Hedd Wyn

For the 1992 film, seeHedd Wyn (film).

Hedd Wyn
Ellis Humphrey Evans, c.1910. FrontispieceinCerddi'r Bugail(1918)
Born	Ellis Humphrey Evans (1887-01-13)13 January 1887 Yr YsgwrnTrawsfynydd,Merionethshire,Wales
Died	31 July 1917(1917-07-31)(aged 30) Pilckem Ridge,Passchendaele salient,Belgium
Resting place	Artillery Wood Cemetery,Boezinge, Belgium
Pen name	Hedd wyn, Fleur De Lys
Occupation	Poet Shepherd/farmer Soldier
Language	Welsh
Genre	Romanticandwar poetry
Notable works	Yr Arwr,Ystrad Fflur,Plant Trawsfynydd,Y Blotyn Du,Nid â’n Ango,Rhyfel
Notable awards	Bard's chairat the 1917National Eisteddfod

Hedd Wyn(bornEllis Humphrey Evans,13 January 1887 – 31 July 1917) was aWelsh-languagepoetwho was killed on thefirst dayof theBattle of PasschendaeleduringWorld War I.He was posthumously awarded thebard's chairat the 1917National Eisteddfod.Evans, who had been awarded several chairs for his poetry, was inspired to take the bardic nameHedd Wyn([heːðwɨ̞n],"blessed peace" ) from the way sunlight penetrated the mist in theMeirionnyddvalleys.

Born in the village ofTrawsfynydd,Wales,Evans wrote much of his poetry while working as ashepherdon his family's hill farm. His style, which was influenced byromantic poetry,was dominated by themes of nature and religion. He also wrote severalwar poemsfollowing the outbreak of war on theWestern Frontin 1914.

Early life

Ellis Humphrey Evans was born on 13 January 1887 at Penlan,a house in the centre ofTrawsfynydd,Meirionydd,Wales.He was the eldest of eleven children born to Evan and Mary Evans. In the spring of 1887, the family moved to his father's family 168-acre hill-farm of Yr Ysgwrn, in Cwm Prysor, a few miles fromTrawsfynydd.He spent his life there, apart from a short stint in South Wales.

Ellis Evans received a basic education from the age of six at the local primary school and Sunday school. He left school around fourteen years of age and worked as ashepherdon his father's farm.Despite his brief attendance in formal schooling (6–14) he had a talent for poetry and had already composed his first poem by the age of eleven, "Y Das Fawn" (the peat stack). Ellis's interests included both Welsh and English poetry. His main influence was theRomantic poetryofPercy Bysshe Shelley,and themes of nature and religion dominated his work.

Eisteddfodau

His talent for poetry was well known in the village ofTrawsfynydd,and he took part in numerous competitions and localeisteddfodau,winning his firstchair(Cadair y Bardd) atBalain 1907, aged 20. In 1910, he was given thebardic nameHedd Wyn by the bard Bryfdir at a poets' meeting inBlaenau Ffestiniog.'Hedd' isWelshfor peace and 'Wyn' can mean white or pure;this "blessed peace" also alluded to the way rays of sunlight penetrated the mists in the Meirionydd valleys.

Bryfdir was the bardic name of Evans's older friend Humphrey Jones (1867–1947), a quarryman fromBlaenau Ffestiniog;in his lifetime, Jones published two volumes of poetry, won more than 60 bardic chairs and was an eisteddfodau compère.Jones said he bestowed Hedd Wyn on Evans because he had the manner of a dreamer who moved slowly and calmly.Another close friend of Hedd Wyn was the clergyman and writerR. Silyn Roberts,who was known as 'Rhosyr'.

In 1913, 26-year-old Hedd Wyn began to find fame for his poetry when he won chairs at the local eisteddfodau atPwllheliandLlanuwchllyn.In 1915 he was successful at local eisteddfodau inPontardaweand Llanuwchllyn. That same year he entered his first poemEryri(an ode toSnowdonia) in theNational Eisteddfod of Waleswhich was held inBangor, Gwynedd.The following year he took second place at the National Eisteddfod inAberystwythwithYstrad Fflur,anawdlwritten in honour ofStrata Florida,themedievalCistercianabbey ruins inCeredigion.

