36 August 1982 Marxism Today THE EISTEDDFOD Gareth Miles The first Eisteddfod, concerning itself with ingly decreasing need of bards, harpists and literary and musical matters of which there eisteddfodau. is written evidence, was held at Christmas The Eisteddfod disappeared in all but 1176, in Cardigan Castle, at the behest of yr name in the seventeenth century, and when Arglwydd Rhys, the Lord Rhys, last King of it re-emerged in the early eighteenth it did so Deheubarth/Southern Wales. Although in public houses and Almanac advertise­ poets and musicians did compete for prizes ments, as a weak and tawdry imitation of the at Rhys's Eisteddfod, its primary function great feudal congresses held at Cardigan, was, in the words of the University of Wales Carmarthen and Caerwys. It was for jugs of Dictionary of the Welsh Language 'to formu­ ale and not finely-wrought silver medallions late rules in connection with the crafts of presented by great magnates that the poets poetry and musicianship and to organise now competed and the verse they produced poets and musicians into guilds of craftsmen was correspondingly impoverished. How­ or graduates'. ever, this cultural nadir induced a circle of There was a similar Eisteddfod in 1450 in London-Welsh radicals and bohemians who Carmarthen, and two more, in 1523 and called themselves Y Gwyneddigion/The 1567 both at Caerwys. These last two Gwyneddites to sponsor a series of annual medieval eisteddfodau were symptomatic of eisteddfodau in different parts of Wales the bards' awareness that their craft and between 1789 and 1795. These were purely livelihood, both dependent on their relation­ competitive events and did not presume ship with the landed gentry, were being upon the 'legislative' functions of their undermined and eroded by the fundamental mediaeval forerunners. So were the founda­ socio-economic and political changes taking tions of the modern Eisteddfod laid. place in Wales and generally throughout the The last half of the nineteenth century and Tudor state at that time. They protested that the first quarter of the twentieth was, pace their dignity and their social role were being Jimmy Saville OBE, the age of the train. It threatened by the activities of 'wasters, was also, in Wales, the age of the rising, rhymsters, minstrels and other beggars'. Nonconformist, rural petty-bourgeoisie. And they reaffirmed a fictitious Statute of The National Eisteddfodau of the period Grufrudd ap Cynan in an attempt to buttress reflect both factors. As a result of special the bardic system by defining bardic rights, excursion rates from all parts of the country, obligations and qualifications and charging effective advertising and more efficient true poets with the observance of a code of organisation, they became mass spectacles. conduct in keeping with their high calling — The modern festival also began to exhibit drunkenness, womanizing and gambling the permanent crisis of identity which beset being specifically proscribed! the class which had created it and whose All to no avail. The landed gentry, becom­ interests it was chiefly designed to serve. ing increasingly anglicised and integrated Was its role to be a national celebration of all within the English state, had a correspond­ that was best in the Welsh cultural heritage, Marxism Today August 1982 37 Above: National Eisteddfod, Machynlleth. Green Ovates arrive by bus for the Crowning Ceremony. organizations dedicated to the preservation of Welsh inferiority in all possible fields, by Below: After receiving the Crown, the winning poet is honoured by a floral dance. all means possible, but by now it is generally recognised as having been both necessary and beneficial. It cannot be denied that the All Welsh Rule does continue to cause irritation and friction in some quarters. For example, Labour-controlled Mid-Glamorgan County Council, regarding it as a home-bred form of apartheid, has declared that it will deny the National Eisteddfod financial support until it becomes bilingual. Unfortunately, this principled stand does not preclude Mid- Glamorgan from investing in South Africa, nor from giving financial support to the Lla­ ngollen International Eisteddfod which or rather a means of disproving the slanders ture had brought into existence an maintains cultural links with that country of the 1848 Blue Books and of convincing intelligentsia — preachers, teachers, lectur­ and observes an All English Rule. The Times and its readers that the Welsh ers and professors — for whom the Welsh Removal of the National Eisteddfod's All were trying, really trying, to be as respect­ language was a means of production and the Welsh Rule would not bring about mass able, industrious, dynamic, scientific, prac­ guarantor of their social prominence. This participation by non Welsh speaking work­ tical, civilised and successful as their group required educational, cultural and ers from the South and North-East but divinely-endowed Saxon neighbours, and social arrangements to safeguard the exist­ would lead, inevitably, to its infestation by had in fact made some considerable strides ence of the Welsh language. It was for this royalty, big business, Oxbridge, the London towards achieving the most desirable status specific purpose that Saunders Lewis, GJ cultural establishment, and local govern­ of honorary Englishmen? Williams and a small number of other aca­ ment 'supremos' and super-hacks. The Top Victorians' paper regarded the demics and sympathisers founded Plaid The Eisteddfod remains a centrepiece of Welsh language as 'the curse of Wales' and Genedlaethol Cymru/Welsh Nationalist Welsh culture. The Royal National has been thundered in typical fashion that 'it's preva­ Party, (later known as Plaid Cymru), at the held since 1880 on alternate years in north lence and the ignorance of English have Pwllheli National Eisteddfod in 1925. and south Wales, almost without a break. excluded and even now exclude the Welsh An important cultural achievement on the Though often referred to as 'The Eistedd­ from the civilisation of their English neigh­ part of the Nationalists has been to rid the fod' it is by no means the only one. Many bours. An Eisteddfod ... is simply a foolish modern National Eisteddfod of the rampant hundreds of smaller eisteddfodau take place, interference with the natural progress of Uncle Tomism and parasitism to which it every year, in village halls, schools, commu­ civilisation and prosperity.' had been subject from its inception until the nity centres, chapel vestries, tents and pavil­ The nonconformist culture which the reorganisation of its administration in 1937, ions throughout the country. The following nineteenth century Liberal petty-bour­ when a National Eisteddfod Council was major events are highly recommended: the geoisie created, apart from the Gorsedd of established on the principle that 'the Welsh Urdd (Welsh League of Youth), National Bards and the writings of a few fiercely inde­ language shall be the official language of the Eisteddfod (Whit Week, peripatetic), The pendent and isolated patriots such as Emrys Eisteddfod'. In 1950 the Council enacted Miners' Eisteddfod (first weekend in Octo­ ap Iwan and Michael D Jones (the founder that Welsh was to be the only language used ber, Porthcawl), and the Dai Francis Memo­ of the Patagonian colony), was thoroughly by the Eisteddfod in the conduct of its rial International Eisteddfod (Mayday British in content, though Welsh in lan­ affairs. At the time, this aroused the inevi­ weekend, Onllwyn); the Llangollen Inter­ guage. By the early 1920s though, that cul­ table howls of outrage from individuals and national Eisteddfod is not. D .