Hedd Wyn
Hedd Wyn (in
Welsh "white peace"), was the pen-name of Ellis Humphrey Evans, a
Merionethshire shepherd-poet of
World War I. Born in 1887, Evans was awarded the bardic chair at the National
Eisteddfod in
1917 for his poem, "Yr Arwr" ("The Hero"), written in the verse form known as an "awdl". The award was posthumous, Evans having been killed in
France at Pilkem Ridge shortly before. The story became the subject of an Oscar-nominated Welsh-language film in
1993.