First World War

Hedd Wyn was aChristian pacifistand did not enlist for the war initially, feeling he could never kill anyone.The war leftWelsh non-conformistsdeeply divided. Traditionally, the Nonconformists had not been comfortable at all with the idea of warfare. The war saw a major clash within Welsh Nonconformism between those who backed military action and those who adopted a pacifist stance on religious grounds.

The war inspired Hedd Wyn's work and produced some of his most noted poetry, includingPlant Trawsfynydd( "Children of Trawsfynydd" ),Y Blotyn Du( "The Black Dot" ), andNid â’n Ango( "[It] Will Not Be Forgotten" ). His poem,Rhyfel( "War" ), remains one of his most frequently quoted works.

Gwae fi fy myw mewn oes mor ddreng,
A Duw ar drai ar orwel pell;
O'i ôl mae dyn, yn deyrn a gwreng,
Yn codi ei awdurdod hell.

Pan deimlodd fyned ymaith Dduw
Cyfododd gledd i ladd ei frawd;
Mae sŵn yr ymladd ar ein clyw,
A'i gysgod ar fythynnod tlawd.

Mae'r hen delynau genid gynt,
Ynghrog ar gangau'r helyg draw,
A gwaedd y bechgyn lond y gwynt,
A'u gwaed yn gymysg efo'r glaw

Why must I live in this grim age,
When, to a far horizon, God
Has ebbed away, and man, with rage,
Now wields the sceptre and the rod?

Man raised his sword, once God had gone,
To slay his brother, and the roar
Of battlefields now casts upon
Our homes the shadow of the war.

The harps to which we sang are hung,
On willow boughs, and their refrain
Drowned by the anguish of the young
Whose blood is mingled with the rain.

Conscription

The "Lord Kitchener Wants You"recruitment poster from 1914.

Although farm work was classed as areserved occupationdue its national importance, in 1916, the Evans family were required to send one of their sons to join theBritish Army.The 29-year-old Ellis enlisted rather than his younger brother Robert. In February 1917, he received his training at Litherland Camp,Liverpool,but 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 this leave working on theawdlYr Arwr( "The Hero" ),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 adeserter.So themilitary policecame to fetch him from the hayfield and took him to the jail atBlaenau.From there he travelled to... the war inBelgium.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 inAberystwythand one inBangor."

In June 1917, Hedd Wyn joined the 15th BattalionRoyal Welsh Fusiliers(part of the38th (Welsh) Division) atFléchin,France.His arrival depressed him, as exemplified in his quote, "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 is believed it was sent via theRoyal Mailaround the end of June. On 31 July 15 Battalion marched towards the major offensive which would become known as theBattle of Passchendaele.

Third Battle of Ypres and death

The grave of Hedd Wyn atArtillery Wood Cemetery,Boezinge, Belgium.

Hedd Wyn was fatally wounded within the first few hours of the start of theThird Battle of Ypreson 31 July, 1917. He fell during theBattle of Pilckem Ridgewhich had begun at 3:50 a.m. with a heavy bombardment of the German lines (this was the opening attack in what became known asBattle of Passchendaele). However, the troops'advancewas hampered by incoming artillery and machine gun fire, and by heavy rain turning the battlefield to swamp.

Private Evans, as part of the 15th (Service) Battalion (1st London Welsh), was advancing towards a German strongpoint –created within the ruins of the Belgian hamlet of Hagebos ( "Iron Cross" )– when he was hit.In an interview conducted in 1975 bySt Fagans National History Museum,Simon Jones, a veteran of theRoyal Welsh Fusiliers,recalled,

"We started over Canal Bank atYpres,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. "

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?" though it was clear that he had little chance of surviving; he died at about 11:00 a.m. Among the fatalities that day was theIrishwar poet,Francis Ledwidge,who was "blown to bits" while drinking tea in a shell hole.

