Evan Rees (1 January 1850 – 19 March 1923), known by the bardic name Dyfed, was a Calvinistic Methodist minister, poet, and

Archdruid 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 and the Chairing of the ...

of the

National Eisteddfod of Wales The National Eisteddfod of Wales (Welsh language, Welsh: ') is the largest of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales. Its eight days of competitions and performances are considered the largest music and poetry festival in Eur ...

Life

Rees was born at

Puncheston Puncheston ( cy, Cas-mael or Casmael) is a village, parish and community in Pembrokeshire, southwest Wales. It sits below the mountain known as Castlebythe ( en, Cow Castle), one of the peaks in the Preseli Mountains, just outside the Pembroke ...

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; cy, Sir Benfro ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and the rest by sea. The count ...

, the son of James and Eunice Rees; they moved to

Aberdare Aberdare ( ; cy, Aberdâr) is a town in the Cynon Valley area of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, at the confluence of the Rivers Dare (Dâr) and Cynon. Aberdare has a population of 39,550 (mid-2017 estimate). Aberdare is south-west of Merthyr Tyd ...

when he was a child and he began working in the local

colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

at the age of only eight. Having moved to

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

, he became a

Calvinistic Methodist Calvinistic Methodists were born out of the 18th-century Welsh Methodist revival and survive as a body of Christians now forming the Presbyterian Church of Wales. Calvinistic Methodism became a major denomination in Wales, growing rapidly in the 1 ...

minister at the age of 23 and gained his first

National Eisteddfod The National Eisteddfod of Wales (Welsh: ') is the largest of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales. Its eight days of competitions and performances are considered the largest music and poetry festival in Europe. Competitors ...

victory in 1881. In 1893, Rees participated in the Eisteddfod that was held as part of the

World Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, winning the Bardic Chair and a $500 prize for a 2,000 line ''

awdl In Welsh poetry, an ''awdl'' () is a long poem in strict metre (i.e. ''cynghanedd''). Originally, an ''awdl'' could be a relatively short poem unified by its use of a single end-rhyme (the word is related to ''odl'', "rhyme"), using cynghanedd; ...

'' on the set subject ''Iesu o Nazareth'' ("Jesus of Nazareth"). Rees went on to become the

of the ''

Gorsedd Cymru Gorsedd Cymru (), or simply the Gorsedd or the Orsedd ( cy, yr 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 individua ...

'' and to announce the posthumous victory of

Hedd Wyn Hedd Wyn (born Ellis Humphrey Evans, 13 January 188731 July 1917) was a Welsh-language poet who was killed on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele during World War I. He was posthumously awarded the bard's chair at the 1917 National ...

at the famous 1917 "Eisteddfod of the Black Chair" in

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...

Alan Llwyd Alan Llwyd (born 1948), original name Alan Lloyd Roberts, is a Welsh poet, literary critic and editor. He is one of the most prolific Welsh-language poets in the last quarter of the 20th century. He is also known under the Bardic name Meilir Emry ...

(2009), ''Stori Hedd Wyn, Bardd y Gadair Ddu'' (''The Story of Hedd Wyn, the Poet of the Black Chair''), page 13.

Works

* ''Caniadau Dyfedfab'' () * ''Gwlad yr Addewid a Iesu o Nazareth'' (1900) * ''Gwaith Barddonol Dyfed'' (1903–1907) * ''Oriau gydag Islwyn'' (1901) * ''Emynau Dyfed'' (1924, posthumous)

References

Welsh Eisteddfod archdruids 1850 births 1923 deaths Calvinist and Reformed poets Calvinist pacifists Chaired bards {{UK-poet-stub