Northeast, and Central regions. P-NET blamed the Election Commission for turning a blind eye to many of these violations. P-NET also stated that many local government officials used their authority to give an advantage to certain parties since this election had no volunteer observers.


title: 2019 Thai general election

text: Problems with the election also included issues with overseas voting, where poorly designed envelope labels led to mailed ballots being rejected or mis-delivered by postal services, and information pamphlets contained unclear or incorrect information. On election day, it became apparent that 1,500 ballots from New Zealand were misplaced during air cargo transfer and could not be delivered to counting centres in time to be considered valid.


title: 2019 Thai general election

text: Partial preliminary results showed Pheu Thai and Palang Pracharath close in the two leading positions, followed by Future Forward. The results were a major upset for the Democrat Party, which came in fourth place, and Abhisit promptly resigned as party leader on election night, after it became certain the party had won fewer than 100 seats.


title: 2019 Thai general election

text: The Election Commission originally scheduled a press conference at 20:00 on election day, which would announce unofficial preliminary results at 95% of the vote counted. However, this was postponed until 21:30, and the EC chairman only announced several voter statistics. He said unofficial results would not be announced until the following day.


title: 2019 Thai general election

text: The Election Commission announced the unofficial results of 350 constituencies on Tuesday 26 and released full unofficial results in a press conference on Thursday 28. However, the figures contained many discrepancies, and led to further confusion. Party list seats would not be announced until the Election Commission officially endorsed the results, which was expected to happen near the deadline of 9 May, after the coronation of King Vajiralongkorn. Following the announcements, political parties began talks to form a coalition government. The Pheu Thai, Future Forward, Thai Liberal, Puea Chat, Prachachart, Thai People Power and New Economics parties announced an alliance at a press conference on 27 March. Despite Pheu Thai winning the most seats, Palang Pracharath also claimed it was entitled to form government, as it won more votes.


title: 2019 Thai general election

text: Due to the ambiguous way the election law was written concerning overhang seats, calculations by the media based on different interpretations of the law initially led to different sets of election results being reported. Before the elections, the Election Commission calculated that each allocated party-list seat should represent more than 70,000 votes. Although the media's interpretation discounted all parties that received fewer than the minimum number of votes per seat, the official calculations rounded up the figures for some of these parties, leading several of them to win one seat. This method reduced the popular vote threshold to as low as 35,000 votes, which cost the Future Forward Party seats. The official calculations were widely questioned, and the Election Commission, heavily criticized for not making its calculation methods public, deferred the matter to the Constitutional Court on 11 April. The Constitutional Court dismissed the request, and in a separate ruling ruled that the election law did not contradict the constitution.


title: 2019 Thai general election

text: The Election Commission announced official results for 349 constituency seats on 7 May, and for the party list seats on 8 May. Pheu Thai won the most constituencies at 136 seats. Palang Pracharath, which received the most votes, came in second, with 115 seats. Future Forward, Democrat and Bhumjaithai received 80, 52 and 51 seats, respectively. The result for one constituency in Chiang Mai Province was pending a by-election following disqualification of the leading candidate. The by-election was won by Future Forward, and recalculation of the party-list seats with the new popular vote figures awarded the Democrats and Palang Pracharath one new seat each, while the Thairaktham Party lost its only MP.


title: 2019 Thai general election

text: The Pheu Thai and Future Forward parties contested the calculation formula adopted by the ECT, as it resulted in Future Forward receiving seven fewer seats than expected from their alternative interpretation of the law, and their alliance securing 245 instead of 255 seats, just short of a majority. As such, they appeared unlikely to be able to form a government. The results also favoured several small parties which one seat each, who were expected to join a Palang Pracharath-led coalition. The new house convened on 24 May, and Prayut was voted prime minister by MPs from the 19-party coalition and all senators in a joint session on 5 June.


title: Mendoza Line

text: The Mendoza Line is baseball jargon for a sub-.200 batting average, the supposed minimum threshold for competence at the Major League level. It derives from light-hitting shortstop Mario Mendoza, who failed to reach .200 five times in his nine big league seasons. When a position player's batting average falls below .200, the player is said to be "below the Mendoza Line".


title: Mendoza Line

text: Mendoza, a lightly used shortstop from Chihuahua, Mexico, played for three franchises during his Major League career. While his fielding was adequate, his hitting was not. His batting average was between .180 to .199 in three of his first four seasons in the big leagues (1974 to 1977).


title: Mendoza Line

text: When he again had trouble staying above .200 in 1979 teammates began to chide him. "...Tom Paciorek and Bruce Bochte used it to make fun of me," Mendoza said in 2010. "Then they were giving George Brett a hard time because he had a slow start that year, so they told him, 'Hey, man, you're going to sink down below the Mendoza Line if you're not careful.' And then Brett mentioned it to Chris Berman from ESPN, and eventually it spread and became a part of the game."


title: Mendoza Line

text: Berman deflects credit back to Brett in popularizing the term. "Mario Mendoza? It’s all George Brett," Berman said. "We used it all the time in those 1980s "SportsCenters". It was just a humorous way to describe how someone was hitting."


title: Mendoza Line

text: Mendoza ended up finishing 1979 below his own "line", at .198. His hitting improved modestly in 1980 and 1981, enough that even with another sub-.200 in his final season of 1982 he was able to raise his career batting average to .215.


title: Mendoza Line

text: Another term used in baseball to indicate that a hitter is hitting below the Mendoza Line is that he is "on the interstate". It derives from the syntax of the U.S.


title: Mendoza Line

text: Interstate Highway System, which begins with the abbreviation "I" for "Interstate", followed by two numerals for major routes - such as "I-95" and "I-80", expressions which superficially resemble sub-.200 batting averages."


title: Mendoza Line

text: The term is also used outside of baseball to convey a similar connotation of unacceptably subpar performance:


title: JinJoo Lee

text: JinJoo Lee (; born November 15, 1987) is a Korean–American musician and singer. She is best known as the guitarist for the pop rock band DNCE.


title: JinJoo Lee

text: JinJoo Lee was born in Incheon, South Korea on November 15, 1987. Lee taught herself to play guitar at the age of 12, to join her family's band as the guitarist. She moved to Los Angeles at 19, where she learned English and attended the Musicians Institute in Hollywood. She is the sister-in-law of gospel singer Sohyang.


title: JinJoo Lee

text: Lee has performed with JoJo, the Jonas Brothers, Charli XCX, Jordin Sparks, and CeeLo Green's all-female backing band, Scarlet Fever in 2010-11. She is the guitarist for the band DNCE which debuted in 2015.


