18/11/2006

Six weeks after his death in the Passchendaele offensive of 1917, the poet Hedd Wyn was awarded the chair at the National Eisteddfod at Birkenhead.

This December a specially arranged weekend of activities has been arranged to celebrate the life and works of Hedd Wyn.

Over a quarter of a million Welshmen enlisted to fight in the 1914-1918 war. Among them was the poet Ellis Humphrey Evans of Trawsfynydd, better known under his bardic name of Hedd Wyn.

He was called up in 1917, was despatched for active service in Flanders, and was killed in August at the notorious Pilckem Ridge at the start of the Passchendaele offensive.

Six weeks later he was posthumously awarded the chair at the National Eisteddfod at Birkenhead for his poem Yr Arwr (The Hero) which he had completed shortly before his death. The chair itself was draped in black during the chairing ceremony, and has since been known as the Y Gadair Ddu (The Black Chair).

The Hedd Wyn Festival will be opened by Professor Gwyn Thomas, Wales’s National Poet, who will present a lecture on Hedd Wyn on Saturday, 2 December at 2pm at Trawsfynydd Village Hall.

This will be followed by a showing of a film about Hedd Wyn with a talk by the star of the film, Huw Garmon.

On Sunday, 3 December, Dewi Prysor will lead a walk around Hedd Wyn’s community, visiting his home, Yr Ysgwrn.