HEDD WYN CENTENARY VIDEO BEAMED ONTO NATIONAL LIBRARY
A video installation of war poet Hedd Wyn was beamed on to the front of the National Library of Wales.
The project commemorated the 100th anniversary of the death of Wales’s most famous Great War poet, Ellis Humphrey Evans.
The video installation Y Milwr Amharod (The Reluctant Soldier) involved Hedd Wyn’s 89-year-old nephew Gerald Williams and children from the poet’s native village.
Snowdonia shepherd Evans, better known by his bardic name of Hedd Wyn, was killed on the opening day of the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917, days after being sent to the front line.
His poem Yr Arwr won him the Bardic Chair at the National Eisteddfod posthumously.
The National Library of Wales and the Snowdonia National Park Authority have worked together in a year-long programme bringing the poet’s story and his work to life for a new generation.
Their work, supported by the ScottishPower Foundation, has included delivering 26 workshops to more than 800 schoolchildren and adults, and the distribution of 3,000 copies of a speciallycreated booklet on Hedd Wyn’s legacy to primary and secondary schools across Wales.
Linda Tomos, Chief Executive and Librarian, The National Library of Wales, said: “The event was a thrilling conclusion to a wonderful programme of outreach work.
“We are very grateful to the ScottishPower Foundation and to Mr Gerald Williams and Yr Ysgwrn [Hedd Wyn’s home near Trawsfynydd] for their continuing support.”