Editing Hedd Wyn

{{short description|Welsh poet}}
{{for|the 1992 film|Hedd Wyn (film)}}
<!-- Please keep as "Hedd Wyn", not "Wyn, Hedd"; "Hedd Wyn" is a pen name which is an actual noun phrase, not a forename and surname.-->
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{{Infobox writer <!-- For more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]]. -->
| image = Hedd Wyn 01(a-dg).JPG
| alt = 
| caption = Ellis Humphrey Evans, c.1910. <br /> [[Book frontispiece|Frontispiece]] in ''Cerddi'r Bugail'' (1918)
| pseudonym = Hedd wyn, Fleur De Lys 
| birth_name = Ellis Humphrey Evans
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1887|01|13}}
| birth_place = Yr Ysgwrn [[Trawsfynydd]], [[Merionethshire]], [[Wales]] 
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1917|07|31|1887|01|13}}
| death_place = [[Pilckem Ridge]], [[Passchendaele salient]], [[Belgium]]
| resting_place = [[Artillery Wood Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery|Artillery Wood Cemetery]], [[Boezinge|Boezinge, Belgium]]
| occupation = {{flatlist|
*Poet
*Shepherd/farmer
*Soldier
}}
| language = [[Welsh language|Welsh]]
| genre = [[Romantic poetry|Romantic]] and [[war poetry]]
| notableworks = ''Yr Arwr'', ''Ystrad Fflur'', ''Plant Trawsfynydd'', ''Y Blotyn Du'', ''Nid â’n Ango'', ''Rhyfel''
| spouse = 
| partner = 
| children = 
| relatives = 
| awards = [[Chairing of the Bard|Bard's chair]] at the 1917 [[National Eisteddfod of Wales|National Eisteddfod]]
| signature = 
| signature_alt = 
| website = 
| portaldisp = 
}}
'''Hedd Wyn''' (born '''Ellis Humphrey Evans''', 13 January 1887{{spaced ndash}}31 July 1917) was a [[Welsh language|Welsh-language]] [[poet]] who was killed on the [[Battle of Pilckem Ridge|first day]] of the [[Battle of Passchendaele]] during [[World War I]]. He was posthumously awarded the [[Chairing of the Bard|bard's chair]] at the 1917 [[National Eisteddfod of Wales|National Eisteddfod]]. Evans, who had been awarded several chairs for his poetry, was inspired to take the bardic name ''Hedd Wyn'' ({{IPA|cy|heːð wɨ̞n|}}, "blessed peace") from the way sunlight penetrated the mist in the [[Meirionnydd]] valleys.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/wyn.html|title=Hedd Wyn|publisher=poetsgraves.co.uk|access-date=23 June 2016}}</ref>

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 poetry|war poems]] following the outbreak of war on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] in 1914.

==Early life==
Ellis Humphrey Evans was born on 13 January 1887 at Penlan,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.trawsfynydd.org/wp/?page_id=22|title=Trawsfynydd – History}}</ref> a house in the centre of [[Trawsfynydd]], [[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]].<ref>Llwyd (2009), p. 7</ref> 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.<ref>Llwyd (2009), p. 17</ref> 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 [[eisteddfod]]au, winning his first [[Chairing of the Bard|chair]] (''Cadair y Bardd'') at [[Bala, Gwynedd|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 language|Welsh]] for peace and 'Wyn' can mean white or pure;<ref>Literal translation: white peace</ref> this "blessed peace" also alluded to the way rays of sunlight penetrated the mists in the Meirionydd valleys.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dehandschutter |first=Lieven  |author-link=Lieven Dehandschutter |year=2001 |title= Hedd Wyn. A Welsh tragedy in Flanders. Vormingscentrum Lodewijk Dosfel (Gent, Flanders, Belgium) |page=40}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://biography.wales/article/s2-JONE-HUM-1867|title=JONES, HUMPHREY (' Bryfdir '; 1867 – 1947), poet and 'compère' of eisteddfodau |publisher=[[The National Library of Wales]]|access-date=24 February 2021}}</ref> Jones said he bestowed Hedd Wyn on Evans because he had the manner of a dreamer who moved slowly and calmly.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.crickhowell-hs.powys.sch.uk/trips/ww1-trip-to-france-and-belgium-2018/hedd-wyn/|title=Hedd Wyn|website=www.crickhowell-hs.powys.sch.uk|access-date= 24 February 2021}}</ref> Another close friend of Hedd Wyn was the clergyman and writer [[R. Silyn Roberts]], who was known as 'Rhosyr'.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ladywell-live.org/2020/10/03/from-llanllyfin-to-lewisham-and-a-meeting-with-lenin-the-life-of-silyn-roberts-a-welsh-quarryman-turned-poet-and-presbyterian-minister/|title=From Llanllyfin to Lewisham and a meeting with Lenin, the life of Silyn Roberts, a Welsh quarryman turned poet and presbyterian minister|website=www.ladywell-live.org|date=3 October 2020}}</ref>

