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Hedd Wyn (born Ellis Humphrey Evans, 13 January 188731 July 1917) was a Welsh language poet who was killed during the Battle of Passchendaele in World War I. He was posthumously awarded the bard's chair at the 1917 National Eisteddfod. Evans, who had been awarded several chairs for his poetry, was inspired to take the bardic name ''Hedd Wyn'' ((ウェールズ語:blessed peace)) from the way sunlight penetrated the mist in the Meirionydd valleys. His style, which was influenced by romantic poetry, was dominated by themes of nature and religion. He also wrote several war poems following the outbreak of war on the Western Front. ==Early life== Ellis Humphrey Evans was born on 13 January 1887 in Pen Lan, a house in the middle of Trawsfynydd, Meirionydd, Wales. He was the eldest of eleven children born to Evan and Mary Evans. In the spring of 1887, the family moved to the isolated hill-farm of Yr Ysgwrn, a few miles from Trawsfynydd.〔Llwyd (2009), p. 7〕 Ellis Evans received a basic education at elementary and Sunday school. He left school at fourteen and began work as a shepherd on his father’s farm.〔Llwyd (2009), p. 17〕 Despite an otherwise average academic performance he held a talent for poetry and had already composed his first poems by the age of eleven. Despite his education and his work in South Wales, he, like the rest of his family at the time of the 1911 census, could only speak Welsh and not English. It is unknown whether this meant he was able to speak only a few phrases, or absolutely no English at all. This was typical of many in much of rural Wales, with 48% of the population of Meirioneth not speaking English at the 1911 census. However, in Hedd Wynn's case, this changed with military service, as he certainly was able to communicate in English on his death bed in Belgium. He took part in eisteddfodau from the age of 19 and won his chair (Cadair y Bardd) at Penbedw in 1917. In 1910, he took the bardic name Hedd Wyn, Welsh for "blessed peace",〔Literal translation: white peace〕 a reference to the sun's rays penetrating the mists in the valleys of Meirionydd. It was suggested by the poet Bryfdir at a poets' meeting. Hedd Wyn's main influence was the Romantic poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley and themes of nature and religion dominated his work. In 1913, he won the chairs at Pwllheli and Llanuwchllyn and in 1915, he was successful at Pontardawe and Llanuwchllyn. That same year he wrote his first poem for the National Eisteddfod of Wales—''Eryri'', an ode to Snowdon. In 1916 he took second place at the Aberystwyth National Eisteddfod with ''Ystrad Fflur'', an awdl written in honour of Strata Florida, the medieval Cistercian abbey ruins in Ceredigion. He maintained an ambition to win the National Eisteddfod chair the following year. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hedd Wyn」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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