Eisteddfod

According to Hywel Teifi 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.[6]

According to legend, Gruffudd ap Cynan (1055-1137), the Irish-born King of Gwynedd, not only reformed the Welsh Bardic tradition to accord with that of the Irish language bards, but also sponsored an Eisteddfod at Caerwys during his reign.[7]

The first documented eisteddfod was hosted by Lord Rhys ap Gruffydd of Deheubarth 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."[8]

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.[9] Chairs were a valuable asset, normally reserved for people of high status.[10]

In 2007, it was suggested by Welsh historian Roger Turvey, writing of Dinefwr Castle, that The Lord Rhys' idea for a competitive festival of music and poetry at Cardigan Castle may have been inspired by similar contests in continental Europe. During the same era, the Bards were trained and contests between them were organized by poets' guilds like the Puy of France and the Meistersingers of the Holy Roman Empire. 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 Continental Europe.[11]

When asked about Turvey's theory, 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 12th-century Wales had been. "It's a sign of a healthy culture to accept - and marry with - other cultures," he added.[12]

The next large-scale eisteddfod that is historically known is the three month long 1450 Carmarthen Eisteddfod under Gruffudd ap Nicolas. At the Eisteddfod the Cadair Arian ("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.[13] 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.[14]

Dafydd's cywydd exemplified the 24 strict metres of Welsh bardic poetry, previously codified by Einion Offeiriad and Dafydd Ddu o Hiraddug, as Dafydd ab Edmwnd had reformed thrm. He deleted two metres and replaced them with the more complicated Gorchest y Beirdd and the Cadwynfyr.

The 24 metres presented by Dafydd at the 1450 Carmarthen Eisteddfod were widely adopted by bards throughout Wales. While the training of poets had always been kept secret, with the craft handed down from tutor to pupil, Dafydd’s reform of the metres subsequently increased the segregation between the “professional elite” and poets who composed without having been trained. The consequence of Dafydd's reforms was that greater emphasis was placed among the bardic elite upon adhering to the stricter metres rather than to the content and theme of a poem.

The next eisteddfod that is historically known is the Carmarthen Eisteddfod in 1451 under Thomas ap Gruffydd of Llandeilo.

Later in the 16th century, 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."[15] 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,"[16] 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 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.[17]

Perhaps for this reason that the 1567 and 1568 Caerwys Eisteddfodau were overseen by the officials of the Queen's Council of Wales and the Marches.[18]

At the eisteddfod held in Caerwys in 1568, the prizes awarded were a miniature silver chair to the successful 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. By royal decree, the contests were limited to licensdd Welsh bards.

But interest in the Welsh arts declined during the 17th and 18th centuries, leading to the standard of the main eisteddfod deteriorating. Gatherings also became more informal; poets would often meet in taverns and open spaces and have "assemblies of rhymers". These meetings kept traditions alive; the winners even still received a chair.

A chair was a prized award because of its perceived social status. Throughout the medieval period, high-backed chairs with arm rests were reserved for royalty and high-status leaders in military, religious and civic affairs. As most ordinary people sat on stools until the 1700s, an armchair conveyed status to a winning bard.

In 1789, Thomas Jones organised an eisteddfod in Corwen, where for the first time the public were admitted. The success of this event led to a revival of interest in Welsh literature and music. The earliest known surviving Bardic chair made specifically for an Eisteddfod was built in Carmarthen in 1819.

Iolo Morganwg (the bardic name of Edward Williams) founded "Gorsedd Beirdd Ynys Prydain" (Gorsedd of the Bards of the Isle of Britain) in 1792 to restore and replace the ancient eisteddfod. The first eisteddfod of the revival was held on Primrose Hill, London.

The Gentleman's Magazine of October 1792 reported on the revival of the eisteddfod tradition.

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. Present at the meeting was Edward Jones who had published his "The Musical and Poetical Reelicks of the Welsh Bards" in 1784 in a belated effort to try to preserve the native Welsh traditions being so ruthlessly stamped out by the new breed of Methodists.

The Blue Books' notorious attack on the moral character of the Welsh people in 1846 led to public anger and the belief that it was important for the Welsh to create a new national image. By the 1850s people began to talk of a national eisteddfod to showcase Wales's culture. In 1858 John Williams ab Ithel held a "National" Eisteddfod complete with Gorsedd in Llangollen. "The great Llangollen Eisteddfod of 1858" was a significant event. Thomas Stephens won a prize with an essay demolishing the claim of John Williams (the event's organiser) that Madoc discovered America. As Williams had expected Stephens's essay to reinforce the myth, he was not willing to award the prize to Stephens and, it is recorded, "matters became turbulent". This eisteddfod also saw the first public appearance of John Ceiriog Hughes, who won a prize for a love poem, Myfanwy Fychan of Dinas Brân, which became an instant hit. There is speculation that this was a result of its depiction of a "deserving, beautiful, moral, well-mannered Welshwoman", in stark contrast to The Blue Books' depiction of Welsh women as having questionable morals.