title: JinJoo Lee

text: Lee met Joe Jonas in 2009, when touring with the Jonas Brothers. She was the only female in the band, and when asked about it said, "It's the best thing ever...because they are very simple. Guys are so simple and easy. I don't know, I love working with guys. It's always been like that for my career. I was the only female in the band the entire time, so I'm very used to it. I'm very comfortable, and they're funny and silly."


title: Eisteddfod

text: In Welsh culture, an eisteddfod is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music.


title: Eisteddfod

text: The term "eisteddfod", which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, according to Hywel Teifi Edwards, "sitting-together." Edwards further defines the earliest form of the eisteddfod as a competitive meeting between bards and minstrels, in which the winner was chosen by a noble or royal patron.


title: Eisteddfod

text: The first documented instance of such a literary festival and competition took place under the patronage of Prince Rhys ap Gruffudd of the House of Dinefwr at Cardigan Castle in 1176. However, with the loss of Welsh independence at the hands of King Edward I, the closing of the bardic schools, and the Anglicization of the Welsh nobility, it fell into abeyance. The current format owes much to an 18th-century revival, first patronized and overseen by the London-based Gwyneddigion Society. It was later co-opted by the "Gorsedd Cymru", a secret society of poets, writers, and musicians founded by Iolo Morganwg, whose beliefs were "a compound of Christianity and Druidism, Philosophy and Mysticism."


title: Eisteddfod

text: Despite the Druidic influences and the demonstrably fictitious nature of Iolo Morganwg's doctrines, rituals, and ceremonies, both the Gorsedd and the eisteddfod revival were embraced and spread widely by Anglican and nonconformist clergy. The revival therefore proved enormously successful and is credited as one of the primary reasons for the continued survival of the Welsh language, Welsh literature, and Welsh culture after more than eight centuries of colonialism.


title: Eisteddfod

text: During his two 20th-century terms as Archdruid of the "Gorsedd Cymru", Albert Evans-Jones, whose bardic name was Cynan and who was a war poet and minister of the Presbyterian Church of Wales, created new rituals for both the Gorsedd and the eisteddfod which are based upon the Christian beliefs of the Welsh people rather than upon Modern Druidry. After watching an initiation into the Gorsedd at the 2002 National Eisteddfod, Marcus Tanner wrote that the rituals "seemed culled from the pages of Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings"."


title: Eisteddfod

text: Since its 18th-century revival, the eisteddfod tradition has been carried all over the world by the Welsh diaspora. Today's (plural form) and the National Eisteddfod of Wales in particular, are in equal parts a Renaissance fair, a Celtic festival, a musical festival, a literary festival, and "the supreme exhibition of the Welsh culture."


title: Eisteddfod

text: In some other countries, the term eisteddfod is used for performing arts competitions that have nothing to do with Welsh culture or the Welsh language. In other cases, however, the eisteddfod tradition has been adapted into other cultures as part of the ongoing fight to preserve endangered languages such as Irish, Cornish, Breton, Scottish Gaelic, Canadian Gaelic, Guernésiais, and Jèrriais.


title: Eisteddfod

text: As decreed by Iolo Morganwg during the late 18th century, each eisteddfod is proclaimed a year and a day prior to its opening day, by a herald from the "Gorsedd Cymru".


title: Eisteddfod

text: The proclamation is to read as follows, "When the year of Our Lord ----, and the period of the Gorsedd of the Bards of Britain within the summer solstice, after summons and invitation to all to all of Wales through the Gorsedd Trumpet, under warning of a year and a day, in sight and hearing of lords and commons and in the face of the sun, the eye of light, be it known that a Gorsedd and Eisteddfod will be held at the town of ----, where protections will be afforded to all who seek privilege, dignity, and license in Poetry and Minstrelsy... And thither shall come the Archdruid and the Gorsedd and others, Bards and Licensiates of the Privilege and Robe of the Bards of the Isle of Britain, there to hold judgment of Chair and Gorsedd on Music and Poetry concerning the muse, conduct, and learning of all that may come to seek the National Eisteddfod honours, according to the privilege and customs of the Gorsedd of Bards of the Isle of Britain:


title: Eisteddfod

text: According to Jan Morris, "The "Eisteddfod Genedlaethol" flourishes as never before, having matured from cranky antiquarianism through rigid chapel respectability to a fairly pragmatic tolerance of public views and social styles. Though its competitions are confined solely to the Welsh language, and even though many Welsh-speaking writers and musicians prefer to have nothing to do with it, still it remains the Chief public expression of the Welsh culture's continued existence, the one occasion when a stranger can realize that the language is still creative, the traditions are not lost, and the loyalty of the Welsh to their origins is not dissipated. Honorary membership in the Gorsedd is still the only honour the Welsh nation can bestow upon its sons and daughters, and in a key and of back-handed symbolism, the British Government's Secretary of State for Wales is generally invited to open the festival's proceedings (generally having to learn a few words of Welsh in order to do so). The Eisteddfod in full fig is rather like a military encampment. All its tents and pavilions are erected around a big central space, the "Maes", or Field, which is usually scuffed and slippery with mud by the end of the week."


title: Eisteddfod

text: Morris continues, "Most institutions of modern Wales are represented on the "Maes", Gas Board to University of Wales Press, the genteel Society for the Protection of Rural Wales to the fiery "Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg" the Welsh Language Society. There are shops selling harps, and comic stickers, and the lewd and racy student magazine, and pottery, and evangelical tracts, and lots and lots of books."


title: Eisteddfod

text: Also according to Morris, "the Eisteddfod is essentially competitive: there are competitions for "penillion", and "englynion", and male voice choirs, and poems in strict meter, and poems in free metre, and essays, and translations, and plays, and short stories." Also, according to Morris, "outside the , the Literary Tent, poets mutter couplets to themselves, or exchange bitter Bardic complaints."


title: Eisteddfod

text: However, the most important events at any eisteddfod are the chairing of the bard who has written the best "awdl", or poem in strict meter, based on a title chosen by the judges, and the crowning of the bard who has written the best "pryddest", or poem in free verse, with a similarly predetermined title.


title: Eisteddfod

text: According to Morris, "When Welsh poets speak of "free verse", they mean forms like the sonnet or the ode, which obey the same rules as English poesy. Strict Metres verse still honours the immensely complex rules laid down for correct poetic composition 600 years ago."


