22:
121:, Lord Rhys announced the event a year in advance, "throughout Wales, England, Scotland, Ireland and the other islands", which suggests the event was on an unprecedented scale. Participants came from as far away as Ireland and France. It was held at Cardigan Castle over Christmas of 1176. Cardigan Castle was newly restored in stone and, by holding a tournament here rather than at the traditional base of Deheubarth at
90:. Rhys was made Lord of Ystrad Tywi or, commonly, the Lord Rhys. There followed a period of relative peace and security. In the early 1170s Henry II sought friendship with Rhys and confirmed his leadership of Deheubarth. In 1171 Rhys rebuilt Cardigan Castle in stone, as a political and military statement, making it his chief residence.
168:
high
Eisteddfod chair was created and installed at the top of Cardigan Castle's East Tower, as a centrepiece of an exhibition about the Wales Eisteddfod. The chair incorporated interpretative details that would have been important to the Lord Rhys, including a carved lion's head and two bronze horses.
128:
According to the 1770 'History of Wales' "a great feast" was held and "many hundreds of
English, Normans, and others coming to Aberteifi , were very honourably received, and courteously entertained by Prince Rhys ...Rhys called all the bards or poets throughout all Wales to come thither ...the bards
167:
At the next recorded eisteddfods, in the 16th century, chairs were again awarded as prizes. The first chair made for the modern form of
Eisteddfod was at the Carmarthen event of 1819. They became regular prizes after the National Eisteddfod was introduced in the 1860s. In 2015 a 9-foot (2.7 m)
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being seated, they were to answer each other in rhyme." Rhys awarded two chairs as prizes, one for the winner of the poetry competition and the other for music. The poetry chair went to a
160:. He wanted to emulate the Lord Rhys and, probably as a bard himself, wanted to strengthen the bardic tradition. A 'Cadair Arian' (Silver Chair) was awarded as a prize, to a bard from
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137:, while the music prize went to the son of Eilon the Crythwr, a member of Rhys's court. Chairs were a valuable asset, normally reserved for people of high status.
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It has been conjectured that the idea for a cultural festival of music and poetry at
Cardigan may have originated from a similar festival in France known as
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was not commonly used until several centuries later, the 1176 gathering is commonly claimed to be the earliest recorded forerunner of the modern
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by Luke
Waterson, was published in 2018. The book imagined what the festival and the journeys made by its participants were like.
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Welsh princes commonly patronised professional bards at the time, who in return wrote poetry praising their sponsors.
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The next recorded eisteddfods were held in
Carmarthen between 1451 and 1453, by the powerful nobleman of the area,
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272:"RHYS ap GRUFFYDD (1132–1197), lord of Deheubarth, known in history as 'Yr Arglwydd Rhys' ('The lord Rhys')"
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484:"Nine foot National Eisteddfod chair installed at the site of Wales' very first cultural festival"
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The modern restaurant at
Cardigan Castle is named "1176" in reference to Lord Rhys's gathering.
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517:"Staff at Cardigan Castle's 1176 restaurant round off hectic year with busy Christmas period"
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86:, covering southwest Wales, in 1155. This had followed years of battles with the English
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Plaque outside
Cardigan Castle commemorating the start of the Welsh Eisteddfod tradition
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The gathering at
Cardigan Castle in 1176 is recorded in the medieval chronicle
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144:. Rhys may have known about the tradition via his connections with the
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125:, Lord Rhys was making a statement to the old Norman and Welsh rulers.
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The next eisteddfod in Wales of any certainty took place circa 1451 in
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33:, as it is commonly described, was a cultural tournament involving
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20:
366:"Cardigan Castle chapter closes with death of last private owner"
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34:
548:"Novel inspired by first eisteddfod and historic castle"
250:, vol. I A-Celti, ABC CLIO, pp. 664–665,
401:, London: Hooper & Wigstead, pp. 35–36,
148:, or from soldiers returning from the continent.
453:"Eisteddfod may have sprung from French idea"
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247:Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia
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298:"Medieval legacy is there to be enjoyed"
209:"The first eisteddfod – Christmas 1176"
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174:A novel about the 1176 event, entitled
82:became the ruler uniting the whole of
37:and musicians, held in the grounds of
433:from the original on 12 February 2022
405:from the original on 12 February 2022
7:
527:from the original on 9 February 2019
496:from the original on 7 February 2019
463:from the original on 9 February 2019
398:The Antiquities of England and Wales
376:from the original on 28 January 2019
308:from the original on 9 February 2019
218:from the original on 7 February 2019
558:from the original on 17 March 2018
427:"Long history of Eisteddfod chair"
278:from the original on 9 August 2020
14:
274:. Dictionary of Welsh Biography.
515:Steve Adams (19 December 2016).
270:Professor Thomas Jones Pierce.
1:
482:Sion Morgan (18 March 2015).
429:. BBC News. 16 October 2009.
546:Mike Lewis (18 March 2018).
584:Cultural festivals in Wales
620:
244:John T. Koch, ed. (2006),
343:University of Wales Press
16:1176 Welsh cultural event
31:1176 Cardigan eisteddfod
75:Effigy of the Lord Rhys
395:Francis Grose (1778),
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26:
604:12th century in Wales
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51:Lord Rhys ap Gruffydd
24:
594:Cardigan, Ceredigion
521:Tivy-side Advertiser
372:. 13 February 2009.
370:Tivy-side Advertiser
333:Edwards, Hywel Teifi
207:(22 December 2010).
158:Gruffudd ap Nicholas
459:. 9 February 2007.
61:national eisteddfod
345:, pp. 10–11,
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53:. Though the term
27:
352:978-1-78316-914-6
304:. 21 March 2013.
119:Brut y Tywysogion
99:Brut y Tywysogion
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409:28 September
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176:Song Castle
113:Description
589:Eisteddfod
578:Categories
562:4 February
531:9 February
500:4 February
467:7 February
437:9 February
380:4 February
312:7 February
282:7 February
222:4 February
182:References
162:Flintshire
107:Carmarthen
84:Deheubarth
67:Background
56:eisteddfod
47:West Wales
49:, by the
556:Archived
525:Archived
494:Archived
461:Archived
431:Archived
403:archived
374:Archived
335:(2016),
306:Archived
276:Archived
216:Archived
43:Cardigan
142:The Puy
135:Gwynedd
123:Dinefwr
63:event.
349:
254:
212:(blog)
152:Legacy
133:from
35:bards
564:2019
533:2019
502:2019
469:2019
439:2019
411:2020
382:2019
347:ISBN
314:2019
284:2019
252:ISBN
224:2019
131:bard
29:The
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