Eisteddfod
Quick answer: An eisteddfod is a Welsh festival of poetry, music and performance built around competition. Learn its history, the chair and crown, and why it matters.
An eisteddfod is a Welsh festival of competitive poetry, music and performance, from the Welsh eistedd, to sit, referring to the session of bards gathered to contest for honours. The word covers everything from a village hall event to the National Eisteddfod of Wales, a travelling week-long festival held every August, entirely in Welsh, that draws well over a hundred thousand visitors. Its two supreme prizes are literary: the chair, awarded for an awdl in strict metre, and the crown, for poetry in free metres.
For poets anywhere, the eisteddfod is the world's most durable demonstration that a whole culture can organise itself around judged poetry. Competition, so often treated as poetry's embarrassment, is here its engine, the thing that keeps craft standards public and high.
History and Key Moments
Tradition dates the first recorded eisteddfod to 1176, when the Lord Rhys held a gathering of poets and musicians at Cardigan castle with chairs awarded to the victors. Bardic assemblies at Carmarthen in the fifteenth century and Caerwys in the sixteenth regulated the poets' guild, and after a long decline the modern revival came in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, coloured by Iolo Morganwg's invented ceremonies for the Gorsedd of Bards, robed ritual that the National Eisteddfod still enjoys with a knowing smile. One moment is carved into national memory: in 1917 the chair was awarded to Hedd Wyn, killed in Flanders weeks earlier, and was draped in black.
How the Competitions Work
Entries are submitted under pseudonyms and judged blind by established poets, who publish detailed adjudications explaining exactly why the winning poem won, criticism as public education. The chair demands full cynghanedd; the crown rewards free verse; the prose medal, learner competitions and hundreds of music and recitation contests fill the week. If no entry reaches the standard, the judges withhold the prize, and the empty chair is its own verdict. Writory's monthly contest borrows a little of this spirit at global scale: blind judging, published scores, and the belief that honest feedback grows better poets.
Eisteddfodau Beyond Wales
Welsh emigrants carried the institution abroad. The Welsh community of Patagonia in Argentina has held eisteddfodau since the nineteenth century, and Australia and the United States host their own. The Urdd Eisteddfod, run by the Welsh youth movement, is among Europe's largest youth festivals, proof that competitive verse can be a mass activity for teenagers rather than a museum exercise. The International Eisteddfod at Llangollen, founded in 1947, invites choirs and performers from across the world in the name of peace.
What poets can take from this
- Enter judged competitions with detailed adjudication; feedback teaches faster than praise.
- Submit under contest rules exactly; eisteddfod culture treats the brief as part of the craft.
- Read published adjudications of major prizes to learn how experienced judges actually think.
- Practise reciting your poems; the eisteddfod treats performance as a skill worth medals.
- Set a themed deadline with fellow poets and judge each other blind, a kitchen-table eisteddfod.
Try it yourself
A traditional eisteddfod sets one theme for all entrants. Take the theme 'the border' and write a poem in any form, then write three sentences of adjudication on your own poem as if you were the judge.
Questions
What is the difference between the chair and the crown?
Both are top honours at the National Eisteddfod of Wales. The chair rewards an awdl written in the strict metres with full cynghanedd; the crown rewards a poem or collection in free metres. Winning either is a career-defining honour in Welsh letters.
How is eisteddfod pronounced, and what is the plural?
Roughly eye-STETH-vod, with the th voiced as in 'this'. The Welsh plural is eisteddfodau; English speakers often say eisteddfods.
Do you have to speak Welsh to attend?
The National Eisteddfod runs in Welsh, but visitors are welcome and translation support exists on site. Local, youth and international eisteddfodau vary, and many overseas ones use English alongside Welsh.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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