title: Eisteddfod

text: During these ceremonies, according to Morris, "the whole assembly seems to turn towards the Grand Pavilion, claimed to be the largest movable structure in the world. Multitudes jam its doors then, as cameras swing about its gantries, and the worthies of the Gorsedd of the Isle of Britain, robed in green, white, and blue, are unloaded from buses at its entrance."


title: Eisteddfod

text: Before the Archdruid of the Gorsedd reveals the identity of the winning poet, the (a trumpet) blares to the east, west, north, and south to symbolically call the people together from the four corners of Wales. The "Gorsedd Prayer" is then recited. Flanked by his fellow members of the Gorsedd in ceremonial Neo-Druidic robes, as well as the Herald, the Recorder, and the Swordbearer, the Archdruid partially withdraws the Great Sword from its sheath three times, and asks, "?" ('Is there peace?'), to which the assembly replies, "" ('Peace'). The Great Sword is then driven fully back into its sheath, and is never drawn again until the next eisteddfod the following year. "Green clad elves come dancing in", escorting a young local married woman, who presents the Horn of Plenty to the Archdruid and urges him to drink of the 'wine of welcome'. A young girl presents him with a basket of 'flowers from the land and soil of Wales' and a floral dance is performed, based on a pattern of flower gathering from the fields.


title: Eisteddfod

text: According to Morris, "Harps play. Children sing. The tension mounts, for nobody in that immense audience yet knows who is to be the recipient of all this honour. The winning poet is somewhere among them, but first he must be found."


title: Eisteddfod

text: The Archdruid then asks one of the judges to comment on the winning entry and explain the reasons why it was chosen. After the judge does so, the Archdruid thanks the judge for his or her, "excellent adjudication". The Archdruid then announces that if the poet or writer whose , , or essay was submitted under a certain pen name is present, then he or she is stand up.


title: Eisteddfod

text: According to Morris, "the poet has really known for some time that he is the winner, but he pretends a proper astonishment anyway, and is raised faintly resisting to his feet, and out to the aisle, and away up to the platform escorted by Druids. The organ blazes a grand march, the gathering rises to its feet, the cameras whirr, and the bard is throned upon his Bardic throne, attended by elves and trumpeters and druids, in a haze of medallions, oaken wands, gleaming accoutrements and banners talismanically inscribed. Gently he is seated upon the Chair which is itself his prize, and he is proclaimed a champion: not because he won a war or a football game or even an election, but because he is judged by wise men of his nation to have composed a worthy "cywydd" concerning the nature of clouds."


title: Eisteddfod

text: To win the chair or the crown competitions, particularly at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, grants even previously unknown poets and writers enormous publicity and prestige. The winner of the bardic chair and crown at the National Eisteddfod both receive the lifelong title "prifardd" ('chief-bard'). For the same poet to win both the chair and the crown at the same eisteddfod is almost unheard of, but Alan Llwyd and Donald Evans have both succeeded at doing so twice.


title: Eisteddfod

text: According to Hywel Teifi Edwards, the ceremony of presenting the , which has been awarded since 1937, has progressively grown in importance, "but still trails far in the wake of the Chairing and Crowning. The poet is not to be upstaged by novelist, short-story writer, autobiographer, biographer, or what have you. All attempts to transfer the Crown from poetry to prose have been forestalled, the poets rallying to the defense of what is 'rightfully' theirs with the cry of, 'What we have, we hold.'"


title: Eisteddfod

text: At the National Eisteddfod, a Gold Medal ()) is annually awarded in three categories; Fine Art, Architecture, and Craft and Design. Furthermore, the National Eisteddfod's open exhibition of art and craft, "Y Lle Celf" ('The Art Space') is one of the highlights of the calendar for Welsh artists.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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 institutionalized, 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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 "


title: Eisteddfod

text: Also according to Morris, "literature is the first Welsh glory, poetry its apotheosis, and the company of poets is the nobility of this nation."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: In 2007, Welsh historian Roger Turvey, writing of Dinefwr Castle, suggested that The Lord Rhys' 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. 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 or the Meistersingers of the Holy Roman Empire, which also organized eisteddfod-like contests between poets on patronal feast days of the Roman Catholic liturgical year. The Lord Rhys, Turvey suggested, may have learned about the Puy tradition from the Anglo-Normans in the Welsh Marches or from Welsh mercenary soldiers returning from France.


title: Eisteddfod

text: When asked about Turvey's theory, recognized eisteddfod historian Hywel Teifi Edwards said, "It's conjecture, but there's no doubt that there was a bardic tradition of competition for status before this time." Edwards further stated that any foreign influence was an indication of how very cosmopolitan Medieval Wales had been. "It's a sign of a healthy culture to accept – and marry with – other cultures," he added.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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 honor 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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".


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: In 1523, an eisteddfod was held at Caerwys under King Henry VIII's charter and was led by Welsh bard and future Franciscan monk, 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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 religious pilgrimages.


title: Eisteddfod

text: This was no idle claim. When 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 in 1583, 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').


title: Eisteddfod

text: Richard Gwyn was canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. His feast day is celebrated on 17 October. 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Likely due to the continued existence of poets like Richard Gwyn, 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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 "".


title: Eisteddfod

text: The official Anglican translation of the Bible into the Welsh language, which continues to have an enormous influence on the Welsh poetry submitted to the eisteddfodau, saw its first publication in 1588. The translator, Reverend William Morgan, was a Cambridge graduate and later became Anglican Bishop of Llandaff and St Asaph. He 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: Comparing this disappointing response 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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 ."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Also at the 1819 Carmarthen eisteddfod, Iolo Morganwg presented a freer code of meters, which, while still defending the superiority of Cynghanedd, Morganwg said had also been use 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Meanwhile, Archdeacon Thomas Beynon, the president of the Carmarthen Cymreigyddion Society and 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: According to Hywel Teifi Edwards, "Ten 'Provincial Eisteddfodau' were held between 1819–34, 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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 . The unheard-of happened; Ieuan Glan Gerionydd's was judged superior and was awarded the £25 and Chair Medallion over Caledfryn's .


