The Chairing of the Bard marks one of the National Eisteddfod's most defining features. The ceremony honours the winner of the awdl; a long poem composed in a strict metre (cynghanedd). Entries are submitted under pseudonyms, meaning the poet's identity usually remains a secret until the winner is called forward.
In 1917, what would have been a moment of celebration turned into a national tragedy.
Enter Hedd Wyn – Ellis Humphrey Evans.
The shepherd poet
Born in Yr Ysgwrn, his family's hill farm in Traswfynydd in 1887, Ellis lived a relatively normal life. He left school at 14 to work as a shepherd, but continued his education through reading and poetry. Inspired by the landscape of Eryri (Snowdonia), religion and Romantic poets; he developed his craft by competing in local Eisteddfodau.
His first bardic chair came at Bala in 1907. Five more followed, and in 1916 his awdl Ystrad Fflur took second place in the National Eisteddfod in Aberystwyth. Hedd Wyn became one of the most promising Welsh language poets of his generation.
The Great War
The introduction of conscription in 1916 brought the war directly to Yr Ysgwrn. Although farming was considered vital work, the Evans family could not keep both Ellis and his younger brother Robert at home. One of them would have to serve.
Ellis chose to go, sparing Robert and leaving him to help run the family farm.
In February 1917, Hedd Wyn reported for training with the Royal Welch Fusiliers at Litherland Camp near Liverpool. The following month, as the government released agricultural workers temporarily to help with spring ploughing, he returned to Yr Ysgwrn on leave.
It was during this brief return home that he worked intensively on Yr Arwr (The Hero), his entry for the Chair at that year’s National Eisteddfod in Birkenhead.
When his leave ended, he returned to military service and travelled to France. In July, he posted the completed poem from the village of Fléchin under the pseudonym 'Fleur-de-lis'.
The empty Chair
Six weeks later, the Eisteddfod audience assembled for the Chairing ceremony.
The adjudicators had selected Yr Arwr. Following tradition, the Archdruid called for 'Fleur-de-lis' to identify himself and receive the Chair. The audience waited, unaware that the winning poet had died in Flanders.
The Archdruid revealed his identity as Ellis Humphrey Evans - Hedd Wyn of Trawsfynydd, and a black sheet was placed over the empty Chair.
The Chair had been made by Eugeen Vanfleteren, a Belgian refugee displaced by the same war. Carved with Welsh dragons and interlacing Celtic patterns, it was later carried by train and horse-drawn cart to Yr Ysgwrn, arriving at the family home still dressed in black.
The 1917 festival became known as Eisteddfod y Gadair Ddu (the Eisteddfod of the Black Chair).
The Chair came to represent not only Hedd Wyn, but the empty places left in homes throughout Wales and the lost promise of an entire generation. Today, it remains at Yr Ysgwrn, while Hedd Wyn’s manuscript is preserved at the National Library of Wales.
The story continues
Hedd Wyn: Eisteddfod Atomig carries his story into Trawsfynydd in 2117, where catastrophe threatens community, memory and the Welsh language.
Featuring music by Stephen McNeff and a libretto by Gruff Rhys, this Welsh-language psychedelic fantasia is a co-production between Welsh National Opera Cenedlaethol Cymru and Theatr Cymru.
Hedd Wyn: Eisteddfod Atomig comes to Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, from 18–22 May 2027.