Festival to mark bicentenary of ‘the most interesting man in Welsh history’

Jules Millward

A one-day festival of words and music will take place this spring, marking the bicentenary of Iolo Morganwg (Edward Williams), one of Wales’s most influential, imaginative and controversial cultural figures.

Denounced from the 1890’s onwards as a forger by Sir John Morris-Jones and G. J. Williams, more recently Professor Geraint H Jenkins called him “The most interesting man in Welsh history.”

The festival, which will be held at the historic St Illtud’s Church, Llantwit Major on Saturday 7 March 2026 is set in a place of deep personal significance to Iolo’s life and legacy. As a young stonemason he practised his craft here, this is where he recovered the Samson Stone, and his beloved daughter, Margaret, is buried just outside the Galilee Chapel.

Kath Giblin, owner of Bardic Books and the event organiser, said: “To celebrate Iolo Morganwg in St Illtud’s Church is to bring his story back to its roots and it feels both fitting and necessary to mark his bicentenary in a way that reflects the richness and contradictions of his legacy.”

Local historian Phil Carradice said: “Iolo Morgannwg, a remarkable man who, over the past two hundred years, has polarised opinion and popular regard. As a poet, as a man of the people, and as a supporter of democracy he remains without equal.

“Without him the whole concept of ‘Welshness’ would have withered and died many years ago.”

The programme is divided into three distinct sessions combining drama, scholarship, music and contemporary writing. The festival opens with the première matinee reading of Gareth Thomas’s play, Peggy Roberts and Her Husband. Featuring Eiry Palfrey as Peggy Roberts and Danny Grehan as Iolo Morganwg, with music by Wil Morus Jones.

The play offers an intimate and revealing perspective on Iolo’s domestic life. Gareth Thomas, playwright, said: “Peggy Roberts and Her Husband grew out of a desire to look again at Iolo Morganwg through the lens of his closest relationship.

“Peggy was not a footnote to his life but a vital presence within it, and this reading is part of a wider conversation about how we tell Iolo’s story today.”

Major event

This is followed by a discussion between two of Wales’s foremost scholars of Welsh literature, Professor Mary-Ann Constantine and Professor Damian Walford-Davies.  Mary-Ann Constantine is a leading expert on Welsh Romanticism at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies and author of ‘The Truth Against the World: Iolo Morganwg and Romantic Forgery’ (2007).

Damian Walford-Davies is deputy Vice-Chancellor of Cardiff University and one of Wales’ foremost scholars of the Romantic period, contributing a chapter to ‘A Rattle-Skulled Genius: The Many Faces of Iolo Morganwg,’ edited by Geraint H Jenkins (2005). This discussion examines Iolo Morganwg’s literary, cultural, and political legacy, addressing both his visionary achievements and the controversies that continue to shape his reputation.

The day concludes with an evening of music and words celebrating Iolo. The programme will feature traditional musicians, including Guto Dafis and Bob Evans, who will perform a selection of the folk ballads collected by Iolo.

The evening also includes the official launch of The Honest Forger: An Anthology of Writing to Celebrate the Life of Iolo Morganwg, published by Culture & Democracy Press, with readings from contemporary writers responding to Iolo’s work. Contributors to the anthology include Gwyneth Lewis, Peter Finch, Robert Minhinnick, Tony Curtis, Samatha Wynne-Rhydderch and the late Dannie Abse.

Phil Cope of Culture & Democracy Press said: “With a new play, music from Iolo’s time, leading scholars in conversation and the launch of a major new anthology, the Llantwit Major Iolo Morganwg 2026 Festival promises to be the major event of the bicentenary year.”

Tickets are £10 per event and available from Bardic Books, Church Street, Llantwit Major, or via Eventbrite.