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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 at persuading his audience that Prince Madoc did not in fact discover the New World.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: The 1858 Llangollen eisteddfod outraged the English-language press. The "Daily Telegraph" called the eisteddfod "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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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' poetry repeatedly won first prize at multiple eisteddfodau held both in Wales and within Welsh-American immigrant communities.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: According to Jan Morris, "By the end of the century, Herbert 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)."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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' hugely influential , "Ymadawiad Arthur" ("The Passing of Arthur") won its author the bardic chair at the National Eisteddfod in 1902.


title: Eisteddfod

text: The poem, according to Hywel Teifi Edwards, "brought back some of the mythopoeic grandeur which John Morris-Jones yearned for. More than that, he made of Bedwyr, the knight charged by Arthur to throw the great sword Excalibur into the lake, a prototype of the twentieth-century Welshman who, from generation to generation, armed only with a vision of his culture's worth, fights for its survival against an all-devouring materialism. Bedwyr, agonizing over the catastrophe which he feared would befall his defenseless country should he obey Arthur's command, is one of the most deeply moving figures in Welsh literature. Denied the security of a matchless weapon, the last tangible proof of Arthur's supernatural strength, he must fight on with only his faith in Arthur's promised return from Afalon to sustain him."


title: Eisteddfod

text: Unlike the many works of English, French, and German poetry inspired by the Arthurian legend, makes frequent references to Welsh literature and the Welsh mythology of the "Mabinogion", and is believed to derive its narrative flow from Jones's careful study of that same source. William Beynon Davies further considers a work of subtly Christian poetry based on its many Biblical parallels, as King Arthur resembles in some ways the Messiah and in others the Suffering Servant.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Thomas Gwynn Jones has been called the greatest master of Welsh poetry in strict meter since the 15th century and, in , according to one critic, the "cynghanedd" "is so smooth and natural that often we deem it accidental". It is well- documented, however, that T. Gwynn Jones carefully studied Medieval "cywyddau", and the verse technique of benefited substantially from this fact. The poem is also notable for Jones' revival of many words from Medieval Welsh, Jones being an influential exponent of what he called ('The Virtue of the Old Language').


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: During the 1912 National Eisteddfod at Wrexham, T.H. Parry-Williams achieved for the first time the almost unheard of feat of winning both the chair and crown. Parry-Williams later recalled returning home to Rhyd-ddu, where had been working as a hired hand on the farm of a relative. Upon telling his employer of his double-victory, Parry-Williams was advised to, "seek grace." When Parry-Williams then informed his employer that both victories had gained him £40, the relative shouted in angry disbelief, ""!!!"" ('And you earned them all sitting on your arse!!!')


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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 city of the same name.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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 poet who submitted the winning had died during the short time between mailing his submission and the actual 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').


title: Eisteddfod

text: According to Jan Morris, "Hedd Wyn became a legend, a symbol, and an inspiration to other poets. 'The Black Chair of Birkenhead' was taken sadly home to Gwynedd, to be placed with the other trophies of Hedd Wyn's short life in the family farm above the Bala road, and there we may visit it still. It has never been forgotten. A constant stream of visitors, patriots, poets, groups of schoolchildren, winds its way up the long farm drive, in the lee of the hills, to the old house among its clumped trees. It stands there all alone looking out magnificently over bare hills to the ramparts of Eryri in the distance – the very epitome of a Welsh view, all grandeur tinged with melancholy. The Black Chair is kept in a sort of shrine-room, dim-lit and cluttered. Around it three or four other "eisteddfod" chairs stand in attendance, like sacred stools in an Ashanti temple..."


title: Eisteddfod

text: Pfc. Ellis H. Evans lies buried at Artillery Wood Cemetery, near Boezinge, Belgium. After the Armistice, a petition was submitted to the Imperial War Graves Commission and his headstone was given the additional words ('The Chief Bard, Hedd Wyn').


title: Eisteddfod

text: In the 1921 National Eisteddfod at Caernarfon, Reverend Albert Evans-Jones (Cynan) won the bardic crown for his , ("the Cottage Lad"). Cynan was a native of Pwllheli and had served in the RAMC during World War I. 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Plaid Cymru, a Welsh nationalist and social democratic political party, was founded during the 1925 National Eisteddfod at Pwllheli, Gwynedd. Inspired by the recent Irish War of Independence, Saunders Lewis, Huw Robert Jones, Lewis Valentine, Moses Griffith, Fred Jones and D. Edmund Williams met in a café called Maes Gwyn with the aim of establishing a "Welsh party". During the meeting, they founded "" ("National Party of Wales"), on 5 August 1925. The principal aim of the party would be to foster a Welsh-speaking Wales. To this end it was agreed that party business be conducted in Welsh, and that members must sever all links with other British political parties. Saunders Lewis insisted upon these principles before he would agree to the Pwllheli conference.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: In response to the 1961 census, which showed a radical decrease in the percentage of Welsh speakers, Saunders Lewis gave the famous 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: It has been said that, "of all the memorable phrases coined in the twentieth century none has greater resonance for the Welsh speaker than . . . which still haunts or inspires champions of the native tongue on the cusp of the new millennium".


title: Eisteddfod

text: In 1985, the long-term effects of Saunders Lewis' 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: In 1969, Reverend Evans-Jones (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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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 onstage, 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: In a parallel with the simultaneous literary movement known as New Formalism in American poetry, the late the 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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' 1902 masterpiece ('The Passing of Arthur'). Owen's reimagines the death of Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd of the House of Gwynedd in battle near the village of that name in 1282, while leading a doomed uprising against the occupation of Wales by King Edward I of England. Owen's poem depicts the Prince as a tragic hero and invests his fall with an anguish unmatched since Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Coch wrote his famous lament for the Prince immediately following his death. Owen also, according to Edwards, encapsulates in the Prince's death the Welsh people's continuing "battle for national survival."


title: Eisteddfod

text: In 1999 the centenary of early Gaelic revival poet and Easter Rising leader Patrick Pearse's initiation ingo 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.


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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".


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: 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."


title: Eisteddfod

text: During the 2018 National Eisteddfod at Cardiff, the bardic crown was awarded for the first time to a woman, Gwaelod y Garth-born poet and Welsh nationalist Catrin Dafydd, for her collection ('Traces'). Her poems explored Welsh identity in the multiracial and multiethnic Grangetown district of Cardiff.


title: Eisteddfod

text: During the ceremony, however, the Archdruid, Geraint Llifon, caused considerable outrage among feminists when he alleged that Catrin Dafydd could not have won the Crown without the help of men. After this caused him to be accused of sexism, Archdruid Llifon apologized.