The National Eisteddfod Council was created after Llangollen, and the Gorsedd subsequently merged with it. The Gorsedd holds the right of proclamation and of governance while the Council organises the event. The first true National Eisteddfod organised by the Council was held in Denbigh in 1860 on a pattern that continues to the present day.

It was only during the 20th-century that the Archdruid, Rev. Albert Evans-Jones, made it generally accepted and understood that the Neo-Pagan rituals of the Eisteddfod are 18th-century creations by Iolo Morganwg and have no connection to the Druids or to Welsh mythology. During his term as Archdruid, Rev. Evans-Jones, who was a World War I veteran, Welsh-language war poet, and minister of the Presbyterian Church of Wales, created new rituals which he felt better reflected the Christian beliefs of the Welsh people. In 1969, Rev. Evans-Jones was knighted for his services to Welsh culture and literature by Queen Elizabeth II.[19]

Prifardd Robin Owain in the bardic chair, 1991

The National Eisteddfod of Wales, Mold 2007

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.[20] Competitors typically number 6,000 or more; overall attendances generally exceed 150,000 visitors.[21]

Another important eisteddfod in the calendar is "Eisteddfod Yr Urdd" 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.[22] 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.

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.

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

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).

In 1897 a Forest of Dean Eisteddfod, reportedly a choral competition, was founded at Cinderford.[24] This annual event was still running in the 1940s.[25]

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 Northamptonshire town by members of the Sunday School Union and still runs every March.[26]

For many years Teignmouth Grammar School in Teignmouth, Devon, held an eisteddfod of art, music and drama competitions in the Easter term.[27]

The Bristol Festival of Music, Speech and Drama was founded in 1903 as the Bristol Eisteddfod;[28] the name still survives in the Bristol Dance Eisteddfod.[29]

The Teesside International Eisteddfod (Intertie) ran from 1966 to 1978.

The Minsterley Eisteddfod has been held every March in South Shropshire since 1962. [30]

The Guernsey Eisteddfod was founded in 1922 and includes events in the Guernésiais language;[31] the Jersey Eisteddfod was founded in 1908 and includes events in Jèrriais dialect of Norman French.[32]

Eisteddfodau have been held since the initial Welsh settlement in Argentina in the late 19th century. Competitions nowadays are bilingual, in Welsh and Spanish, and include poetry and prose, translations (Welsh, Spanish, English, Italian, and French), musical performances, arts, folk dances, photography and video among others. A youth eisteddfod is held in Gaiman every September, and the main Chubut Eisteddfod is held in Trelew in October. An annual eisteddfod is also held in Trevelin, in the Andes and in Puerto Madryn on the coast.[33]

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

For those eisteddfods like the Welsh original, they involve testing individuals in singing, dancing, acting and musicianship. The Royal South Street Eisteddfod in Ballarat has been running since 1891.[34] At least 20 years earlier, as described in the diaries of Joseph Jenkins, Ballarat's Welsh community was conducting an annual eisteddfod each St David's Day (1 March).

The Sydney Eisteddfod was first held in 1933[35] and offers some 400 events across all performing arts, catering to 30,000 performers annually. Modern equivalents 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 WA Performing Arts Eisteddfod began in 1958 as the Bunbury Music Festival.[36] 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.[37] Many other communities host eisteddfods, including Alice Springs, Darwin, Brisbane, Hobart and Melbourne.

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

Moving first as religious dissenters and then as industrial workers, many thousands of Welsh people emigrated to America from the 17th century. By 1851, Y Drych ("The Mirror") was just the latest of a number of Welsh-language newspapers, and in 1872 Hanes Cymry America ("A history of the Welsh in America") by R.D. Thomas attempted to catalogue all of the Welsh communities of the United States. Eisteddfods in North America are thought to have started in the 1830s,[38] though the earliest documented examples date from the 1850s.

