Archdruid is the title used by the presiding official of the Gorsedd. The Archdruid presides over the most important ceremonies at the National Eisteddfod of Wales including the Crowning of the Bard, the award of the Prose Medal and the Chairing of the Bard. Although Iolo Morganwg was the first to preside over the Gorsedd when the National Eisteddfod came into being, his successor David Griffith, under the bardic name "Clwydfardd", was the first to be known by the official title "Archdruid".
Thomas Llewelyn Jones was a Welsh language author. Over a writing career of more than 50 years, he became one of the most prolific and popular authors of children's books in Welsh. He wrote, and was generally known, as T. Llew Jones.
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1980 to Wales and the Welsh people.
The Tir na n-Og Awards are a set of annual children's literary awards in Wales from 1976. They are presented by the Books Council of Wales to the best books published during the preceding calendar year in each of three awards categories, one English-language and two Welsh-language. Their purpose is "[to raise] the standard of children's and young people's books and to encourage the buying and reading of good books." There is no restriction to fiction or prose. Each prize is £1,000.
Gwyneth Glyn is a Welsh language poet and musician.
T. Gerald Hunter FLSW, more commonly known as Jerry Hunter, is an American graduate of the University of Cincinnati (BA), Aberystwyth (MPhil) and Harvard University (PhD). Originally from Cincinnati, he now lives in Wales and has held academic posts at Cardiff and more recently Bangor University, where he is currently (2015) a professor in the School of Welsh and deputy vice chancellor of the university He was a founding member of the pressure group Cymuned and is former editor of the Academi's literary periodical Taliesin.
John Ellis Williams MBE,, novelist and writer from Caernarfonshire, wrote in Welsh and in English.
Graham Howells is a Welsh illustrator and children's author. Howells was born in Antwerp, Belgium, and lived in Bahrain, Malaysia, Singapore, and Germany, before moving to Pembrokeshire, west Wales.
Emily Huws is a Welsh language children's author. She is a recipient of the Mary Vaughan Jones Award.
Angharad Tomos is a Welsh author and prominent language activist. She is a recipient of the Tir na n-Og Award.
Gwasg Carreg Gwalch is a publishing company based in Llanrwst, Wales. They specialise in publishing works in the Welsh language, but also publish English-language books of Welsh interest.
Richard Bryn Williams, or Bryn Williams (1902–1981), was a Welsh-Argentine writer, poet, playwright and historian. From 1975 to 1978 he was Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales.
Ifor ap Glyn is a Welsh television presenter and Welsh-language poet. From 2016 to 2022 he served as National Poet of Wales.
Gareth Finlay Williams was a Welsh language author who wrote novels for children and adults, as well as creating many television drama series.
Manon Steffan Ros is a Welsh novelist, playwright, games author, scriptwriter and musician. She is the author of over twenty children's books and three novels for adults, all in Welsh. Her award-winning novel Blasu has been translated into English, under the title of The Seasoning. In May 2021 she was described as "arguably the most successful novelist writing in Welsh at the moment". In June 2023 she won the Yoto Carnegie Medal for The Blue Book of Nebo, her English translation of her novel Llyfr Glas Nebo.
Gorsedd Cymru, or simply the Gorsedd or the Orsedd, is a society of Welsh-language poets, writers, musicians and others who have contributed to the Welsh language and to public life in Wales. Its aim is to honour such individuals and help develop and promote their fields in addition to maintaining relationships with other Celtic nations and Y Wladfa in Patagonia. The Gorsedd is most prominent at the National Eisteddfod of Wales where it is responsible for the main ceremonies held.
Caryl Lewis is a Welsh novelist. She won the Wales Book of the Year in 2005 with her novel Martha Jac a Sianco, which was adapted into a film in 2008.
"The Woodland Mass" or "The Mass of the Grove" is a poem in the form of a cywydd by the 14th-century bard Dafydd ap Gwilym, widely seen as the greatest of the Welsh poets. It is one of his most popular works. Sometimes seen as blasphemous, it presents a woodland scene in which a thrush, sent by the poet's lover, and a nightingale officiate at a Mass celebrating both God and sexual love. "The Woodland Mass" is an example of a common type of medieval Welsh poem in which some bird or beast is used as a llatai or love-messenger, though this poem is unusual in that the message is sent to Dafydd rather than by him.
"To the Yew Tree Above Dafydd ap Gwilym's Grave" is a 14th-century Welsh-language poem in the form of a cywydd, and is usually seen as either an elegy written after the death of Dafydd ap Gwilym or a mock-elegy addressed to him during his lifetime. Its author, Gruffudd Gryg, also wrote another elegy or mock-elegy on his friend Dafydd, and conducted a controversy in verse with him in which Dafydd's poems were criticised and defended. The cywydd on the yew tree constitutes the main evidence for the widespread belief that Dafydd is buried at Strata Florida Abbey in Ceredigion. It has been called "a superb poem, perhaps Gruffudd Gryg's best...a remarkably sensitive and perceptive act of poetic homage that acknowledges, far more than any more direct statement ever could, Dafydd's status as a true athro for his generation". It was included in both The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse and The Penguin Book of Welsh Verse.
"Marwnad yr Ehedydd" is a traditional Welsh folk song. A single verse was published by the Welsh Folk Song Society in 1914. It was attributed to the singing of Edward Vaughan, Plas-rhiw-Saeson, collected by Soley Thomas.