title: Eisteddfod

text: The most important is the National Eisteddfod of Wales, the largest festival of competitive music and poetry in Europe. Its eight days of competitions and performances, entirely in the Welsh language, are staged annually in the first week of August in varying locations that usually alternate between north and south Wales. Competitors typically number 6,000 or more; overall attendances generally exceed 150,000 visitors.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Another important eisteddfod in the calendar is or the Youth Eisteddfod. Organised by Urdd Gobaith Cymru, it involves Welsh children from nursery age to 25 in a week of competition in singing, recitation, dancing, acting and musicianship during the summer half-term school holiday. The event is claimed to be Europe's premier youth arts festival. Regional heats are held in advance and, as with the National Eisteddfod, the Urdd Eisteddfod is held in a different location each year. With the establishment of the Urdd headquarters in the Wales Millennium Centre, the eisteddfod will return to Cardiff every four years.


title: Eisteddfod

text: The International Eisteddfod is held annually in Llangollen, Denbighshire, each year in July. Choirs, singing groups, folk dancers and other groups attend from all over the world, sharing their national folk traditions in one of the world's great festivals of the arts. It was set up in 1947 and begins with a message of peace. In 2004, it was (unsuccessfully) nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Terry Waite, who has been actively involved with the eisteddfod.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Smaller-scale local eisteddfodau are held throughout Wales. One of the best known is the Maes Garmon Eisteddfod, Mold (). Schools hold eisteddfodau as competitions within the school; a popular date for this is Saint David's Day.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Welsh emigration, particularly during the heyday of the British Empire and British industrial revolution, led to the creation of a global Welsh diaspora. Among the elements from Welsh culture that travelled with these émigrés was the eisteddfod, which – in a variety of forms and languages – continues to exist worldwide.


title: Eisteddfod

text: According to Marcus Tanner, the massive 19th-century Welsh immigration to "Y Wladfa" ("the Colony"), in the Chubut Province of Argentine Patagonia began out of the desire of minister and Welsh nationalist Michael D. Jones for "a Little Wales beyond Wales". As both cultural assimilation and language loss were already taking hold among the Welsh diaspora throughout the United States and even more so in Canada and other parts of the British Empire, Patagonia was chosen as an alternative.


title: Eisteddfod

text: While visiting Puerto Madryn, the main arrival point for immigrants, during the mid-1970s, Bruce Chatwin wrote, "A hundred and fifty-three Welsh colonists landed here off the brig "Mimosa" in 1865. They were poor people in search of a New Wales, refugees from cramped coal-mining valleys, from a failed independence movement, and from Parliament's ban on Welsh in schools. Their leaders had combed the earth for a stretch of open country uncontaminated by Englishmen. They chose Patagonia for its absolute remoteness and foul climate; they did not want to get rich. The Argentine Government gave them land along the Chubut River. From Madryn it was a stretch of forty miles over the thorn desert. And when they did reach the valley, they had the impression that God, not the Government, had given them the land."


title: Eisteddfod

text: Although eisteddfodau have been held in Argentina ever since the first Welsh immigrants arrived aboard the "Mimosa" in 1865, assimilation and the loss of contact with the homeland caused both the distinctive Patagonian dialect of the Welsh language and the eisteddfod tradition to be seriously endangered.


title: Eisteddfod

text: In 1965, Welsh people again began to visit the region to celebrate the colony's centenary. The visit acted as a major impetus to the increasingly assimilated local Welsh Argentine community and since then the number of Welsh visitors and learners of the language has increased.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Bruce Chatwin visited Gaiman in 1976, which he called "the centre of Welsh Patagonia today". While at , the homestead of the Davies family, he was told how the family's son, Euan Davies, had sung at the local eisteddfod while accompanied by Anselmo, a local aspiring concert pianist of mixed German and Italian parentage. Davies' tenor voice and Anselmo's piano playing reportedly reduced the audience at the eisteddfod to tears and "carried off the prize."


title: Eisteddfod

text: Marcus Tanner has written since of Chatwin's travel memoir "In Patagonia", "After several decades during which the Welsh colony in Argentina had been virtually forgotten, his book did much to remind the world of its existence." According to Eluned Gonzalez, however, a local Welsh Argentine who remembers the real Chatwin and his visit, "We are all very surprised by the book... so superior. Looking down on us... a very "English" way of looking at things."


title: Eisteddfod

text: During the British government's repatriation of the 11,313 Argentine POWs taken during the 1982 Falklands War, Welsh-speaking British merchant seamen and British soldiers from the Welsh Guards were shocked to find themselves addressed in Patagonian Welsh by an Argentine POW who was on the way home to Puerto Madryn. Over the years since, close ties between Wales and have been reestablished.


title: Eisteddfod

text: One of the greatest Welsh literary figures to come out of was Richard Bryn Williams, whose bardic name was "Bryn". Williams was born at Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd in 1902. When he was seven years old, Williams' family migrated to Trelew, as part of the last great wave of Welsh immigration to prior to the First World War. Williams returned to Wales in 1923 and studied at the University College of North Wales. He became an expert on Patagonian history and was a major contributor to the Colony's Welsh literature. Williams won the Bardic Chair at the National Eisteddfod of Wales in both 1964 and 1968, and from 1975 to 1978 he served as Archdruid of the Gorsedd Cymru.


title: Eisteddfod

text: A 2001 BBC article described in detail the recent visit to Chubut Province by Archdruid and 30 members of the "Gorsedd Cymru" to revive the in a ceremony held in a specially constructed stone circle near Gaiman.


title: Eisteddfod

text: BBC reporters also attended the 2001 at Trelew and watched as the bardic chair was awarded for the first time in to a female poet: Gaiman hotel owner Monica Jones de Jones, for an on the subject of ('freedom'). The article's author continued, "the Patagonia Eisteddfod itself, while sharing those elements common to eisteddfodau in Wales itself, nonetheless is, in other respects, quite a different affair. As well as haunting Welsh folk tunes, and recitations in the unique Spanish-accented Welsh of the Patagonians, there are also rousing displays of Argentinian folk dancing which owe everything to the culture of the gauchos and nothing to the somewhat tamer dance routines of the Welsh homeland."


title: Eisteddfod

text: While visiting Patagonia to research his 2004 book "The Last of the Celts", Marcus Tanner visited the Trelew home of local Welsh-language poet Geraint Edmunds. Edmunds was, according to Tanner, "a Welsh Patagonian of the old type, as fluent in Welsh as Spanish". During Tanner's visit, he noticed that "a beautifully made Bardic Chair", which Geraint Edmunds' poetry had won was on reverent display in the front room. To Tanner's disappointment, however, the bard's son, Eduardo Edmunds, would speak only Spanish and replied when asked about his ancestral language, "I think I'd rather learn English – more useful."