Ellis H. Evans was buried in Section II, Row F, Grave 11 atArtillery WoodCemetery, nearBoezinge.After a petition was submitted to theImperial War Graves Commissionafter the war, his headstone was given the additional wordsYPrifarddHedd Wyn(English: "The Chief Bard, Hedd Wyn" ).

Legacy

National Eisteddfod

On 6 September 1917, the ceremony ofChairing of the Bardtook place at the National Eisteddfod inBirkenhead Park,England; in attendance was the Welsh-speakingBritish Prime Minister,David Lloyd George.After the adjudicators announced that the entry submitted under the pseudonymFleur de Lyswas the winner, the trumpets were sounded for the author to identify themselves. After three such summons,ArchdruidDyfedsolemnly announced that the winner had been killed in action six weeks earlier. The empty chair was then draped in a black sheet. It was delivered to Evans's parents in the same condition, "the festival in tears and the poet in his grave", as Archdruid Dyfed said. The festival is now referred to as "Eisteddfod y Gadair Ddu"(" The Eisteddfod of the Black Chair ").

The Black Chair (Y Gadair Ddu) is on permanent display at his family farm nearTrawsfynydd

The chair was hand-crafted byFlemishcraftsman, Eugeen Vanfleteren (1880–1950), a carpenter born inMechelen,Belgium,who had fled to England on the outbreak of war and had settled in Birkenhead.

Manuscripts and publications

Immediately after the Eisteddfod, a committee was formed in Trawsfynydd to look after the poet's legacy. Under the leadership of J. R. Jones, the head teacher of the village school, 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, titledCerddi'r Bugail( "The Shepherd's Poems" ), was published in 1918. The manuscripts were donated to theNational Library of Walesin 1934.

Hedd Wyn, Ei Farddoniaeth,a complete Welsh language anthology of his works, was published by Trawsfynydd's Merilang Press in 2012.

The poemYr Arwr( "The Hero" ), for which Hedd Wyn won the National Eisteddfod, is still considered his greatest work. The ode is structured in four parts and presents two principal characters,Merch y Drycinoedd( "Daughter of the Tempests" ) and theArwr.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 war.

Merch y Drycinoeddhas been perceived as a symbol of love, the beauty of nature, and creativity; andYr Arwras a symbol of goodness, fairness, freedom, and justice. It is wished that through his sacrifice, and his union withMerch y Drycinoeddat the end of the ode, a better age will come.

Trawsfynydd and Yr Ysgwrn

The statue of Hedd Wyn in his home village ofTrawsfynydd.

A bronze statue of Hedd Wyn, dressed as a shepherd, was unveiled by his mother in the centre of the village in 1923. It bears anenglynwhich Hedd Wyn had written in memory of a slain friend, Tommy Morris.

Ei aberth nid â heibio – ei wyneb
Annwyl nid â'n ango
Er i'r Almaen ystaenio
Ei dwrn dur yn ei waed o.

His sacrifice was not in vain, his face
In our minds will remain,
Although he left a bloodstain
On Germany's iron fist of pain.

Evans's bardic chair is on permanent display at his family's hill farm, Yr Ysgwrn. The property was preserved just as it was in 1917 by the poet's family and his nephew Gerald Williams (d. 2021), who was the last of his relatives to live on the farm.For years, Gerald and his brother Ellis continued to farm the land surrounding the farmhouse as custodians of both Yr Ysgwrn and Hedd Wyn’s legacy, welcoming visitors and working to ensure Hedd Wyn’s story lived on. In 2012, fourteen years after Ellis's death, Gerald decided it was time to pass on the custodianship of Yr Ysgwrn to theSnowdonia National Park Authority.

The Park Authority, with support from theWelsh Governmentand theNational Lottery,announced onSt David's Day2012 that it had acquired theGrade II-listedfarmstead and its surrounding lands for the Welsh nation. The Authority's objectives are to protect and preserve the site while enhancing the visitor experience in order to share the story of Hedd Wyn.In the same year, Gerald Williams was awarded anMBEfor his "exceptional contribution" to conserving the heritage of his bardic uncle.

