Cyhoeddi
EISTEDDFOD MÔN
BRYNGWRAN 2011
Proclamation
Allow me to entice you into our rich and cultured literary and musical tradition of Eisteddfod here on Anglesey.
This Anglesey literary and musical festival was first held in 1907 and during those early years it was staged at the major towns of Anglesey, such as Llanerchymedd, Holyhead, Amlwch, Llangefni, Beaumaris and Menai Bridge.
The 2010 Eisteddfod will be held at the Llangefni Secondary School across the weekend of May 13 to 15.
A concert on the Friday evening will begin the celebration of unique Welsh culture and the competition will follow in earnest on the Saturday morning with prelims (preliminaries) to decide who will eventually compete on the main stage before the gathered audience.
Sadly, and pretty uniquely, no town or village was found able to undertake the challenge this year. This is indeed an odd occurence.
Nonetheless it will be held in the County Town of Anglesey at Llangefni. But please do not worry that this some indication of cultural decay because the 2011 event has been enthusiastically embraced by the village of Bryngwran.
PAGE CONTENTS
CYHOEDDI EISTEDDFOD BRYNGWRAN
THE ROYAL NATIONAL
THE STONE CIRCLE
ANGLESEY DRUIDS
AN AD HOC CHALLENGE
THE DARK DRUID
The images that lend colour this page are of the Proclamation for the 2011 Eisteddfod at Bryngwran. I hope that they convey to you some of the magic attached to the event.
It was a fine sunny Spring day and the event was conducted in lovely sunshine below a large blue Anglesey sky in a meadow right on the village.
The Cyhoeddi is a colourful event that is both solemn in adhering to strict ritual but also laced with warm humour, laughter and song. Children danced their Dawns Flodau (Flower Dance) to the accompaniment of live music, as is the tradition.
When you see the announcement for the Proclamation of the 2012 Eisteddfod Mon I heartily recommend that you make every effort to attend. You will most certainly not understand a word of the language spoken yet the warmth of the event is palpable.
I assure that a few of the poetic nuances are lost on even the best of us, though it’s always nice to be in the company of cultured people.
As the Cyhoeddi progressed there were small children playing in the background adding joyful laughter to enhance the sense of family that is attached to the event and each year's competive events.
The prayer of dedication was spoken by Richard Edeyrn, originally from the nearby village of Bodedern, whence come his Bardic name.
I have neglected to inform you that all members of the Gorsedd adopt a Bardic name, a pseudonym by which she or he is known within the stone circle once she or he has been received.
I was delighted to see Robin Hughes in his blue attire nodding sagely and smiling to himself in delighted gentle pleasure. No nobler a man could have been in attendance.
Never was there more formidable Ceidwad y Pyrth (Gate Keeper) than Trefor Tanmanod who is gentle, soft spoken in all your meetings with him.
However, in his role as Ceidwad y Pyrth, along with Roy ap Huw, Trefor is an imposing figure who could turn back an advancing Roman Legion with but a sharpening of his eyes.
Suetonius Paulinus would surely have got back on his horse and cantered away reflecting on his misfortune.
It is a significant honour to be received into the Gorsedd. Invitation comes as a consequence of noble acts and contribution to the Welsh Language, Eisteddfod, Public Service or the community.
One may also be nominated by druids of the Gorsedd or apply by means of examination in the Welsh language.
There was a formal announcement that the Eisteddfod will be held in Bryngwran in 2011.
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Quite literally, Eisteddfod Môn means the Anglesey Eisteddfod.
This annual event exemplifies the very best of Welsh language traditions and attached Druidic rituals.
Many of you will know about The Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales that is held every year in a different venue across the country. This beautiful cultural institution puts up its pink tent in the North and South in alternative years.
You will also know about the rich Druidic Traditions that underpin its cultural and historic significance.
These traditions have developed greatly over the last two and a half centuries. From the first gathering of the Gorsedd of Druids by Iolo Morganwg and their updating by the Druidic Bard, Cynan from the late 1950s onwards.
Iolo Morgannwg was a really strange character and I refer you to my observations on my Romans and Druids page.
Romans and Druids to one side, the first Welsh Druidic Court was conducted at Primrose Hill in London in 1792.
As you can imagine there aren’t many sites in the London area that have druidic stone circles. Iolo discarded this irrelevance by taking out a pocketful of pebbles to symbolise the stone circle.
Within the circle he gathered the Druids and enacted a complete fabrication that is the basis of the wonderful theatre that we see enacted for proclaiming the next year’s Eisteddfod and for receiving new members into the Druidic Order.
It is the Llys yr Orsedd (Druidic Court) that is the ruling body of all eisteddfodau. However, each Welsh county has its own Gorsedd and event.
