| 33rd | Top Welsh writers |
| 9th | Top Welsh language authors |
Hedd Wyn (13 January 1887 – 31 July 1917) was a Merionethshire farmer and Welsh language poet of World War I.
Contents |
Ellis Humphrey Evans was born on 13 January 1887 in Pen Lan, a house in the middle of Trawsfynydd, Meirionydd, North Wales. He was the eldest of 11 children born to Evan and Mary Evans. In the spring of 1887 the family moved to the isolated hill-farm of Yr Ysgwrm, a few miles from Trawsfynydd.[1]
Ellis Evans received a basic education at elementary and Sunday school. He left school at fourteen and began work as a shepherd on his father’s farm.[2] He had not been a particularly brilliant student but he had a natural gift for poetry. He had already composed his first poems by the age of eleven.
He took part in eisteddfoddau from the age of 19 and won his first bard’s chair at Bala in 1907. In 1910 he took the Bardic name Hedd Wyn, Welsh for "Blessed Peace"[3],a reference to the sun’s rays penetrating the mists in the valleys of Meirionydd. Hedd Wyn's main influence was the Romantic poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley and themes of nature and religion dominated his work. In 1913 he won the chairs at Pwllheli and Llanuwchllyn and in 1915 he was successful at Pontardawe and Llanuwchllyn. The same year he wrote his first poem for the National Eisteddfod of Wales, Eryri an ode to Snowdon. In 1916 he took second place at the Aberystwyth National Eisteddfod with Ystrad Fflur ("Strata Florida"), an awdl written in honour of the Medieval Cistercian abbey ruins in Ceredigion.[4] He determined to win the National Eisteddfodd chair the following year.
By this time the First World War was at its height. There was great support for the War in Wales and David Lloyd George, Prime Minister from 1916, urged his countrymen to make sacrifices for the war effort. Welshmen had volunteered in large numbers from 1914 and the introduction of conscription in late 1916 did not undermine support.
Naturally the War affected Hedd Wyn’s work and produced some of his best poetry including Plant Trawsfynnydd ("Children of Trawsfynnydd"), Y Blotyn Du ("The Black Mark"), Nid â’n Ango ("Do Not Forget") and Rhyfel ("War").
In 1916, the Evans family was faced with a difficult decision -- one of the sons must join the British Army despite farming being a work of national importance. Ellis enlisted rather than his younger brother Robert, who was recently married. In February 1917 he received his training at Litherland Camp, Liverpool, where his cheerful disposition made him well-liked. In March 1917 the Government called for farm workers to help with ploughing and many soldiers were temporarily released. Hedd Wyn was given seven weeks' leave. He spent most of his furlough working on the awdl Yr Arwr ("The Hero")[5], his submission for the National Eisteddfod. According to his nephew, Gerald Williams,
"It was a wet year in 1917. He came back for fourteen days leave and wrote the poem, Yr Arwr, on the table by the fire. As it was such a wet year, he stayed for another seven days. This extra seven days made him a deserter. So the military police came to fetch him from the hayfield and took him to the jail at Blaenau. From there he travelled to... the war in Belgium. Because he left in such a hurry he forgot the poem on the table, so he wrote it again on the journey. So there are two copies: one in Aberystwyth and one in Bangor."[6]
In June 1917 Hedd Wyn joined the 15th Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers at Fléchin, France. His arrival depressed him. "Heavy weather, heavy soul, heavy heart. That is an uncomfortable trinity, isn’t it?" Nevertheless at Fléchin he finished his National Eisteddfod entry and signed it “Fleur de Lis”. It was sent via the Royal Mail on 15 July 1917. The same day the 15th Battalion marched towards the major offensive which would become known as the Battle of Passchendaele.