title: Eisteddfod

text: Current eisteddfod competitions are bilingual, in both Patagonian Welsh and Argentine Spanish, and include poetry, prose, literary translations (Welsh, Spanish, English, Italian, and French), musical performances, arts, folk dances, photography, and filmmaking, among others. The is held every September at Gaiman. The main is held every October at Trelew. Other annual eisteddfodau are held at Trevelin, in the Andes and at Puerto Madryn along the South Atlantic coast.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Eisteddfods (Australian English: plural) in the traditional Welsh sense have also been adopted into Australian culture. However, the term is more commonly used to describe ballet and music competitions.


title: Eisteddfod

text: For those eisteddfods most like the Welsh original, they involve testing individuals in singing, dancing, acting and musicianship.


title: Eisteddfod

text: After emigrating to Australia from Tregaron, Ceredigion, at the tail end of the Victorian gold rush, Welsh poet and diarist Joseph Jenkins, whose bardic name was Amnon II, arrived at Melbourne in 1869. The following month, as described in his posthumously published memoir "The Diary of a Welsh Swagman", Jenkins was living in the gold rush boomtown of Castlemaine where he found many fellow Welsh Australians. He rarely left this vicinity except to attend the annual St David's Day "eisteddfod" at Ballarat where, on thirteen consecutive occasions, he was awarded first prize for the best "englyn".


title: Eisteddfod

text: The successor to the St. David's Day Eisteddfod in Ballarat, the Royal South Street Eisteddfod, began in 1891 and has been running ever since.


title: Eisteddfod

text: The second-oldest eisteddfod in Australia is located in Wollongong, the City of Wollongong Eisteddfod, which began in 1894 and has been running ever since.


title: Eisteddfod

text: The Sydney Eisteddfod was first held in 1933 and offers some 400 events across all performing arts, catering to 30,000 performers annually.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Modern eisteddfods in Australia are competitions reserved for schoolchildren, though many have open sections where anyone (including professionals) may participate and compete. Typically, a prize may be a scholarship to pursue a further career. Many young Australian actors and dancers participate regularly in the various competitions scheduled throughout the year. The Western Australia Performing Arts Eisteddfod began in 1958 as the Bunbury Music Festival. The Gold Coast Eisteddfod in Queensland began in 1982 and is held annually in August and September. The 2018 eisteddfod attracted over 60,000 competitors. Many other communities also host eisteddfods, including Alice Springs, Darwin, Brisbane, Hobart and Melbourne.


title: Eisteddfod

text: The Guernsey Eisteddfod was founded in 1922 and includes events in the Guernésiais language; the Jersey Eisteddfod was founded in 1908 and includes events in Jèrriais dialect of Norman French.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Eisteddfodau are held across the UK, although in most cases any explicit link to Welsh culture has been lost beyond the use of the name for an arts festival or competition.


title: Eisteddfod

text: In the Methodist Church and other non-conformist denominations in England, youth cultural festivals are sometimes called eisteddfod. The Kettering and District Eisteddfod, for example, was founded in the early 1900s in the Northamptonshire town by members of the Sunday School Union and still runs every March.


title: Eisteddfod

text: For many years Teignmouth Grammar School in Teignmouth, Devonshire, held an eisteddfod of art, music and drama competitions in the Easter term.


title: Eisteddfod

text: In South African English, a number of international performing arts competitions in are called eisteddfods, such as the Tygerberg International Eisteddfod and the Pretoria Eisteddfod (first held in 1923). The word "eisteddfod" is sometimes also used for ordinary cultural festivals, even if only one school's students participate.


title: Eisteddfod

text: In August 1953, the poet Ingrid Jonker, who would go on to become an anti-apartheid political dissident and a hugely influential figure in Afrikaans literature, recited her poems at the Cape Eisteddfod in Cape Town and received there a Diploma for Achievement in Afrikaans.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Moving first as religious refugees and then as farmers and industrial workers, many thousands of Welsh people emigrated to America from the 17th century.


title: Eisteddfod

text: In 1757, Reverend Goronwy Owen, an Anglican vicar born at "Y Dafarn Goch", in the parish of Llanfair Mathafarn Eithaf in Anglesey and the poet most responsible for the subsequent Welsh eighteenth-century renaissance, emigrated to Williamsburg, in the Colony of Virginia. Until his death on his cotton and tobacco plantation near Lawrenceville, Virginia in 1769, Owen was mostly noted as an émigré bard, writing with "hiraeth" ('longing') for his native Anglesey. During the subsequent revival of the eisteddfod, the Gwyneddigion Society held up the poetry of Owen as an example for bards at future eisteddfodau to emulate.


title: Eisteddfod

text: During the eisteddfod revival of the 1790s, Gwyneddigion Society member William Jones, who had enthusiastically supported the American Revolution and who was arguing for the creation of a National Eisteddfod of Wales, had come to believe that the completely Anglicized Welsh nobility, through rackrenting and their employment of unscrupulous land agents, had forfeited all right to the obedience and respect of their tenants. At the Llanrwst eisteddfod in June 1791, Jones distributed copies of an address, entitled "To all Indigenous Cambro-Britons", in which he urged Welsh tenant farmers and craftsmen to pack their bags, emigrate from Wales, and sail for what he called the "Promised Land" in the United States of America.


title: Eisteddfod

text: By 1851, ('The Mirror'), published from the Welsh-speaking settlement in Utica, New York was just the latest of a number of Welsh-language newspapers, and in 1872 ('A history of the Welsh in America') by R.D. Thomas attempted to catalogue all of the Welsh communities of the United States. Eisteddfodau in North America are thought to have started in the 1830s, though the earliest documented examples date from the 1850s.


title: Eisteddfod

text: According to Marcus Tanner, large-scale Welsh immigration to America began in the 1790s, when 50 immigrants left the village of Llanbrynmair for a tract of Pennsylvania land purchased by Baptist minister Morgan John Rhys. The result was the Welsh-American farming settlement of Cambria, Pennsylvania.


title: Eisteddfod

text: By 1913, a sub-gorsedd of North America with a vice-Archdruid, Reverend Thomas Edwards whose bardic name was Cynonfardd, was established at the Pittsburgh Eisteddfod, surviving until 1946.


title: Eisteddfod

text: The Edwardsville Cynonfardd Eisteddfod at the Dr. Edwards Memorial Church in Edwardsville, Pennsylvania has taken place annually since 1889 and is the longest continuously running eisteddfod outside of Wales. The 130th anniversary of the event was celebrated in April 2019.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Welsh-American settlements in Ohio began in 1801, when a group of Welsh-speaking pioneers migrated from Cambria, Pennsylvania to Paddy's Run, which is now the site of Shandon, Ohio.