Each area Eisteddfod is a preliminary competion to judge who is worthy of competing at the 'National'
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I imagine that you may well have been intrigued by the numerous small stone circles you may have discovered on your travels to Wales. As mentioned above, these circles are a romantic endeavour by Iolo Morgannwg to create a new druidic culture attached to Welsh history.
To clear the technical details of the stone circle out of the way. The stone circle is made up twelve stones quarried specifically for the purpose of the ceremony. Ideally the stones are quarried locally and set in a field where a Proclamation is to take place.
There has been some controversy over this issue with the Royal National Eisteddfod. Rather than haul the Eisteddfod’s own large stone circle about Wales, they now use ... PLASTIC STONES!
The main stone upon which a Druidic Priest conducts the Ceremony of Proclamation is called the Logan Stone, upon which the Arch Druid stands as Maitre D’ of the noble event unfolding.
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It is a fact that the Druids were a significant part of Anglesey history and the scared the bejazzus out of the Roman soldier. Your average Roman Joe was a very superstitious and suspicious individual brought up to believe in a host of gods that brought benefit and curse to their lives.
It was believed by the soldiers of Suetonius Paulinus that the Druids here on Anglesey (Mona) practiced ritual human sacrifices in the centre of their stone circles. Though there is no evidence to support such a belief. It has been further mooted that Wicker Man burnings also took place on Anglesey.
However, the Roman army fed voraciously on gossip and tales of heinous acts performed by the Druids of Mona terrified them before they even got their feet wet in the Menai Straits.
Most of what we know about the Druids is lost in the mists of time and what we know is probably a jolly version based on William Stuckley’s romanticised versions of idyllic ruminations. These are based on nothing more than the ideas born of a good port, a lively imagination and an appreciative audience of indulgent friends on a stormy Winter’s evening.
Archaeologists have discovered that ritual sacrifices did take place. But they were more bovine and inhumane rather than human and inane. Please view my Bryn Celli Ddu Burial Mound page.
What I’m saying is that Iolo Morgannwg made the whole thing up. But who cares if this wonderful and culturally significant enactment is fabrication. His demented motivations are now lost to the rituals conducted within the Stone Circle and what we have stands alone. Unlike the stones.
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I offer you a pleasant challenge, as we are on the topic of druidic stone circles. In the last three towns mentioned above, the stone circles still exist.
The challenge I set you is to find those stone circles. To prove that you have found them then please send in your photographs and descriptions of time, weather and companions.
The prize is the fun that you will have in finding them. Menai Bridge might prove a bit harder than the other two. I look forward to hearing from you.
While you’re there, why not tell us all about your Eisteddfod experiences. There have to be some Spinal Tap Moments out there just waiting to be shared. Feel free to write in Welsh and I’ll happily translate them for our friends across the World.
Please Click Here to share your tale.
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I am certain that you will look at your map of Anglesey and realise that while Bryngwran is most certainly a village on Thomas Telford’s A5, it is by no means a large town. Therefore, how do small villages regularly conduct these Eisteddfodau (Plural)?
No great secret really, because the Eisteddfod is an institution and while leadership is given by those smaller communities there are many willing volunteers and friends eager to lend a hand.
THE DARK DRUID
Let not all be sunshine and joy. For is not an image defined and resolved by its shadow.
In attendance was the Dark Druid, skulking in the periphery, quite brazen and unaffected by curious and suspicious glances.
While romantic notions guide the rituals within the sacred security of Stone Circle, there is the dark presence to insinuate race memory of the shadow days of the Druidic Holy Mound.
See how he contemplates his next move.
For he is TRYSORYDD YR AURAIDD BISTYLL
Disappointingly, he received neither applause nor acknowledgment, so he returned to smiling indulgently and warmly at everyone.
One day. One day, they will all quake with fear. But not today.
But until then Trysorydd yr Auraidd Bistyll skulks amiably on the periphery.
P.S. It means Treasurer of the Golden Fountain.
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Did you find the Stone Circles?
Let us ALL know how you got on and whether you had to ask for assistance.
Of course you didn't because I have every faith in your detection skills.
As I have written above, I am sure we'd all be delighted to learn of your own Eisteddfod experience.
Whether here in Wales or abroad in the colonies.
I know from my Mother's experiences with competing choirs that Spinal Tap moments abound. Who was late, who was missing and what illicit romances revealed themselves on the bus there and back?
No Name and No Pack Drill. Better leave out the names to protect the guilty, as Bon Scott once wrote.
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North Stack Fog Signal Station, just south of the Port of Holyhead, offers astonishing coastal walk and beautiful views of rugged Anglesey coastline.
Holyhead Breakwater Country Park. Astonishing coastal beauty. Award Winning Anglesey Green Flag Country Park. A superb green space for family fun and walks
White Beach really, really is a hidden gem. By that, I mean it is really, really well hidden. Dinner plate pebbles, nice picnics, CRAZY HORSES and some pretty good fishing.
