Editing Hedd Wyn (section)

===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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=3790 |title=National Library's Page on Hedd Wyn |publisher=Llgc.org.uk |date=1917-07-31 |access-date=2014-05-19}}</ref>

''Hedd Wyn, Ei Farddoniaeth'', a complete Welsh language anthology of his works, was published by Trawsfynydd's Merilang Press in 2012.<ref>{{cite book|pages=1–184|publisher= Merilang Press|year= 2012|title=Hedd Wyn, Ei Farddoniaeth|isbn=978-0956937919|author=	Ellis Humphrey Evans|editor= Daffni Percival}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://freepages.books.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~alwyn/Cerddibugail/yr_arwr.shtml |title=Full text (in Welsh) |publisher=Freepages.books.rootsweb.ancestry.com |access-date=2014-05-19 |archive-date=27 April 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090427130357/http://freepages.books.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~alwyn/Cerddibugail/yr_arwr.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref>

''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.