History of the National Eisteddfod
Welsh History
Author - Hywel Teifi Edwards who sadly died this week.Watch Hywel Teifi explaining the history of the National Eisteddfod on www.culturecolony.com (direct link - www.culturecolony.com/videos?id=1241 )An extract from his obituary in the Independent on Sunday -The fruits of his research first appeared in two substantial volumes, namely Yr Eisteddfod 1176-1976 (1976), in which he traced the origins of the institution from the gathering of poets and musicians held at Cardigan under the patronage of the Lord Rhys in 1176, and Gwyl Gwalia (Festival of Gwalia, 1980), a magisterial study of the Eisteddfod between 1858 and 1868, when it was established as the paramount forum for the national culture of Wales.Hywel Teifi, as he was known in Wales, was a great admirer of the Eisteddfod as a truly popular institution which did much to save the Welsh language from the oblivion into which Victorian values threatened to consign it, but he was no blinkered zealot and could be acerbically critical of its foibles and shortcomings, among which were nepotism and a false antiquarianism that undermined its legitimacy in some quarters.He was particularly scathing about Hugh Owen (1804-81), the influential civil servant who worked long and hard to draw Wales more firmly into the orbit of the British State, especially as far as its language was concerned: like many members of the anglicised middle classes in his day, Owen kept Welsh low on his list of priorities and urged his countrymen, the majority of whom were Welsh monoglots, to adopt English as the sole language of Progress, Empire and Commerce.