In 1913, 26-year-old Hedd Wyn began to find fame for his poetry when he won chairs at the local eisteddfodau at [[Pwllheli]] and [[Llanuwchllyn]]. In 1915 he was successful at local eisteddfodau in [[Pontardawe]] and Llanuwchllyn. That same year he entered his first poem ''Eryri'' (an ode to [[Snowdonia]]) in the [[National Eisteddfod of Wales]] which was held in [[Bangor, Gwynedd]]. The following year he took second place at the National Eisteddfod in [[Aberystwyth]] with ''Ystrad Fflur'', an [[awdl]] written in honour of [[Strata Florida]], the [[medieval]] [[Cistercian]] abbey ruins in [[Ceredigion]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://freepages.books.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~alwyn/Cerddibugail/ystrad_fflyr.shtml |title=Online Text |publisher=Freepages.books.rootsweb.ancestry.com |access-date=2014-05-19 |archive-date=26 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726215119/http://freepages.books.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~alwyn/Cerddibugail/ystrad_fflyr.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==First World War==
Hedd Wyn was a [[Christian pacifism|Christian pacifist]] and did not enlist for the war initially, feeling he could never kill anyone.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dVP7Imhnm5kC&q=hedd+wyn+pacifist&pg=PA156 |title=Improving Learning in College: Rethinking Literacies Across the Curriculum |date= 4 March 2009|isbn=9781134031474 |access-date=2017-10-15|last1=Ivanic |first1=Roz |last2=Edwards |first2=Richard |last3=Barton |first3=David |last4=Martin-Jones |first4=Marilyn |last5=Fowler |first5=Zoe |last6=Hughes |first6=Buddug |last7=Mannion |first7=Greg |last8=Miller |first8=Kate |last9=Satchwell |first9=Candice |last10=Smith |first10=June |publisher=Routledge }}</ref> The war left [[Nonconformity in Wales|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.<ref>{{cite web|author=Martin Shipton |url=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/first-world-war-pacifism-cracks-8362287 |title=The First World War, pacifism, and the cracks in Wales' Nonconformism movement |publisher=Wales Online |date=2014-12-30 |access-date=2017-10-15}}</ref>

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.
{{Verse translation|lang=cy|
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.<ref name=llwyd>{{cite book|first=Alan|last=Llwyd|authorlink=Alan Llwyd|title=Out of the Fire of Hell: Welsh Experience of the Great War 1914–1918 in Prose and Verse|publisher= Gomer Press|year= 2008}}</ref>{{rp|p233}}}}

===Conscription===
[[File:30a Sammlung Eybl Großbritannien. Alfred Leete (1882–1933) Britons (Kitchener) wants you (Briten Kitchener braucht Euch). 1914 (Nachdruck), 74 x 50&nbsp;cm. (Slg.Nr. 552).jpg|thumb|190px|The "[[Lord Kitchener Wants You]]" recruitment poster from 1914.]]

Although farm work was classed as a [[reserved occupation]] due its national importance, in 1916, the Evans family were required to send one of their sons to join the [[British 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 the [[awdl]] ''[[Yr Arwr]]'' ("The Hero"),<ref>[http://freepages.books.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~alwyn/Cerddibugail/yr_arwr.shtml Full text] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090427130357/http://freepages.books.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~alwyn/Cerddibugail/yr_arwr.shtml |date=27 April 2009 }} {{in lang|cy}}.</ref> his submission for the National Eisteddfod. According to his nephew, Gerald Williams, <blockquote>"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 [[Royal Military Police|military police]] came to fetch him from the hayfield and took him to the jail at [[Blaenau Ffestiniog|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, Gwynedd|Bangor]]."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/article/2056/ |title=National Library of Wales interviews Gerald Williams |publisher=Museumwales.ac.uk |access-date=2014-05-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320072246/http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/article/2056/ |archive-date=20 March 2012 }}</ref></blockquote>

