IT APPEARS that the Eisteddfodd [sic] at Pwllheli was a considerable financial success, and it was further honoured by the presence of a Queen as well as of Mr. Lloyd George. It is not, however, the first time that Rumanian royalty has visited Wales. Many years ago a former Queen of Rumania, Carmen Sylva, also received Bardic honours at the festival. We are not sure, however, whether the Druidic and Gorsedd show really makes for edification. The Eisteddfodd proper, that is, the literary and musical competitions, have behind them centuries of history, and the chairing of the Bard is, no doubt, ancient. These features may be found in the Bardic gathering held by Prince Griffith at Rhys in South Wales in his castle of Aberteifi in 1176. But the Archdruid and the Gorsedd have, we believe, no genuine history behind them. They savour of the rather foolish enthusiasm for paganism that marked the close of the eighteenth century. It may be said that to-day they are merely harmless examples of “dressing up” that impose on nobody, and that the Archdruid and his bards are in ordinary life, often worthy ministers of religion. All this is true. At the same time the ceremonies do suggest that in some way Welsh civilization was the creation of the Druids, and was, therefore, pagan in origin; and in this way they do harm. Welsh mediaeval civilization was Christian and Catholic, and it is absurd to suggest a pagan origin for it. The Eisteddfodd proper is at the same time an institution of which any country might well be proud.
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