Hedd Wyn (film) - Plot

Plot

As the camera pans over the intricate carving on the infamous, "Black Chair," the voice of the Archdruid Dyfed is heard vainly summoning the poet, who sign his work with the nom de plume, "Fleur-de-lis," to stand and be Chaired. The film then flashes back to 1913.

As a farmer's son in the village of Trawsfynydd, Ellis Humphrey Evans composes poetry for local eisteddfodau under the bardic name Hedd Wyn ("Blessed Peace"). A friend and student minister William Morris (Arwel Gruffydd), advises Ellis that his verse possesses a passion which better educated poets lack. Therefore, with more work and less womanizing, Ellis could win the National Eisteddfod. Ellis smiles and quips, "Where do you think all that passion comes from?" Meanwhile, international tensions rise and the British Army installs an artillery range on a local hillside, much to Ellis' annoyance.

In August 1914, Britain declares war on the German Empire. Soon after at a street gathering in the village, an Anglican minister gives a rowsing sermon which demands immediate enlistment. Disgusted, William Morris calls the Anglican minister, "a disgrace to his calling," and tells those nearby not to be deceived. In spite of this, several young men from Trawsfynydd join the British Army, including Ellis' friend Griff Jones (Gruffudd Aled).

Despite mounting pressure, Ellis refuses to enlist and states that he doesn't think he can kill anyone. As a result, Ellis' fiancée, Lizzie Roberts (Sue Roderick), accuses him of being, "afraid of becoming a man." At a fair, Ellis attempts to mend his relationship with Lizzie, only to find that she has taken up with an English soldier. "It is nothing personal," she says coldly, "I just don't like your clothes." Later, in the village pub, Ellis, Moi Davies (Emlyn Gomer) are giving Griff, who is now in uniform, a send-off. As a fellow villagers sing the recruiting song, Your King and Country Want You in their honor, Lizzie appears in the pub's doorway. Ellis spots her and begins to loudly sing Myfanwy, a song with implications of female betrayal. Sensing Lizzie's distress, her new beau punches Ellis in the face, screaming, "You're upsetting the lady! Welsh bastard!"

While riding a train, Ellis encounters Jini Owen (Judith Humphreys), a young woman who admires his poetry. Noticing her interest in him, Ellis asks for Jini's address and sends her a letter. Soon the two are deeply in love. Simultaneously, Ellis develops a close friendship with Mary Catherine Hughes (Nia Dryhurst), the young woman who is his sister's teacher. He explains to her that, whenever a poem is lacking, he will cast it into the river, and that it will always return to him stronger. On a railway journey with Jini, Ellis encounters two hideously disfigured war veterans. Despite his sympathy for their plight, the soldiers accuse Ellis of cowardice for remaining a civilian. As he and Jini depart, they threaten to mail him a white feather. Ellis quips, "You don't have any wings, let along feathers."

Ultimately, Lizzie returns to the village with tuberculosis. After a church service, she informs Ellis that he was right about the war, which is a curse. Later, as Lizzie lays dying, Ellis visits her sickbed and promises to bring her to the National Eisteddfod. Soon after, an official of the draft board arrives at the family farm and takes down the names of Ellis and his brother Bob, despite the resistance of Ellis' mother (Catrin Fychan). As a result, the Crown informs the Evans family that one of their sons must join the British Army.

Although seventeen-year-old Bob longs to enlist instead, Ellis refuses to permit this. Horrified of losing him, Jini pleads with Ellis to led Bob enlist in his place. Enraged, Ellis states that, if Bob were injured or killed, he could never live with himself. With Jini seeing him off, Ellis departs by train join the Royal Welch Fusiliers in Liverpool. Despite the insults showered on them by their English-speaking drill sergeant, Ellis and his fellow Fusiliers continue their training in good spirits and are sent to France. Facing what may be his last chance to win the Eisteddfod, Ellis pleads with his platoon commander to send his awdl Yr Arwr (The Hero) via the Army Postal Service. The young officer, who is unable to read Welsh, at first refuses, suspecting the poem to be a coded message to the Germans. Eventually he relents, mails Ellis' submission, and praises him as "The Armageddon Poet."

On 31 July 1917, the Fusiliers go over the top and into the Battle of Passchendaele. Crawling through swampy shell holes filled with corpses, Ellis witnesses his fellow soldiers being shot and blown to pieces around him. At last, he is wounded by shrapnel and crumples to the ground. After hours of lying in no man's land, Ellis is evacuated to an aid post, where he succumbs to his injuries. His devastated parents receive a telegram which carries news of Ellis' death. Jini weeps inconsolably as she reads Ellis' last letter, in which her beloved used a poem to propose marriage. Mary Catherine, in a last tribute to her friend, casts the manuscript to Ellis' poem Rhyfel (War) into the river.

The Evans family receives another telegram which announces that Ellis' submission has won the National Eisteddfod. To the sound of R. Williams Parry's Englynion coffa Hedd Wyn, the Chair which Ellis has dreamed of all his life is delivered to his parents' farmhouse robed in black.