WILLIAMS
,
ELISEUS
(
Eifion Wyn
;
1867
-
1926
),
poet
.
His parents came from the
Eifionydd
countryside, but he himself was b. at
Portmadoc
2 May 1867
and spent the last thirty years of his life as
clerk
and
accountant
in the office of the
North Wales Slate Co.
in that town. He had been a
schoolmaster
for a short time — at the
Board School
,
Portmadoc
, and at
Pentrefoelas
. About
1889
he began to
preach
in
Independent chapels
but refused all calls to the ministry. In
1907
he m.
Ann
Jones
of
Efail Bach
,
Aber-erch
. He wrote a great deal of poetry both in the classical and ‘free’ forms —
awdlau
,
cywyddau
,
englynion
, lyrics, hymns, and satires — and
won a number of chairs in local and provincial eisteddfodau
, as well as
prizes at the national eisteddfod
, at which he also acted as an
adjudicator
. His best known work in the classical form is an
awdl
, ‘
Y Bugail
’ (the best entry in the opinion of one
adjudicator
,
Tafolog
, q.v.
, for the chair competition at the
Liverpool national eisteddfod
,
1900
), and his host of
englynion
, many of which were successful at the national eisteddfod. As far as the ‘free’ forms were concerned, his reputation as a
lyricist
was established by his ‘
Maes a Môr
’ lyrics. He published
Ieuenctid y Dydd
,
1894
;
Awdl y Bugail
,
1900?
; and
Telynegion Maes a Mor
,
1906
;
Caniadau'r Allt
,
1927
, and
O Drum i Draeth
,
1929
, were posthumously published under the editorship of
Harry
Edwards
of
Portmadoc
.
Eifion Wyn
was the
author
of the words in a children's hymn-book,
Tlws y Plant
, published at
Llanwrtyd
,
1906?
In
1919
the
University of Wales
gave him the degree of
M.A.,
honoris causa
. His hobbies were
fishing
,
politics
(
Liberal
), and
billiards
. He d.
13 Oct. 1926
at
Portmadoc
, and was buried in
Chwilog
cemetery,
Eifionydd
.
Bibliography:
-
Yr Ymwelydd Misol
, Wrexham,
1903-14
,
March 1912
;
-
Y Genedl Gymreig
,
18 Oct. 1926
;
-
Yr Herald Cymraeg (a'r Genedl)
,
19 and 26 Oct. 1926
;
-
Baner ac Amserau Cymru
,
21 Oct. 1926
;
-
Yr Athro
,
June 1935
-
(‘Eifion Wyn a Barddoniaeth Natur,’
D. Myrddin Lloyd
).
Author:
Emeritus Professor Sir Thomas Herbert Parry-Williams, D.Litt.,
(1887-1975), Aberystwyth