In June 1917, Hedd Wyn joined the [[15th (Service) Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers (1st London Welsh)]] (part of the [[38th (Welsh) Infantry Division|38th (Welsh) Division]]) at [[Fléchin]], [[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 Lys|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===
[[File:Hedd Wyn Grave at Artillery Wood Cemetery 7.jpg|thumb|upright|The grave of Hedd Wyn at [[Artillery Wood Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery|Artillery Wood Cemetery]], [[Boezinge|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' [[Trench warfare|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.<ref name="Hagebos">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-21439931|title=Flanders community remembers Welsh dead in 'dark days' of World War I|work=BBC News|date= 13 February 2013}}</ref> In an interview conducted in 1975 by [[St Fagans National Museum of History|St Fagans National History Museum]], Simon Jones, a veteran of the [[Royal Welsh Fusiliers]], recalled, <blockquote>"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."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/article/1920/ |title=Welsh bard falls in the battle fields of Flanders |publisher=Museumwales.ac.uk |date=2007-04-25 |access-date=2014-05-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130621234348/http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/article/1920 |archive-date=21 June 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref></blockquote>

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 [[Irish people|Irish]] [[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 [[Artillery Wood]] Cemetery, near [[Boezinge]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/100906|title= Casualty details—Evans, Ellis Humphrey|publisher= [[Commonwealth War Graves Commission]]|access-date= 1 March 2010}}</ref> After a petition was submitted to the [[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 [[Chairing of the Bard]] took place at the National Eisteddfod in [[Birkenhead Park]], England; in attendance was the Welsh-speaking [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|British Prime Minister]], [[David Lloyd George]]. After the adjudicators announced that the entry submitted under the pseudonym ''[[Fleur de Lys]]'' was the winner, the trumpets were sounded for the author to identify themselves. After three such summons, [[Archdruid]] [[Evan Rees (Dyfed)|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").
[[File:Y Gadair Ddu (manylyn).JPG|thumb|The Black Chair (''Y Gadair Ddu'') is on permanent display at his family farm near [[Trawsfynydd ]]]]
The chair was hand-crafted by [[Flanders|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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dehandschutter|first= Lieven|year=2001|title= Hedd Wyn. A Welsh tragedy in Flanders|publisher= Vormingscentrum Lodewijk Dosfel (Gent, Flanders, Belgium|page= 47}}</ref>

===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.

===Trawsfynydd and Yr Ysgwrn===
[[File:Hedd Wyn statue.jpg|right|thumb|upright|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.
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|cy|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.<ref name=llwyd/>{{rp|p213}}}}

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.<ref>{{cite AV media | title=Hedd Wyn: The Lost War Poet | people=Wyn, Euros (director) | date=August 5, 2017 | type=Documentary| publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation}}</ref> 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 the [[Snowdonia National Park Authority]].<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-57446605 | title=Gerald Williams: Man who kept WW1 poet Hedd Wyn memory alive dies | work=BBC News | date=11 June 2021 }}</ref>

The Park Authority, with support from the [[Welsh Government]] and the [[National Lottery (United Kingdom)|National Lottery]], announced on [[St David's Day]] 2012 that it had acquired the [[Grade II* listed buildings in Gwynedd|Grade II-listed]] farmstead 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.snowdonia.gov.wales/visiting/yr-ysgwrn?name=|title=Yr Ysgwrn|publisher=snowdonia.gov.wales|access-date=6 November 2017}}</ref> In the same year, Gerald Williams was awarded an [[Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire|MBE]] for his "exceptional contribution" to conserving the heritage of his bardic uncle.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-20857039 |title=BBC News – Wales honours: Libyan Mahdi Jibani MBE for medical and interfaith work |work=BBC News|date=29 December 2012|access-date=19 May 2013}}</ref>

===Centennial commemorations===
In August 2014, the [[Welsh Memorial Park, Ypres]] was unveiled at [[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]].<ref name="Hagebos"/>

To mark the 100th anniversary of his death, a Bardic chair was made to celebrate the life of Hedd Wyn.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-38585595|title=New chair marks Welsh WW1 poet Hedd Wyn's centenary|work=BBC News|date=13 January 2017}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-41214767|title=Birkenhead festival marks Hedd Wyn Black Chair centenary|work=BBC News|date=9 September 2017}}</ref>