title: Eisteddfod

text: According to Marcus Tanner, "In Ohio State, Jackson and Gallia counties in particular became a 'Little Wales', where Welsh settlers were sufficiently thick on the ground by the 1830s to justify the establishment of Calvinistic Methodist synods."


title: Eisteddfod

text: As late as 1900, Ohio still had 150 Welsh-speaking church congregations. The Welsh language was commonly spoken there for generations until the 1950s when its use began to subside. As of 2010, more than 126,000 Ohioans are of Welsh descent and about 135 speak the language, with significant concentrations still found in many communities of Ohio such as Oak Hill (13.6%), Madison (12.7%), Franklin (10.5%), Jackson (10.0%), Radnor (9.8%), and Jefferson (9.7%).


title: Eisteddfod

text: The Jackson School Eisteddfod in Jackson, Ohio, is the result of an historically strong Welsh-American business community, who funded the Southern Ohio Eisteddfod Association and a 4,000-seat auditorium that was the only dedicated eisteddfod venue in the United States. In 1930, the hall hosted the Grand National Eisteddfod. While the Great Depression halted the adult events, a youth eisteddfod, founded in 1924, still runs today, with support from the Madog Center for Welsh Studies at University of Rio Grande.


title: Eisteddfod

text: After the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux was signed by the Dakota people in 1851, Welsh-speaking pioneers from Wisconsin, Upstate New York, and Ohio settled much of what is now Le Sueur and Blue Earth counties in Minnesota. By 1857, the number of Welsh-speakers was so numerous that the Minnesota State Constitution had to be translated into the Welsh language. With such a large number of settlers, it should come as no surprise that eisteddfodau soon followed.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Local Welsh-language poet James Price, whose bardic name was ('Son of David'), was born at Newark, Ohio to parents from Llanon, Ceredigion. After migrating to the Minnesota frontier, Ap Dewi served as a deacon and Sunday school teacher at the Horeb Calvinistic Methodist Church in Cambria Township, Blue Earth County and was so dominant at local eisteddfodau that he was considered the " of Minnesota."


title: Eisteddfod

text: The first Welsh literary society in Minnesota was founded, according to Ap Dewi, at a meeting held in South Bend Township, also in Blue Earth County in the fall of 1855. Also according to Ap Dewi, "The first eisteddfod in the state of Minnesota was held in Judson in the house of Wm. C. Williams in 1864. The second eisteddfod was held in Judson in the log chapel in 1866 with the Rev. John Roberts as chairman. Ellis E. Ellis, Robert E. Hughes, H.H. Hughes, Rev. J. Jenkins, and William R. Jones took part in this eisteddfod. The third eisteddfod was held in Judson in the new chapel (Jerusalem) on January 2, 1871. The famous Llew Llwyfo (bardic name) was chairman and a splendid time was had."


title: Eisteddfod

text: According to David M. Jones, a Calvinistic Methodist minister born at Ty Rhedyn, near Marian-glas, Anglesey and Welsh-language writer whose literary talents drew comparisons with Washington Irving, the first eisteddfod held in Cambria Township took place on the Fourth of July, 1871. A "low-lying site behind the house of John Shields" was chosen for the Maes and, as Jones later recalled, "We cut tiers of seats into a natural bank of land and covered the seats with hay. These were the first seats with cushions we had ever seen in Minnesota, and everyone praised them. We built a platform in front of the seats. There was a clear stream running between the platform and the seats. All of us felt that our fine preparations would ensure the success of the program. On the morning of the Fourth, everyone was ready long before the Minnesota sun appeared. In a little while, there were clouds of dust being stirred up by large wagons coming from every direction. The immense prairie was dotted with wagons drawn by horses, mules, and horned oxen. Long before the time, the seats were full."


title: Eisteddfod

text: Ellis Ellis, a Mankato joiner from Aberdyfi, Merionethshire and whose bardic name was Glan Dyfi (after the village of the same name), was, according to Reverend Jones, "the adjudicator for the poetry, and it is more than likely that Ap Dewi won the prize. What the subject was, we do not recall, though it is likely that there was a subject. Not often did a Bard compose without a subject. Evan Evans, Daniel Jones, and W.P. Jones must have competed in the essay competition, adjudicated by the cultured David S. Davies. In the humorous address competition, Evan Evans and Henry Hughes were both winners. There were various recitations by Owen Morris and Thomas Hughes, who were masterly as usual, among others. John S. Davies and his group sang several pieces, and the singers of Bethel also took part. Owen Richards and his brother, Tomy Richards, took part in the first eisteddfod. Johnnie Jones from the same district turned out to be skillful at recitation. Before the end of the last meeting one of the Minnesota storms came on, and the audience scattered in a moment."


title: Eisteddfod

text: According to Ap Dewi, local eisteddfodau began being held in the county seat of Mankato on 1 January 1873, when one took place at the Blue Earth County Courthouse.


title: Eisteddfod

text: During the same era, a group of Welsh-language poets used to meet regularly under the leadership of Ellis Ellis (Glan Dyfi) at the Cheshire and Jones Shop in Mankato, where the packing paper in the shop was often used to write down in Welsh.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Reverend David Jones later expressed a belief that the composed at the Cheshire and Jones Shop were superior to those of far more famous Welsh poets such as Dewi Wyn, Dewi Havhesp, and Dyfed. Jones further recalled, "Glan Dyfi never had any more enjoyment than when tinkering with the elements of , tossing off so many while taking no notice of the rules of Dafydd ab Edmwnd or any other Dafydd. O! To have those old times back again."


title: Eisteddfod

text: Beginning in 1874, eisteddfodau were held annually at the Union Hall in Mankato until 1876, when the custom fell into abeyance until 1890. The 1890 eisteddfod was held on 5 February at the Mankato Opera House, under the leadership of Thomas Hughes and continued there.


title: Eisteddfod

text: By the 1880s between 2,500 and 3,000 people of Welsh background in Minnesota were contributing to the life of some 17 churches and 22 chapels.


title: Eisteddfod

text: The first eisteddfod held in the Twin Cities took place, "on a fairly large scale", and sponsored by the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist chapel on Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis, on 17 January 1885.


title: Eisteddfod

text: A second Minneapolis eisteddfod was held, with the participation of adjudicators and contestants from St. Paul, Minnesota, Lime Springs, Iowa, and Cambria, Wisconsin, on Christmas Day, 1888.