After the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux in 1851, Welsh immigrants settled much of what is now Blue Earth County, Minnesota. The first Welsh literary society in Minnesota was founded, according to local Welsh-language poet James D. Price, whose bardic name was Ap Dewi, at a meeting in South Bend Township, in Blue Earth County in the fall of 1855.[39] 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."[40]

According to Rev. D.M. Jones, the first Eisteddfod held in Cambria Township took place on the Fourth of July, 1871. Rev. 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."[41]

Rev. Jones continues, "If we recall rightly, Glan Dyfi, pseudonym of Ellis Ellis, Mankato, was 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 skillfull at recitation. Before the end of the last meeting one of the Minnesota storms came on, and the audience scattered in a moment."[42]

According to Ap Dewi, local Eisteddfodau began being held in the county seat of Mankato on January 1, 1873, when one took place at the Blue Earth County Courthouse.[43]

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 englynion in Welsh.[44]

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 February 5 at the Mankato Opera House, under the leadership of Rev. Thomas Hughes and continued there.[45]

According to a 2006 article in the Mankato Free Press the custom of local Eisteddfodau again 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 League of Minnesota Poets. During the 2006 Eisteddfod at the Morgan Creek Vineyards in New Ulm, Brainerd poet Doris Stengel was awarded the Bardic Chair by adjudicator John Calvin Rezmerski.[46]

But, following Rezmerski's death in 2016, the custom of local Eisteddfodau again fell into abeyance.

Competitive eisteddfod were held during the American Civil War, with themes including George Washington, patriotism and Jefferson Davis.[47]

The largest U.S. eisteddfod was held In 1893 at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago,[48] featuring visiting Welsh choirs invited by The Cymmrodorion Society of Chicago.[49] The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, which included a large number of Welsh immigrants, made its first appearance outside of Utah at this event.[50] The eisteddfod idea was retained by some subsequent world's fairs, and helped to link the Welsh Eisteddfod community to its American offshoot.

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. The tightly-rehearsed, all-male Orpheus Club of Los Angeles was judged the winner and was awarded $3,000.[51]

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

The 2011 West Coast Eistefddfod 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.[52][53]

By 1913, a sub-gorsedd of North America with a Vice-Archdruid, Thomas Edwards (bardic name, Cynonfardd), was established at the Pittsburgh Eisteddfod, surviving until 1946.[54]

The Cynonfardd Eisteddfod in Edwardsville, Pennsylvania is the longest running eisteddfod outside Wales. It takes place at the Dr. Edwards Memorial Church and the 130th annual event was held in April 2019.[55]

The Jackson School Eisteddfod in Jackson, Ohio, is the result of an historically strong Welsh 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 economic decline halted the adult events, a youth festival, founded in 1924, still runs today, with support from the Madog Center for Welsh Studies at University of Rio Grande.[56][57]

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.[58]

Welsh Heritage Week[59] and Cwrs Cymraeg,[60] 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.[61]

In the 21st century the Internet and social media helped new eisteddfodau to spring up. For example, AmeriCymru hosts an annual online eisteddfod.[62]

In Brittany, the Kan ar Bobl competition supports the Breton music tradition.

In Cornwall, an analogous event is known as Esedhvos Kernow (Cornish for "Eisteddfod of Cornwall") and is connected with Gorseth Kernow.[63]

The Scottish Gaelic Mod has similarities to an eisteddfod.

During the days of the Irish clans, there was a tradition similar to the first Eisteddfodau. Irish Clan Chiefs would host feasts for their clansmen, servants, and retainers which centered around a contest between Irish-language Bards, whose poetry was usually performed by professional singers accompanied by a harp. As in early Wales, the Clan Chief always chose the winner with the approval of those assembled.

For example, on Christmas Day, 1351, William Ua Cellaig, Chief of the Name and King of Uí Maine in Connaught, held, like The Lord Rhys, a great competition and feast for the Bards of Ireland. This was termed a gairm sgoile.[64]

Even after the destruction of the Clan system, the custom of Bardic and musical contests continued among the surviving families of the Gaelic nobility of Ireland; like the O'Connell family of Derrynane House in County Kerry and the MacDermot Princes of Coolavin in County Sligo, who continued to hold at least a part of their ancestral lands, while ruling over their tenants like Clan Chiefs.

Some Anglo-Irish landlords hosted similar contests. During the 18th-century, poet, composer, and harpist Turlough O'Carolan is said to have improvised Carolan's Concerto inside the house of the Anglo-Irish Power family, during such a contest with the Italian violinist Francesco Geminiani.

Since it was founded as part of the Gaelic Revival by Conradh na Gaeilge in 1902, Seachtain na Gaeilge, which is similar to the eisteddfod, has celebrated Irish traditional music, Gaelic games, and Irish culture and promoted the Irish language.

The festival begins on 1 March and ends on St Patrick's Day each year,[65] with community-organised events celebrated all over Ireland and the world, such as céilís, concerts, quizzes, competitions and parades.[66] Like the earliest Eisteddfodau and their Irish equivalent, Seachtain na Gaeilge also includes a contest between poets.

The Fleadh Cheoil is an annual festival for Irish traditional music that takes place in the same town for a few years in a row, then moving on to another area of Ireland in an effort to include all localities in the celebration.