In November 2017, as part of the annual [[Remembrance Day|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]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-41511334|title=Hedd Wyn video installation on National Library of Wales|work=BBC News|date=5 October 2017}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.scottishpower.com/pages/spfnews_war_poet_hedd_wyn_remembered_in_unique_video_installation_beamed_on_to_the_national_library_of_wales.aspx|title=War poet Hedd Wyn remembered in unique video installation beamed on to the National Library of Wales|access-date=3 March 2019|website=www.scottishpower.com}}</ref>

==In popular culture==

===Film===
The [[anti-war film|anti-war]] [[biopic]] ''[[Hedd Wyn (film)|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 [[Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film|Best Foreign Language Film]] at the [[66th Academy Awards]] in 1993.<ref name="BFI 1">{{cite web|title=The BFI: Hedd Wyn (1992)|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7c1b94fb|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170106103224/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7c1b94fb|url-status=dead|archive-date=6 January 2017|access-date=5 January 2017 |publisher=[[British Film Institute]]|year=2017|work=British Film Institute website}}</ref> In 1994, at the newly inaugurated [[BAFTA Cymru|BAFTA Cymru Awards]], it won in six categories: Best Director ([[Paul Turner (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).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/event/ev0000125/1994|title=BAFTA Awards, Wales (1994)|publisher=imdb.com|access-date=29 September 2017}}</ref>

===Literature===
''The Black Chair'', a 2009 novel for young people by [[Phil Carradice]], is based on the life of Hedd Wyn.<ref>Carradice (2009).</ref> 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''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ylolfa.com/en/dangos.php?ISBN=9781784614522|title=''An Empty Chair: The story of Welsh First World War poet Hedd Wyn''|publisher=Y Lolfa|access-date=29 September 2017}}{{Dead link|date=January 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

=== 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]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.caughtbytheriver.net/2015/04/robert-macfarlane-landscape-grasscut/|title=Everyone Was A Bird |website=www.caughtbytheriver.net|access-date=2019-05-01}}</ref>

===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.<ref>[https://www.tycerdd.org/2117-hedd-wyn Ty Cerdd – 2117/Hedd Wyn]</ref>

== Notes ==

===Citations===
{{Reflist}}

===References===
* Carradice, Phil (2009). ''The Black Chair''. Pont Books. {{ISBN|978-1-84323-978-9}}
* 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. {{ISBN|978-1-906396-20-6}}

== External links ==
{{wikisourcelang|cy|Categori:Hedd Wyn|Hedd Wyn}}
{{commons category}}
* [http://freepages.books.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~alwyn/Cerddibugail/ "The Shepherd's Poems," 1918 Anthology (In Welsh)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100326215600/http://freepages.books.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~alwyn/Cerddibugail/ |date=26 March 2010 }}
* {{IMDb title|qid=Q774626|title=Hedd Wyn}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080408030405/http://www.rwfmuseum.org.uk/nb_heddwyn.html A detailed biographical sketch of Hedd Wyn]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20180731213430/http://www.100welshheroes.com/en/biography/heddwyn Hedd Wyn at 100 Welsh Heroes]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northwest/halloffame/arts/heddwyn.shtml BBC North Wales on Hedd Wyn] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130113235324/http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northwest/halloffame/arts/heddwyn.shtml |date=13 January 2013 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070812011422/http://www.gtj.org.uk/en/item10/32226 Hedd Wyn at Gathering the Jewels]
* [http://poemsintranslation.blogspot.com/2009/06/ellis-evans-war-from-welsh.html English translation of Hedd Wyn's ''War'']
* [http://poemsintranslation.blogspot.com/2010/02/hedd-wyn-black-spot.html English translation of Hedd Wyn's ''Black Spot'']
* {{YouTube|6VUPV_fJJR8|90th Anniversary of Hedd Wyn's death}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120320072246/http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/article/2056/ National Museum of Wales interviews Hedd Wyn's Nephew (In Welsh with English subtitles)]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hedd Wyn}}
[[Category:1887 births]]
[[Category:1917 deaths]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Gwynedd]]
[[Category:20th-century British male writers]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:British military personnel killed in World War I]]
[[Category:Burials at Artillery Wood Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery]]
[[Category:Calvinist and Reformed poets]]
[[Category:Calvinist pacifists]]
[[Category:Chaired bards]]
[[Category:Deserters]]
[[Category:People from Merionethshire]]
[[Category:People from Trawsfynydd]]
[[Category:Romantic poets]]
[[Category:Royal Welch Fusiliers soldiers]]
[[Category:Welsh Eisteddfod winners]]
[[Category:Welsh-language poets]]
[[Category:Welsh World War I poets]]