If you are not sure about something or have a question about the Online Eisteddfod, please post here and we’ll answer as soon as we can.
Questions about submitting entries - tag @dafyddyfelin
General questions - tag @dee
Pob lwc!
Hi! @Deborah-SSi, if you’re thinking of entering more than one category, do you need to create a pseudonym for each category, or just the one? Thanks!
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Hi Karla!
You can use the same one if you like. It hasn’t been a problem other years. As long as no one can identify you, that’s fine.
Pob lwc!
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Diolch yn fawr!
Sorry… I should know, but my mind has gone blank. What is an englyn milwr? Isn’t milwr something to do with soldiers? I write very bad verse, so am unlikely to enter but…???
It’s the very simplest form of traditional englyn - and yes, it means soldier’s englyn.
Wikipedia says:
The soldier’s englyn. This consists of three seven-syllable lines. All three lines rhyme.
So basically, that’s all it is - 3 lines, 7 syllables each, all rhyming at the end. It was used by soldiers in WW1 to send brief love notes home to their sweethearts.
Hi Dee, In the singing of a traditional song category, is this to be sung accompanied or not? If it is accompanied may we ask a friend or family member or does it have to be played by ourselves?Sorry to ask what is probably a naive question but I haven’t entered an Eisteddfod before. Diolch.
It’s totally up to you Maureen. The main thing is to hear your voice clearly so the music shouldn’t drown you out, but there isn’t a problem if someone accompanies you.
In the National Eisteddfod singers are often accompanied on the piano or harp, so it’s quite traditional to do that.
Thanks!! I am glad I was right about the soldier… I didn’t believe myself!! But, sorry, twp ddraig uma…do you mean, “short free verse or englyn” or “short free verse ending in an englyn”?
To be honest I’m not sure myself what the definition of an englyn actually is, but if you look at the example we gave the englyn milwr is nothing fancy - no internal rhyming or anything, as long as the last syllable rhymes:
Welais i fy ffrind bach i
Ddod allan o’r hen dŷ du
Beth sy’n nesa ‘te? Y ci?
The first line has been given for you:
Wyt ti’n iawn? Gofynnodd hi
So you just need to create 2 more 7-syllable lines, with the last syllable rhyming with “hi”.
Note that this is a verbal category as well, so you don’t need to be able to write. Just think up your next 2 lines, then record yourself saying them all together, and you’re away.
Sorry @dee, but does all that mean I can or can’t write a bit of free verse. or free verse and an englyn, or free verse and no englyn, if I want to??
I didn’t see examples… I just read the list of categories. Have I missed a site?
Sorry! Editing!! Found the bit about details and how to download. I can just write free verse, subject Iaith!! (Probably won’t but that is what I wanted to know!!!)
Dim problem @henddraig! I misunderstood your question as well.
Yes, there are 2 poetry categories - one is a short free verse poem on the subject of “Iaith” and the other is the Englyn Milwr
Pob lwc!
So could I enter both… I’m not saying I will…Just, can I
edit: I have realised my grammar in English is dreadful, never mind Cymraeg!! That should be ‘May I?’, not ‘could I?’ or ‘Can I?’
Absolutely! You can enter as many categories as you like, just 1 entry per category.
Cerdd Dant sounds an interesting idea, but I’m not quite clear about the procedure. Is the idea to choose any words at all and improvise / make up a tune to go with the harp bit, or is it to find some existing song that happens to fit with the harp tune? (Disclaimer: not to say I’m likely to be trying…!)
It’s fine to do either. The harp starts first, then the singer joins in but sings a different melody where the beats tend to fall in the same places. Usually there’s a middle bit where just the harp plays, then the singing joins in again with the aim of both finishing together.
That’s about it really - so you could sing any Welsh song you know, find a poem and put that to your own tune, or make something up yourself. It’s quite an experimental category, so whatever works for you!
Hum ho, thanks!
I’m also not clear Dee, whether one could just sing (our own song) to that recording of the harp tune that you linked to, and enter the resulting recording. It’s supposed to be all our own work isn’t it, but if we are using someone else’s recording (for the harp), then it wouldn’t be our own work.
Hi Mike. Sorry if that wasn’t clear. Yes, everyone uses the same harp piece as the accompaniment to the Cerdd Dant, but you choose the words and melody that you are going to sing.
Diolch Dee. Are you allowed to tweak it electronically (just to add more length to make it fit better)?
(You did say this was experimental… 
).