History

The first public meeting of the Breton Gorsedd, Brignonan, 1903.

Gorseddau outside Wales

The ceremonies enacted in the Gorsedd Circle on Monday morning and again on the Eisteddfod stage in the afternoon, before the Crowning ceremony (since 1954), when the representatives of the Celtic nations and other friends are welcomed to the Gorsedd, are colourful and attractive ones. Usually there are representatives from Brittany, Cornwall, Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and also from Patagonia. Representatives of the Gorsedd of the Bards of the Isle of Britain attend their festivals in return. However, only two of the Celtic nations have a Gorsedd similar to that of Wales, namely Brittany and Cornwall. These are considered to be sub-Gorseddau and the Archdruid of the Welsh Gorsedd is the supreme head of them all.

The Breton Gorsedd

Interest in its Celtic heritage had re-kindled in Brittany after le Villemarqué's visit to Eisteddfod y Fenni (Abergavenny) in 1838 and the rite of marrying the two halves of the Split Sword was already popular before representatives from Brittany visited the Cardiff Eisteddfod in 1899. In 1900 a Breton Gorsedd - Gorsedd Barzed Gourenez Breiz-Izel - was established, with Ar Fusteg as Grand Druid and Taldir as Herald Bard. The Breton Gorsedd's first public ceremony was held at Brignonan in 1903.

However, for political and religious reasons, there has been considerable dissension within the Breton Gorsedd throughout its history. During the Second World War some Bretons, including Taldir, were accused of collaborating with the Vichy government and after the war had ended they were imprisoned. When Taldir was released he had to retire to north Africa and Eostig Sarzhaw was chosen as (vice) Grand Druid in his place. The dissension persisted and some members were drawn more towards Druidism and meetings at Stonehenge than towards the Welsh Gorsedd.

To quote Zonia Bowen on 'the tragic history' of the Breton Gorsedd, it has no '"raison d'être" such as the Welsh poetic tradition or an association with a body such as the National Eisteddfod.' Yet she emphasises that the Gorsedd as a society has survived longer than any other in the chequered history of the Breton nation.

The Grand Druid of Brittany wears a silver crown of mistletoe leaves.

The Gallic Gorsedd

Founded in 1923 on the basis that Gaul was a Celtic region before the Roman conquest, but by 1939 the Gorsedd had disappeared.

The Cornish Gorsedd:

Since the beginning of the twentieth century there had been somewhat of a revival in interest in the Cornish language, especially through the work of Henry Jenner, Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum. Several 'Old Cornwall' societies were formed and at the Treorchy Eisteddfod, in 1928, eight Cornishmen were accepted as members of the Gorsedd of the Bards. In September 1928 the first ceremony of the Cornish Gorsedd - Gorseth Kernow - was held at Boscawen Un, and Henry Jenner was invested as the first Grand Bard of Cornwall. The Cornish Gorsedd has only one order, the Order of Bards, wearing blue robes. The Grand Bard wears a crown of oak leaves and a breastplate.

The Gorsedd of North America

The sub-Gorsedd of North America was established by Archdruid Dyfed during the Pittsburgh Eisteddfod in 1913 and its Vice-Archdruid was Thomas Edwards - Cynonfardd, from Landore in Swansea. By 1946 the Gorsedd had been abolished.

The Gorsedd of Patagonia

Gutyn Ebrill (Griffith Griffiths, 1829-1909) established the Gorsedd of the Bards in Patagonia. Caeron (W.H.Hughes) and Prysor (William Williams) held office after Gutyn Ebrill but they considered themselves to be vice-Archdruids, under the authority of the Archdruid of Wales. After Prysor died in 1945 it seemed likely that the Patagonian Gorsedd would disappear for ever. Then, at the beginning of the twenty-first century during Meirion's period as Archdruid it was revived and representatives began to attend the National Eisteddfodau and Gorseddau of Wales once more.

The Chairing Ceremony, 2009. No-one was deemed worthy of the main prize that year.

The Empty Chair at Wrexham, 1876. The winning bard, Thomas Jones (Taliesin o Eifion), had died a few weeks previously.

Eluned Phillips, winner of the Crown, Bala, 1967. Gwyndaf was the Archdruid.

The Prose Medal winner, Elfyn Pritchard, Denbigh and District, 2001.

