Hedd Wyn

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the 1992 film, see Hedd Wyn (film).

Hedd Wyn
Artillery Wood Cemetery, Boezinge, Belgium
Pen nameHedd wyn, Fleur De Lys
Occupation
  • Poet
  • Shepherd/farmer
  • Soldier
LanguageWelsh
GenreRomantic and war poetry
Notable worksYr Arwr, Ystrad Fflur, Plant Trawsfynydd, Y Blotyn Du, Nid â’n Ango, Rhyfel
Notable awardsBard's chair at the 1917 National Eisteddfod

Hedd Wyn (born Ellis Humphrey Evans, 13 January 1887 – 31 July 1917) was a Welsh-language poet who was killed on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele during World War I. He was posthumously awarded the bard's chair at the 1917 National Eisteddfod. Evans, who had been awarded several chairs for his poetry, was inspired to take the bardic name Hedd Wyn ([heːð wɨ̞n], "blessed peace") from the way sunlight penetrated the mist in the Meirionnydd valleys.[1]

Born in the village of Trawsfynydd, Wales, Evans wrote much of his poetry while working as a shepherd on his family's hill farm. His style, which was influenced by romantic poetry, was dominated by themes of nature and religion. He also wrote several war poems following the outbreak of war on the Western Front in 1914.

Early life

Ellis Humphrey Evans was born on 13 January 1887 at Penlan,

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 from Trawsfynydd.[3]
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 a shepherd on his father's farm.[4] 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 the Romantic poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley, and themes of nature and religion dominated his work.

Eisteddfodau

His talent for poetry was well known in the village of Trawsfynydd, and he took part in numerous competitions and local eisteddfodau, winning his first chair (Cadair y Bardd) at Bala in 1907, aged 20. In 1910, he was given the bardic name Hedd Wyn by the bard Bryfdir at a poets' meeting in Blaenau Ffestiniog. 'Hedd' is Welsh for peace and 'Wyn' can mean white or pure;[5] this "blessed peace" also alluded to the way rays of sunlight penetrated the mists in the Meirionydd valleys.[6]

Bryfdir was the bardic name of Evans's older friend Humphrey Jones (1867–1947), a quarryman from Blaenau Ffestiniog; in his lifetime, Jones published two volumes of poetry, won more than 60 bardic chairs and was an eisteddfodau compère.[7] Jones said he bestowed Hedd Wyn on Evans because he had the manner of a dreamer who moved slowly and calmly.[8] Another close friend of Hedd Wyn was the clergyman and writer R. Silyn Roberts, who was known as 'Rhosyr'.[9]

In 1913, 26-year-old Hedd Wyn began to find fame for his poetry when he won chairs at the local eisteddfodau at

Cistercian abbey ruins in Ceredigion.[10]

First World War

Hedd Wyn was a Christian pacifist and did not enlist for the war initially, feeling he could never kill anyone.[11] The war left Welsh non-conformists deeply 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.[12]

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

Conscription

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

Although farm work was classed as 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."[15]

In June 1917, Hedd Wyn joined the 15th Battalion

Fleur de Lis”. It is believed it was sent via the Royal Mail around the end of June. On 31 July 15 Battalion marched towards the major offensive which would become known as the Battle of Passchendaele
.

Third Battle of Ypres and death

Artillery Wood Cemetery, Boezinge, Belgium
.

Hedd Wyn was fatally wounded within the first few hours of the start of the

Third Battle of Ypres on 31 July, 1917. He fell during the Battle of Pilckem Ridge which had begun at 3:50 a.m. with a heavy bombardment of the German lines (this was the opening attack in what became known as Battle of Passchendaele). However, the troops' advance
was 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.

Royal Welsh 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."[17]

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 the

war 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 at

Imperial War Graves Commission after the war, his headstone was given the additional words Y Prifardd
Hedd Wyn (English: "The Chief Bard, Hedd Wyn").

Legacy

National Eisteddfod

On 6 September 1917, the ceremony of

Fleur de Lys was the winner, the trumpets were sounded for the author to identify themselves. After three such summons, Archdruid Dyfed
solemnly 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 near Trawsfynydd

The chair was hand-crafted by Flemish craftsman, Eugeen Vanfleteren (1880–1950), a carpenter born in Mechelen, Belgium, who had fled to England on the outbreak of war and had settled in Birkenhead.[19]

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, titled Cerddi'r Bugail ("The Shepherd's Poems"), was published in 1918. The manuscripts were donated to the National Library of Wales in 1934.[20]

Hedd Wyn, Ei Farddoniaeth, a complete Welsh language anthology of his works, was published by Trawsfynydd's Merilang Press in 2012.[21]

The poem Yr 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 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 war.[22]

Merch y Drycinoedd has been perceived as a symbol of love, the beauty of nature, and creativity; and Yr Arwr as a symbol of goodness, fairness, freedom, and justice. It is wished that through his sacrifice, and his union with Merch y Drycinoedd at the end of the ode, a better age will come.

Trawsfynydd and Yr Ysgwrn

The statue of Hedd Wyn in his home village of Trawsfynydd.

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 an englyn which Hedd Wyn had written in memory of a slain friend, Tommy Morris.

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.

