Eisteddfod

Eisteddfod, the name given to a congress of Welsh bards and musicians, having for its object the preservation and cultivation of the national poetry and music, and in a secondary degree of the national customs and traditions. In very early times contests took place at Caerwys in Flintshire, and at other towns, when degrees were conferred upon the successful competitors, the honours thus won procuring the bards ready admittance into the castles of the Welsh princes and nobles. Eisteddfods are known to have been held in the reigns of Edward III. (1327-30), Henry VI. (c. 1451), Henry VIII. (c. 1525), and Elizabeth (1568). Then for a couple of centuries the contests seem to have been discontinued, but were revived in 1798, after which date they were for a time pretty frequent. In 1887 the meeting was held in London.