The attack began on 31 July 1917 at 3:50 AM. Heavy rain turned the battlefield into a swamp. The 15th Battalion captured Pilckem Ridge and then advanced towards Iron Cross, coming under heavy artillery and machine gun fire. In a 1975 interview conducted by St Fagans National History Museum, Alan Jones, a veteran of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, recalled,
"We started over Canal Bank at Ypres, and he was killed half way across Pilckem. I've heard many say that they were with Hedd Wyn and this and that, well I was with him... I saw him fall and I can say that it was a nosecap shell in his stomach that killed him. You could tell that... He was going in front of me, and I saw him fall on his knees and grab two fistfuls of dirt... He was dying, of course... There were stretcher bearers coming up behind us, you see. There was nothing - well, you'd be breaking the rules if you went to help someone who was injured when you were in an attack."[7]
Soon after being wounded, Hedd Wyn was carried to a First-Aid Post. Still conscious, he asked the doctor “Do you think I will live?” It was clear, however, that he had little chance of surviving. Private Ellis Evans died at about 11:00 AM. Among the 31,000 Allied fatalities on that day was the Irish war poet, Francis Ledwidge, who was "blown to bits" while sipping tea in a shell hole.
On 6 September 1917 the ceremony of Chairing of the Bard took place at the National Eisteddfod, held that year at Birkenhead. David Lloyd George, by then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was present. The adjudicators announced that the entry of Fleur de Lys was the winner and the trumpets were sounded for him to identify himself. No one stood up and eventually it was discovered that the winner had died six weeks before. The empty chair was draped in a black sheet. "The Festival in tears and the Poet in his grave," said the Archdruid Dyfed. Ever after, the festival was referred to as, "The Eisteddfodd of the Black Chair."
Ellis H. Evans lies buried at Artillery Wood Cemetery, near Boezinge.[8] After the war, a petition was submitted to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and it was granted that his tombstone did not read simply E.H. Evans, but also Y Prifardd Hedd Wyn ("The Principle Bard, Hedd Wyn").
Immediately after the Eisteddfodd, a committee was formed in Trawsfynydd to look after the poet's legacy. Under the leadership of J.R. Jones, the head teacher in the village, all manuscripts in the poet's hand were collected and carefully preserved. Due to the committee's efforts, the first anthology of the bard's work, titled Cerddi'r Bugail ("The Shepherd's Poems"), was published in 1918. The manuscripts were donated to the National Library of Wales in 1934.[9]
The poem Yr Arwr[10], for which Hedd Wyn won the National Eisteddfodd, is still considered the poet's greatest work. The ode has been divided into 4 parts and contains 2 main characters, Merch y Drycinoedd and the Arwr. There has been much disagreement in the past regarding the meaning of the ode. It can be said with certainty that Hedd Wyn, like his favourite poet Shelley, longed for a perfect humanity and a perfect world during the chaos of the First World War.
It is believed that Merch y Drycinoedd is a symbol of love, the beauty of nature, and creativity. It is believed that Yr Arwr is a symbol of goodness, fairness, freedom, and justice. It is through his sacrifice, and his union with Merch y Drycinoedd at the end of the ode, that a better age will come.
The poet's bardic chairs remain on display at Yr Ysgwrn, which is preserved just as it was in 1917. The poet's nephew, Gerald Williams, owns Yr Ysgwrn today, and regularly entertains tourists with stories about his uncle.
There is also a bronze statue of him dressed as a shepherd in the centre of the village. It was unveiled by his mother in 1923 and bears an inscription which Hedd Wyn had written in memory of a slain friend.
|
|
The poet became the subject of the Oscar-nominated biopic Hedd Wyn in 1992. Based on a screenplay by Alan Llwyd, the film stars Huw Garmon as Ellis Evans. It won a BAFTA for the best foreign language film in the year of its release. It was also nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 1994 Academy Awards.
The Black Chair, a 2009 novel for young people, is based on the life of Hedd Wyn.[11]
   | Hedd Wynn's tombstone - Find A Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records and Online Memorials |
| | Texts by Hedd Wyn - Categori:Hedd Wyn - Wicitestun |
| | IMDB entry for ''Hedd Wyn'' - Hedd Wyn (1992) |
| | Text of ''Yr Arwr'' - Yr Arwr - Wicitestun |
|
|
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