Centennial commemorations

In August 2014, theWelsh Memorial Park, Ypreswas unveiled atPilckem Ridgenear Ypres. Thewar memorialstands close to the spot where Hedd Wyn was mortally wounded in July 1917 during theBattle of Passchendaele.

To mark the 100th anniversary of his death, a Bardic chair was made to celebrate the life of Hedd Wyn.It was presented to theWelsh Governmentat a special service of remembrance at Birkenhead Park in September 2017. A memorial to the poet was also unveiled in the park, the site of the 1917 National Eisteddfod.

In November 2017, as part of the annualBritish Armistice commemorations,a video installation commemorating the life of Hedd Wyn was beamed onto the exterior walls of theNational Library of Wales,Aberystwyth.The work was the culmination of a project involving more than 800 schoolchildren and adults at primary and secondary schools across Wales which looked at the life and legacy of the poet.

In popular culture

Film

Theanti-warbiopicHedd Wynwas released in 1992. The film, which starredHuw Garmonas the poet, is based on ascreenplaybyAlan Llwyd.It depicts Hedd Wyn as atragic herowho has an intense dislike of the wartimeultranationalismwhich surrounds him and his doomed struggle to avoid conscription.

In 1993,Hedd Wynwon the Royal Television Society's Television Award for Best Single Drama. It became the first British motion picture to be nominated forBest Foreign Language Filmat the66th Academy Awardsin 1993.In 1994, at the newly inauguratedBAFTA Cymru Awards,it won in six categories: Best Director (Paul Turner), Best Design (by Jane Roberts and Martin Morley), Best Drama – Welsh (Shan Davies and Paul Turner), Best Editor (Chris Lawrence), Best Original Music (John E.R. Hardy) and Best Screenwriter – Welsh (Alan Llwyd).

Literature

The Black Chair,a 2009 novel for young people byPhil Carradice,is based on the life of Hedd Wyn.In July 2017, Y Lolfa publishedAn Empty Chair,a novel for young people telling the story of Hedd Wyn as seen from the point of view of his teenage sister, Anni (mother of Gerald Williams). It is an adaptation by Haf Llewelyn of her prize-winning Welsh-language novel,Diffodd Y Sêr.

Music

The track "Halflife" on the 2015 albumEveryone Was a Birdby avant gardeelectronicagroupGrasscutreferences Hedd Wyn as a figure in the history of Trawsfynydd, merging his presence with that of the reactors of theTrawsfynydd nuclear power station.

Opera

The 2017opera2117/Hedd Wyn,with music byStephen McNeffandlibrettobyGruff Rhys,was inspired by the life of Hedd Wyn; set in the year 2117, it imagines a group of schoolchildren in a post-apocalyptic Trawsfynydd learning about the life and work of the poet. It was recorded by Ty Cerdd Records and released in 2022.

Notes

References

• Carradice, Phil (2009).The Black Chair.Pont Books.ISBN978-1-84323-978-9
• Dehandschutter, Lieven (1st Edn 1992, 4th Edn 2001).Hedd Wyn. A Welsh tragedy in Flanders.Vormingscentrum Lodewijk Dosfel (Gent, Flanders, Belgium)
• Llwyd, Alan (2009).Stori Hedd Wyn, Bardd y Gadair Ddu. The Story of Hedd Wyn, the Poet of the Black Chair.Cyhoeddiadau Barddas / Barddas Publications.ISBN978-1-906396-20-6

External links

• "The Shepherd's Poems," 1918 Anthology (In Welsh)Archived26 March 2010 at theWayback Machine
• Hedd WynatIMDb
• A detailed biographical sketch of Hedd Wyn
• Hedd Wyn at 100 Welsh Heroes
• BBC North Wales on Hedd WynArchived13 January 2013 atarchive.today
• Hedd Wyn at Gathering the Jewels
• English translation of Hedd Wyn'sWar
• English translation of Hedd Wyn'sBlack Spot
• 90th Anniversary of Hedd Wyn's deathonYouTube
• National Museum of Wales interviews Hedd Wyn's Nephew (In Welsh with English subtitles)