Awdl
Quick answer: An awdl is a long Welsh poem in strict metre and full cynghanedd, the form that wins the chair at the National Eisteddfod. Learn its history and rules.
An awdl is a long Welsh poem composed in the strict metres, carrying cynghanedd, the mandatory harmony of consonants and internal rhyme, throughout its length. Historically the word meant a poem sustained on a single end rhyme; in modern usage it names an extended poem that draws on some of the twenty-four traditional Welsh measures. The awdl is the most prestigious assignment in Welsh-language poetry: it is the form required to win the chair at the National Eisteddfod.
Think of the awdl as the Welsh tradition's symphony. Where the englyn is a miniature and the cywydd a song, the awdl is the large canvas on which a strict-metre poet proves range, stamina and architectural sense, often across several hundred lines on a set theme.
History and Key Figures
The earliest court poets of Wales, the Gogynfeirdd of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, composed awdlau in praise of princes, building on the heroic tradition that reaches back to the poetry attributed to Taliesin and Aneirin. After the fall of the native princes, the form persisted alongside the newer cywydd, and the bardic grammars fixed the canon of twenty-four strict metres from which an awdl may be woven. The eighteenth-century revival and the growth of the Eisteddfod turned the awdl into a national institution, its highest honour a carved oak chair.
How It Works
A modern awdl typically moves through several strict metres, sections of cyhydedd naw ban, gwawdodyn, englynion and others, chosen for contrast the way a composer changes tempo. Every line must satisfy cynghanedd, and sequences often share end rhymes for long stretches, so composition is slow, deliberate work. Because the rules are so demanding, subject matter tends to be weighty: land, language, faith, war and remembrance dominate the chaired awdlau of the last century, though recent winners have handled subjects as contemporary as migration and family life.
Why It Matters Beyond Wales
Even if you never write a syllable of Welsh, the awdl offers a lesson in scale. Its poets plan a long poem as a sequence of formal movements rather than a single continuous flow, and that idea transfers directly: a long English poem gains shape when its sections change metre, stanza or register with purpose. If your ambitions run to sequences and long poems, study how awdl writers vary their measures to renew the reader's attention, then apply the principle with the forms you already know.
What poets can take from this
- Plan a long poem in movements, as awdl poets do, before drafting a single line.
- Change stanza form or metre between sections to mark shifts in argument or time.
- Sustain one end rhyme across a passage of English verse to feel the awdl's original discipline.
- Give a long poem a public subject and a private thread; the great awdlau braid both.
- Study translations of Welsh chaired poems to see structure survive even when sound cannot.
Try it yourself
Design and write the first two movements of a long poem about your home region: movement one in rhymed quatrains, movement two in unrhymed three-line stanzas, with one image carried across the join.
Questions
What is the difference between an awdl and a cywydd?
A cywydd is a specific form: seven-syllable lines in rhyming couplets with cynghanedd. An awdl is a longer poem that may combine many strict metres, sometimes including cywydd passages, sustained at greater length and formality.
What does winning the chair have to do with the awdl?
At the National Eisteddfod of Wales, the chair is awarded for the best awdl in full strict metre on a set theme, while the crown rewards free-metre poetry. Chairing the bard is the festival's most solemn ceremony.
Can an awdl be written in English?
Not in any strict sense, since the form depends on Welsh cynghanedd. English poets can borrow its architecture, long poems built from contrasting formal sections, without claiming the name.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
Enter a Writory poetry contest
Enter the September contest and have your own poem read and scored. That first entry makes you a Writorian.