title: Eisteddfod

text: A third Minneapolis eisteddfod was held, under the patronage of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist chapel and , the Welsh literary society of Minneapolis, on St. David's Day, 1894. Adjudicated contests were held for essays, recitations, poetry, literary translations, and performances.


title: Eisteddfod

text: According to a 2006 article in the "Mankato Free Press" the custom of local eisteddfodau went into abeyance during the 1950s. An effort was made, however, during the early 21st century, to revive the tradition by the Blue Earth County Historical Society and the Mankato Chapter of the League of Minnesota Poets. During the 2006 Cambria eisteddfod at the Morgan Creek Vineyards in New Ulm, Brainerd poet Doris Stengel was awarded the bardic chair by adjudicator John Calvin Rezmerski.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Competitive eisteddfod were held during the American Civil War, with themes including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, American patriotism, and Jefferson Davis.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Also during the American Civil War, Edward Thomas, a Welsh-language poet born in Centerville, Ohio to parents from Llanidloes and whose bardic name was Awenydd, was living and working as a schoolmaster at the Welsh-American farming settlement at South Bend Township, in Blue Earth County, Minnesota. In 1862, he enlisted in Company E of the 2nd Minnesota Cavalry Regiment. During his service in that regiment, Thomas wrote many Welsh-language poems, including , which later won the bardic crown at an eisteddfod held in Minersville, Pennsylvania. Following the end of the war, Thomas became a Calvinistic Methodist minister.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Mrs. Jennie A. Ingalls, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H.O. Roberts of Minneapolis, won a prize for best recitation at an 1890 eisteddfod held in Chicago, Illinois.


title: Eisteddfod

text: The largest U.S. eisteddfod was held in 1893 at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, featuring visiting Welsh choirs invited by the Chicago chapter of the Cymmrodorion Society. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, which then included a large number of Welsh immigrants, made its first appearance outside of Utah at the same event. At the same eisteddfod, Reverend Evan Reese, a Calvinistic Methodist minister from Puncheston, Pembrokeshire, and Welsh poet whose bardic name was Dyfed, won the bardic chair and the $500 prize money offered for a 2,000 line on the set subject ('Jesus of Nazareth'). Reese went on to become the Archdruid of the "Gorsedd Cymru" and to announce the posthumous victory of Hedd Wyn at the infamous 1917 Eisteddfod of the Black Chair.


title: Eisteddfod

text: The eisteddfod idea has been retained by some subsequent world's fairs, and has helped to link the Welsh eisteddfod community to its Welsh-American offshoot.


title: Eisteddfod

text: On 28 July 1915, the International Eisteddfod held in San Francisco at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition drew competing choirs from around the nation, including one mixed group composed of the German members of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus from New York City The tightly-rehearsed, all-male Orpheus Club of Los Angeles were judged the winner and were awarded $3,000.


title: Eisteddfod

text: In 1926, the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California, held a competitive eisteddfod of one-act plays by local authors that subsequently evolved into an annual Summer One-Act Play Festival.


title: Eisteddfod

text: The 2011 West Coast Eisteddfod event was co-curated by Lorin Morgan-Richards and held at the Barnsdall Art Park in Los Angeles, the site of Welsh-American architect Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House, near Griffith Park, founded by Welsh-American philanthropist Griffith J. Griffith.


title: Eisteddfod

text: From 1925 to 2016, the Los Angeles St. David's Day Festival was the largest Welsh-American cultural event in the United States. It included an eisteddfod, a Celtic marketplace, classes, and a concert. Celebrities of Welsh heritage Henry Thomas, Ioan Gruffudd, Michael Sheen, along with Richard Burton's and Frank Lloyd Wright's families have all publicly supported the festival.


title: Eisteddfod

text: The West Coast Eisteddfod (originally the Left Coast Eisteddfod) was founded by Welsh-American social network AmeriCymru and the non-profit Portland, Oregon, Meriwether Lewis Memorial Eisteddfod Foundation in 2009.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Welsh Heritage Week and , two ambulatory Welsh language and culture courses held annually, usually in the United States, also each feature a mini-eisteddfod. The North American Festival of Wales held by the Welsh North American Association also includes an eisteddfod.


title: Eisteddfod

text: In the 21st century the internet and social media helped new eisteddfodau to spring up. For example, AmeriCymru hosts an annual online eisteddfod.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Even though the neo-bardic, Gorsedd, and Eisteddfod movement in Brittany was founded during the early 19th century by Auguste Brizeux, the real heydey of the movement took place between 1900 and the outbreak of the First World War. Those two decades were dominated by François Jaffrenou, whose bardic name was Taldir, and who introduced many Iolo Morganwg-inspired elements of Welsh culture into Breton culture. During those decades, Taldir founded the Gorsedd Barzed Gourenez Breiz Isel (The Gorsedd of Bards of the Peninsula of Brittany) and did much to encourage both traditional Celtic poetry and a sense of community among Breton Bards.


title: Eisteddfod

text: In 1936, Morvan Marchal founded the explicitly anti-Christian and neo-Pagan "Kredenn Geltiek Hollvedel" (World Celtic Creed) group, of which he became the first arch-Druid. The group broke openly from from the Goursez Vreizh.


title: Eisteddfod

text: In Brittany, the competition, which is held as part of the Festival Interceltique de Lorient, supports the Breton music tradition.


title: Eisteddfod

text: Since 1923, the "Festival de Cornouaille" (Breton: ) has taken place annually in Quimper, located in the south-west of Brittany. It began as a beauty contest, but has switched since 1948 to being a musical and cultural festival.


title: Eisteddfod

text: The "AberFest" in Cornwall alternates with the "Breizh – Kernow Festival" which is held in Brandivy or Bignan in Brittany.


title: Eisteddfod

text: In Cornwall, an analogous event is known as (Cornish for 'Eisteddfod of Cornwall') and is connected, as part of the ongoing Cornish language revival, with the "Gorseth Kernow".


title: Eisteddfod

text: "AberFest" is a festival that celebrates both Cornish and Breton culture and takes in Cornwall every second year around Easter.


title: Eisteddfod

text: A similar tradition has been created among descendants of the Cornish diaspora in Australia. "Australia's Little Cornwall" is the district of the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia known as the Copper Triangle, which includes the former mining towns of Moonta, Kadina and Wallaroo. In Moonta today, the "Kernewek Lowender" (Cornish for 'Cornish Happiness'), which includes an eisteddfod-like gathering of bards, is the largest Cornish festival in the world and attracts more than 40,000 visitors each event.