Journalist wins Rhondda Cynon Taf National Eisteddfod Crown

A journalist from Tonyrefail has won the Rhondda Cynon Taf National Eisteddfod Crown.

Gwynfor Dafydd was declared the winner in a competition which attracted 33 entries by Archdruid Mererid Hopwood, who Gwynfor said had inspired him to learn how to write poetry after a visit to his school.

Gwynfor is former pupil of Ysgol Llanhari, the same school attended by the Archdruid.

It was while at Llanhari that Gwynfor began to write poetry, initially in strict measure, following a visit by Mererid Hopwood to the school to speak about poetry and to lead a short workshop.

He went on to win the Urdd National Eisteddfod Chair when he was still a pupil in 2016, and won again the following year on his home patch when it was staged in Bridgend.

Gwynfor also composed the Cywydd Croeso that year.

Atgof

The poets competing for the Crown were required to present a ‘pryddest’ or collection of poems not in cynghanedd, of no more than 250 lines, on the subject of ‘Atgof’ (memory or remembrance).

The subject was chosen by the Eisteddfod Literature Committee to mark exactly a century since Prosser Rhys won the Pontypool National Eisteddfod Crown for a poem on the same subject, talking about his sexual relationship with another man, when being gay was illegal.

Prosser Rhys faced a storm of insults for his poem and even when crowning him, Archdruid Elfed (the Rev Howell Elvet Lewis) criticised a dirty, “non-Welsh” way of life and the poem has never been reprinted.

Gwynfor wrote a series of poems using the nom de plume Samsa.

Tudur Dylan Jones, who spoke on behalf of his fellow judges during the adjudication on the Pavilion stage, said: “Samsa presents a collection which suits this year’s Eisteddfod perfectly, as the poet’s roots are in the local area.

“The work evokes a range of emotions, from the sadness of the Senghennydd wives, to the comedy surrounding the attention given to Guto Nyth Brân. The writer has both a close and distant relationship with the area and its people, and feels at one with society, and yet slightly apart.”

Witty

Fellow adjudicator Guto Dafydd also praises Samsa’s work in his adjudication, and says: “This is a witty and fierce collection, measured and masterful, which lovingly-critically examines the poet’s relationship with the valleys that his grandfather introduced to him as a child, emphasising the stark commonness as well as the romance and honour.

“The writer described the enormity of the complexity of his own relationship with his habitat, repaying the debt he owed to his grandfather.

“He made a brilliant, honest, multi-faceted contribution to the literature of the valleys and gay literature, and to the ongoing effort of Welsh culture to cope with de-industrialisation and gave a voice to under-represented identities. He is a great successor to Ben Davies and Prosser Rhys.”

The Crown was the second prize for Gwynfor at this year’s Eisteddfod. He is also member of the Tir Iarll team on the BBC Radio Cymru series Y Talwrn which won the final on the opening day of the Eisteddfod.

This year’s winner studied German and Spanish literature at Cambridge University and spent a year working for the British Chamber of Commerce in Chile.

After graduating from university during lockdown, he returned to Tonyrefail to live before moving to London where he now works as a journalist for the BBC on the News at Six and 10 O’Clock News.

Welsh teacher

Gwynfor thanked his Welsh teacher in Llanhari, Catrin Rowlands, for her support and advice over the years, and is pleased she is being honoured to the Gorsedd this year for doing so much to ensure children have a chance to speak Welsh beyond the classroom.

The winning poems will be published on the Eisteddfod website following the ceremony and the -‘Cyfansoddiadau a Beirniadaethau’, which includes the full adjudication for this competition and the winners of all the other composition winners at this year’s Eisteddfod will be published at the end of the Chairing Ceremony on Friday afternoon.

The Rhondda Cynon Taf National Eisteddfod is held in Parc Ynysangharad, Pontypridd until 10 August. For more information click here.