: Social and Cultural History

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'.

Iolo Morganwg's sword, used in the 1819 ceremony.

A copy of the order of the Gorsedd ceremony, September 21, 1858 in Llangollen. MWL MSS 2435 /280

Dr William Price, Llantrisant as a Druid

T. H. Thomas, Arlunydd Pen-y-garn, the Herald Bard (1895-1915) in his Gorsedd robes.

A portrait by C. F. Tunnicliffe of Archdruid Cynan, 1953.

Carmarthen 1819

In 1789 the Gwyneddigion Society had sponsored an eisteddfod in Bala in order to raise the standard and status of eisteddfodau in Wales. From this support the movement for provincial eisteddfodau developed and in 1819 the Bishop of St David's, Thomas Burgess, was very keen to establish such a provincial eisteddfod in Carmarthen. It was held at the Ivy Bush Hotel. Gwallter Mechain (Walter Davies) won the prize for the best ode and Iolo Morganwg tied a blue armband around his arm as a sign that he belonged now to the Order of Bards in Gorsedd.

The next morning, in the hotel grounds, a Gorsedd ceremony was held in a small circle of stones, produced from Iolo's pocket. By associating the Gorsedd with the eisteddfodic movement in this way Iolo succeeded in transforming its future. The National Eisteddfodau and Gorseddau of the late nineteenth century evolved from this simple beginning. As G.J.Williams commented, 'Iolo gave the Welsh nation a national institution'.

Early National Eisteddfodau

Between 1819 and 1858 some Gorseddau were enacted in the provincial eisteddfodau but these did not have a standard form or order. Then, in 1858, Ab Ithel (John Williams 1811-1862) rector of Llanymawddwy, who was 'stark drunk' on Iolo's druidic ideas decided to try to establish a national eisteddfod and gorsedd, at Llangollen under the auspices of the Chair of Powys. Thousands flocked to it and the Gorsedd provided a remarkable spectacle with the eccentric Myfyr Morganwg wearing a druidical egg around his neck and Dr William Price in foxskin headgear!

In spite of these strange sights the Llangollen eisteddfod and gorsedd were a turning-point for the eisteddfodic and gorsedd movements as this was the first step towards a National Eisteddfod with the Gorsedd as an integral part of its activities. Two years later at Aberdare (1861), Ab Ithel's dreams were fulfilled and the first National Eisteddfod and Gorsedd were held.

During the following years Gorsedd ceremonies evolved but everyone was not supportive of them. The druids were like 'a pack of madmen' according to Cynddelw (Robert Ellis) and others feared that the 'ancient' rites did not suit the image of the Victorian Age as 'The Age of Progress'. A correspondent with the Times was in his element in 1867, as he mocked:

'This remarkable piece of pantomime ... the puerile fopperies of making Druids in broadcloth and Ovates in crinoline.'

Doubters and Critics

Although many Welsh people believed Iolo Morganwg's claims regarding the antiquity and authenticity of the Gorsedd, not everyone, even from among his contemporaries, was as gullible:

• John Walters (1721-97), who called it "a made Dish"
• Edward (Celtic) Davies (1756-1831), the author of a book on Druids.
• William Williams, Llandygái (1738-1817 who claimed that 'no vouches can be produced (for it) but the brains of Iolo Morganwg.'
• J.W.Prichard, Plas-y-brain, Llanbedr-goch (1749-1829) who detested Iolo because he was 'always a mischief-maker ... making up some lies to try to deceive the world.'
• Thomas Stephens (1821-75) who criticised the druidic and gorsedd institution in the periodical Yr Ymofynnydd, 1852-3.

Then, towards the end of the nineteenth century, university scholars and academics began to express their doubts:

• John Rhŷs (1840-1915), a Celtic scholar who was appointed the first Celtic professor at Oxford University in 1877, described the Gorsedd as 'antiquarian humbug, positively injurious to the true interests of the Eisteddfod'.
• John Morris-Jones (1864-1929), Professor of Welsh at University College of North Wales, Bangor from 1895 onwards. In a series of five scathing articles in Cymru 1896, he cast doubts upon the alleged authenticity of the Gorsedd and came to the (erroneous) conclusion that the ceremonies had been introduced by Glamorganshire poets during the seventeenth century. He continued, 'it is all but child's play'.
• G.J.Williams (1892-1963) Professor of Welsh at University College, Cardiff from 1947 onwards. Through his meticulous research into Glamorganshire traditions and Iolo's own history he totally undermined the credibility and antiquity of the Gorsedd in an article in Y Llenor, 1922. It was, for him, 'a refuge for quackery', and its members 'merely useless members of an institution based upon falsehood and upheld through arrogance and ignorance.' Yet, he was willing to concede that 'a modern institution can be a blessing to a nation.'

Dignifying the Gorsedd

In view of these attacks upon the Gorsedd's origins, authenticity and merit the supporters of the institution realised, by the 1890s, that efforts should be made to re-organise and dignify Gorsedd ceremonies and to enrich its rites and regalia. This would help to silence its critics and to promote its image.

The Gorsedd found its champion in T.H.Thomas, Arlunydd Pen-y-garn (1839-1915) who was elected Herald Bard in 1895. His artistic training as a professional artist made him the ideal person to reform the Gorsedd. He supported Hubert Herkomer's plans to re-style the Gorsedd's robes and the Archdruid's regalia based upon Celtic patterns. Arlunydd Pen-y-garn designed the Gorsedd Banner, and the Stone Circle and transformed the standard of Gorsedd pageantry.

Many of these changes have survived until today and the Gorsedd of the Bards' debt to Arlunydd Pen-y-garn's creativity and patriotic zeal is immense.

Disciplined showmanship

In 1935. Cynan (Albert Evans-Jones 1895-1970) was elected Gorsedd Recorder, an office which he held, between two periods as Archdruid (1950-54; 1963-66), until 1970. Cynan was very interested, as a playwright and actor, in the theatre and he used his talent in this respect to create more colourful, dramatic and disciplined ceremonies for the Gorsedd. He refined the rite of Presenting the Aberthged (the offering of the fruits of the earth); he composed new words for the Chairing Song and he, with the help of teachers from the Machynlleth area, created the Floral Dance in 1936.

Cynan succeeded in getting the Gorsedd and the Council of the Eisteddfod to form one national body - the Court of the Eisteddfod, to manage its affairs, and thus ensured that both parties were considered as equal partners. Furthermore, the new Constitution agreed upon in 1937 and which came of age in Caerphilly in 1950 incorporated the all-Welsh Rule. As Ernest Roberts has shown:

'Cynan, and no-one else, made the Gorsedd one of the main attractions of our National Festival'. This is, after all, 'the only national pageantry we possess.'