The Grand Sword placed across the Chair to symbolize that no one was worthy of the Crown, Aberdare, 1956. In the picture we see: Erfyl Fychan, Herald Bard; Trefin, Grand Sword Bearer; Dyfnallt, Archdruid; Cynan, Recorder.

The Chairing Ceremony

The ceremony in which the winning poet is chaired for composing a collection of poems, an ode or other poem - all in strict meter on a specific subject is one of highlights of the Gorsedd of the Bards' pageantry in every National Eisteddfod. It is held on Friday afternoon.

It is a very old ceremony. The custom of competing for a chair in the King's court was already well-established in Hywel Dda's time in the tenth century and when the Lord Rhys 'held his court excellently' in Cardigan in 1176, the prize for the chief poet and chief musician was a chair each. Then, in c.1541, silver chairs were awarded at the Carmarthen eisteddfod and once more at the Caerwys eisteddfodau in 1523 and 1567. Having re-established the eisteddfodic movement in Bala in 1789 winning the Chair became the ambition of every poet, although there was no Gorsedd ceremony associated with it yet. It was at the first provincial eisteddfod in Dyfed / Dinefwr in Carmarthen in 1819 that Iolo succeeded in linking the rites of the Gorsedd of the Bards with the ceremony of Chairing the winning Bard.

In 1867 it was decided to assign the Chair for an ode in strict meter and to award a Crown for the best pryddest in free meter.

Notable Chairs

The Chairing ceremony at Wrexham 1876 was memorable and harrowing because the winning poet, 'Eurebius', Thomas Jones (Taliesin o Eifion) had died a few weeks previously. On the memorial poster for the sad event it was maintained that his dying words had been, 'Has the ode been sent safely?' On the festival stage the members of the Gorsedd wore mourning, and to the music of the Dead March, the chair was covered with a black cloth.

Among the most significant chairs awarded have been:

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  • Chairs in the Celtic Revival style: 
    Eugene Vanfleteren - Birkenhead 1917 (winning poet - Hedd Wyn) 
    J.Kelt Edwards and Elias Davies - Corwen 1919 (Cledlyn Davies) 
    Llew Hughes - Barry 1920 (the prize was withheld)
  • The Wrexham Chair 1933 - a gift from J.R.Jones, Shanghai, a native of Llanuwchllyn (Trefin)
  • The Bro Dinefwr Chair 1996 by the Revd T. Alwyn Williams made from the oak left from Llandeilo Bridge, swept away in the great floods of 1845. The carpenter-minister died within hours of finishing it. (R.O.Williams)
  • The experimental Chair in Pembrokeshire and St David's 2002 made by Robert Jones, with its striking symbols, such as the thorn. (Myrddin ap Dafydd)

The Crowning Ceremony

One of the three ceremonies enacted by the Gorsedd of the Bards on the Eisteddfod stage, when the winning poet is crowned for composing a pryddest or a sequence of poems not in full strict meter. It takes place on Monday afternoon. In 1867 Archdruid Hwfa Môn announced from the Logan Stone that 'a new order is to be formed for the Pryddest (long poem in free meter), a crowned order'. By the turn of the century the pattern of awarding a chair and crown respectively had been established.

Eluned Phillips, crowned bard in 1967 and 1983, describes the experience of having to 'Keep the Secret' that she had won the main prize:

'I had to turn into an absolute recluse. I lost at least 12 pounds of flesh … I didn't want to lie so I had to hide from the light like a mole.' And on the stage itself 'I couldn't resist shedding a tear … You have to live through the experience to be able to appreciate the extreme ecstasy.'

Since the 1950s the Nod Cyfrin (Mystic Mark) has to be incorporated into every design for a National Crown.

The Prose Medal

The ceremony to honour the winner of the Prose Medal takes place on the Wednesday afternoon and it is one of the main ceremonies of the Gorsedd of the Bards on the festival stage.

The Prose Medal was awarded for the first time in Machynlleth in 1937 and it was won by J.O.Williams, Bethesda for a volume of essays, entitled Tua'r Gorllewin ac Ysgrifau Eraill. In 1966 the competition was given a full standard ceremony to celebrate the competition.

Then, in Aberystwyth in 1992, it became one of the official Gorsedd of the Bards' ceremonies. The Medal is presented for a volume of prose, sometimes on a specific theme or in a specific medium such as a novel, diary or series of short stories. Immediately after the ceremony the prize-winning volume is on sale on the Eisteddfod field.