Snowdonia National Park Authority.[24]

The Park Authority, with support from the

MBE for his "exceptional contribution" to conserving the heritage of his bardic uncle.[26]

Centennial commemorations

In August 2014, the

Pilckem Ridge near Ypres. The war memorial stands close to the spot where Hedd Wyn was mortally wounded in July 1917 during the Battle of Passchendaele.[16]

To mark the 100th anniversary of his death, a Bardic chair was made to celebrate the life of Hedd Wyn.[27] It was presented to the Welsh Government at 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.[28]

In November 2017, as part of the annual British Armistice commemorations, a video installation commemorating the life of Hedd Wyn was beamed onto the exterior walls of the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.[29] 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.[30]

In popular culture

Film

The

biopic Hedd Wyn was released in 1992. The film, which starred Huw Garmon as the poet, is based on a screenplay by Alan Llwyd. It depicts Hedd Wyn as a tragic hero who has an intense dislike of the wartime ultranationalism
which surrounds him and his doomed struggle to avoid conscription.

In 1993, Hedd Wyn won the Royal Television Society's Television Award for Best Single Drama. It became the first British motion picture to be nominated for

John E.R. Hardy) and Best Screenwriter – Welsh (Alan Llwyd).[32]

Literature

The Black Chair, a 2009 novel for young people by Phil Carradice, is based on the life of Hedd Wyn.[33] In July 2017, Y Lolfa published An 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.[34]

Music

The track "Halflife" on the 2015 album Everyone Was a Bird by avant garde electronica group Grasscut references Hedd Wyn as a figure in the history of Trawsfynydd, merging his presence with that of the reactors of the Trawsfynydd nuclear power station.[35]

Opera

The 2017 opera 2117/Hedd Wyn, with music by Stephen McNeff and libretto by Gruff 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.[36]

Notes

Citations

  1. ^ "Hedd Wyn". poetsgraves.co.uk. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
  2. ^ "Trawsfynydd – History".
  3. ^ Llwyd (2009), p. 7
  4. ^ Llwyd (2009), p. 17
  5. ^ Literal translation: white peace
  6. ^ Dehandschutter, Lieven (2001). Hedd Wyn. A Welsh tragedy in Flanders. Vormingscentrum Lodewijk Dosfel (Gent, Flanders, Belgium). p. 40.
  7. The National Library of Wales
    . Retrieved 24 February 2021.
  8. ^ "Hedd Wyn". www.crickhowell-hs.powys.sch.uk. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
  9. ^ "From Llanllyfin to Lewisham and a meeting with Lenin, the life of Silyn Roberts, a Welsh quarryman turned poet and presbyterian minister". www.ladywell-live.org. 3 October 2020.
  10. ^ "Online Text". Freepages.books.rootsweb.ancestry.com. Archived from the original on 26 July 2011. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  11. ISBN 9781134031474
    . Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  12. ^ Martin Shipton (30 December 2014). "The First World War, pacifism, and the cracks in Wales' Nonconformism movement". Wales Online. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  13. ^ a b Llwyd, Alan (2008). Out of the Fire of Hell: Welsh Experience of the Great War 1914–1918 in Prose and Verse. Gomer Press.
  14. ^ Full text Archived 27 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine (in Welsh).
  15. ^ "National Library of Wales interviews Gerald Williams". Museumwales.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  16. ^ a b "Flanders community remembers Welsh dead in 'dark days' of World War I". BBC News. 13 February 2013.
  17. ^ "Welsh bard falls in the battle fields of Flanders". Museumwales.ac.uk. 25 April 2007. Archived from the original on 21 June 2013. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  18. ^ "Casualty details—Evans, Ellis Humphrey". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 1 March 2010.
  19. ^ Dehandschutter, Lieven (2001). Hedd Wyn. A Welsh tragedy in Flanders. Vormingscentrum Lodewijk Dosfel (Gent, Flanders, Belgium. p. 47.
  20. ^ "National Library's Page on Hedd Wyn". Llgc.org.uk. 31 July 1917. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  21. ISBN 978-0956937919
    .
  22. ^ "Full text (in Welsh)". Freepages.books.rootsweb.ancestry.com. Archived from the original on 27 April 2009. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  23. ^ Wyn, Euros (director) (5 August 2017). Hedd Wyn: The Lost War Poet (Documentary). British Broadcasting Corporation.
  24. ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-57446605
  25. ^ "Yr Ysgwrn". snowdonia.gov.wales. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  26. ^ "BBC News – Wales honours: Libyan Mahdi Jibani MBE for medical and interfaith work". BBC News. 29 December 2012. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
  27. ^ "New chair marks Welsh WW1 poet Hedd Wyn's centenary". BBC News. 13 January 2017.
  28. ^ "Birkenhead festival marks Hedd Wyn Black Chair centenary". BBC News. 9 September 2017.
  29. ^ "Hedd Wyn video installation on National Library of Wales". BBC News. 5 October 2017.
  30. ^ "War poet Hedd Wyn remembered in unique video installation beamed on to the National Library of Wales". www.scottishpower.com. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  31. ^ "The BFI: Hedd Wyn (1992)". British Film Institute website. British Film Institute. 2017. Archived from the original on 6 January 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  32. ^ "BAFTA Awards, Wales (1994)". imdb.com. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
  33. ^ Carradice (2009).
  34. ^ "An Empty Chair: The story of Welsh First World War poet Hedd Wyn". Y Lolfa. Retrieved 29 September 2017.[permanent dead link]
  35. ^ "Everyone Was A Bird". www.caughtbytheriver.net. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  36. ^ Ty Cerdd – 2117/Hedd Wyn

References

External links

Welsh Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hedd Wyn.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hedd_Wyn&oldid=1215462264"