Withholding the main prize

Occasionally, the adjudicators of the main competitions decide that there is no-one worthy of the national prize. In an article in the National Geographic in 1965 the Australian, Alan Villiers described the impact such a decision had upon the audience during the Chairing ceremony at Llandudno in 1963:

'No event symbolizes more vividly the poetic soul of the Welsh and the unyielding pride and integrity that accompany it than the ceremony of Chairing the Bard. This is the high point of the annual National Eisteddfod. … The large stage of an enormous prefabricated pavilion was banked with robed bardic dignitaries and the television lights stabbed at them like searchlights.' … 
But after Thomas Parry, T.H.Parry-Willams and William Morris's adjudication, 'No poem submitted was deemed worthy, … the ritual Chairing of the Bard would not take place. Merit before ritual - no ritual for its own sake! … The 8,000 still sat there in the huge pavilion, as if they had been stunned. Where else, I thought, would people feel so intensely about poetry?'

To demonstrate that the prize is withheld the Herald Bard and the Grand Sword Bearer place the Grand Sword across the arms of the empty chair where the winning poet or author would have sat.

The Floral Dance

Without doubt this is one of the most popular rites in the Gorsedd Circle and on the Eisteddfod stage. About 24 junior-school-aged girls take part; they wear green dresses adorned with meadow flowers and coronets of flowers in their hair and they carry sprays of flowers. The dance portrays the gathering of meadow flowers and it is linked to the Presentation of the Blodeuged (the gift of flowers) as two of the floral dancers add their bouquets to the Blodeuged itself.

However it is a comparatively recent rite. It was performed for the first time at the Machynlleth Proclamation ceremony in 1936 and it was devised by Cynan, the Gorsedd Recorder, and junior school teachers from the area. The dancers did not perform on the Eisteddfod stage until the Ystradgynlais Eisteddfod in 1954.

This anti-suffragette 'voodoo' doll is an unflattering and grotesque caricature of a suffrage campaigner. The anti-suffrage movement used images such as this in cartoons and posters to ridicule and insult women who wanted the right to vote.

Wooden models of the Bangor National Gorsedd, 1914 (postponed until 1915) by the Vale of Clwyd Toys Company, Trefnant, Denbighshire.

A poster for the Liverpool National Eisteddfod and Gorsedd, 1900, showing how Anglicised the festival had become by the turn of the twentieth century.

Targetted by Suffragettes

Occasionally Eisteddfod and Gorsedd ceremonies reflect events of wider national importance.

The first years of the twentieth century was a period of relentless campaigning for votes for women. When the Eisteddfod was held in the Albert Hall, London in 1909, with the prime minister, Asquith as guest speaker, suffragettes saw their chance to target the Prime Minister. Archdruid Dyfed's response to this 'audacity', in a poem composed extempore, in which he disparages the suffragettes for disrupting the bards' celebrations and revels in seeing the women imprisoned, was typical of the patriarchal attitude of the Gorsedd and Eisteddfod at this time.

In Wrexham in 1912, Lloyd George was the target during his speech before the Chairing ceremony. The audience of 13,000 in the tent were enraged that the suffragettes dared to challenge the nation's darling son. They were physically attacked, their hair pulled and their clothes torn; ' the whole pavilion was in a turmoil'.

Wars and Depression

When the First World War broke out in 1914 the National Eisteddfod in Bangor was postponed until 1915; in 1916 it was held in Aberystwyth, in Birkenhead in 1917 and in Neath in 1918. During the war gorseddau the Grand Sword was not unsheathed and there was no call for 'Peace'.

The period between the wars was one of intense depression for many Welsh people. A symbol of this was that the National Eisteddfod Chair for 1938 was made in the Bryn-mawr factory, a settlement opened by the Quakers to try to alleviate the grievous unemployment in the town.

During the Second World War the Government refused permission for the National Eisteddfod to hold the festival at Bridgend or Aberpennar in 1940 because they were both in danger zones. As a result a radio eisteddfod was organised.

Concerns about the language

During the last decades of the twentieth century, many Gorsedd members were very concerned about the plight of the Welsh language and several Archdruids were heard voicing their opinions clearly from the Logan Stone. According to Tilsli, It was Archdruid Gwyndaf who initiated this new kind of speech, 'discussing controversial issues and offering positive leadership'.