Rowan Williams i siarad yng Ngŵyl RS Thomas yn Aberdaron
Bydd Dr Rowan Williams yn siarad yng Ngŵyl Cymdeithas RS Thomas ac ME Eldridge (18-21 Meheffin) eleni yn Aberdaron, Gwynedd, gan drafod barddoniaeth, alltudiaeth a’r chwilio am gartref.
Bydd cyn Archesgob Caergaint yn traddodi'r prif ddarlith ar fore Sadwrn yr ŵyl yn Ysgol Crud y Werin ar 20 Mehefin am 10.30am.
Bydd ei ddarlith, Imagination and Loss: poetry on the frontier between exile and homecoming, yn edrych ar sut mae beirdd yn ysgrifennu am alltudiaeth, ymddieithrio a’r hiraeth am ddychwelyd.
Mae’r ŵyl yn cael ei hysbrydoli gan y gerdd Gymraeg ganoloesol Claf Abercuawg.
Bu RS Thomas, yr offeiriad a’r bardd a wasanaethodd yn Aberdaron, hefyd yn myfyrio ar y chwilio am Abercuawg yn ei ddarlith yn Eisteddfod Genedlaethol 1976, Ble mae Abercuawg?
Dywedodd Dr Williams: “Mae’n rhaid i farddoniaeth ddifrifol gydnabod y ffaith sylfaenol ein bod ni, fel bodau dynol, yn gyson mewn alltudiaeth oddi wrthym ni ein hunain, a bod iaith yn fynegiant o alltudiaeth ac yn llwybr cyrraedd.”
Bydd yr ŵyl hefyd yn cynnwys cyfraniad newydd gan yr Athro Jason Walford Davies, o Ganolfan Astudio RS Thomas ym Mhrifysgol Bangor, a fydd yn trafod darn rhyddiaith gan Thomas sydd heb gael sylw'n flaenorovl.
Cyhoeddwyd yr erthygl Gymraeg yn Baner ac Amserau Cymru yn y 1950au, ac mae wedi ei chyfieithu i’r Saesneg gan yr Athro Walford Davies. Mae’n cynnig cipolwg newydd ar feddwl R.S Thomas am ddiwylliant Cymru a phersonoliaethau Cymreig megis Saunders Lewis.
Bydd yr Athro Jenny Rowland, o Brifysgol Dulyn, yn siarad am farddoniaeth gynnar Gymraeg a’i grym parhaus. Dywedodd, “Mae gan yr englynion Cymraeg cynnar y gallu i symud ac ysbrydoli darllenwyr modern fel R.S. Thomas, ac i archwilio cymdeithas ac emosiwn dynol.”
Dywedodd Dewi Esyl Lewis, aelod o fwrdd ymgynghorol Cymdeithas RS Thomas ac ME Eldridge bod gwaith R.S yn parhau i ofyn cwestiynau brys am Gymru a’r byd modern, “Mewn byd o wrthdaro cynyddol, yr awch am bŵer a chyfoeth, a’r ddibyniaeth gynyddol ar dechnoleg, mae mwy o reswm nag erioed i ofyn: lle yn union ydym ni?
“Dyma weledigaeth y llenor effro o Gymru ddelfrydol. Mae R.S. Thomas yn mynegi gwychder a thrasiedi cyflwr Cymru, stad i’w cheisio heb fyth gyrraedd y nod. Paradwys neu Iwtopia?”
Bydd rhaglen yr ŵyl hefyd yn cynnwys cyngerdd o gerddoriaeth gorawl Schubert, dan arweiniad Trystan Lewis, nos Sadwrn, a Chymanfa Ganu draddodiadol ddydd Sul.
Mae’r rhaglen lawn ar gael yn www.rsthomaspoetry.co.uk
Mae tocynnau ar gael yn www.tinyurl.com/AberdaronFestival2026
Rowan Williams to speak at RS Thomas Festival in Aberdaron
Dr Rowan Williams will speak at this year’s RS Thomas and ME Eldridge Society Festival (18-21 June) in Aberdaron, Llŷn Peninsula, exploring poetry, exile and the search for home.
The former Archbishop of Canterbury will give the festival’s main Saturday morning lecture at Ysgol Crud y Werin on 20 June at 10.30am.
His lecture, Imagination and Loss: poetry on the frontier between exile and homecoming, will look at how poets write about exile, alienation and the longing to return.
The festival takes its inspiration from the medieval Welsh poem Claf Abercuawg (Leper of Abercuawg).
RS Thomas, the priest and poet who served in Aberdaron, also reflected on the search for Abercuawg in his 1976 National Eisteddfod lecture, Ble mae Abercuawg?
Rowan Williams says, “Serious poetry has to reckon with the basic fact that, as human beings, we are constantly in exile from ourselves and that language is both the expression of exile and the path of arrival.”
The festival will also include a new contribution from Professor Jason Walford Davies, of the RS Thomas Study Centre at Bangor University, who will discuss a previously overlooked prose piece by Thomas.
The Welsh-language article, published in Baner ac Amserau Cymru in the 1950s, has been translated into English by Professor Walford Davies. It gives fresh insight into Thomas’s thinking about Welsh culture and figures including Saunders Lewis.
Professor Jenny Rowland, of Dublin University, will speak on early Welsh poetry and its continuing power. “The early Welsh englynion have the ability to move and inspire modern readers such as R.S. Thomas, to explore society and human emotion,” she says.
Dewi Esyl Lewis, member of the advisory board of the RS Thomas & ME Eldridge Society, says RS Thomas’s work still asks urgent questions about Wales and the modern world, “In a world of increasing conflict, the thirst for power and wealth, and an ever-growing reliance on technology, there is more reason than ever to ask: where exactly are we?
“This is the alert writer’s vision of an ideal Wales. R.S. Thomas expresses the glory and the tragedy of the Welsh condition, a state to be pursued but never attained. Paradise or Utopia?”
The festival programme also includes a concert of Schubert’s choral music, conducted by Trystan Lewis, on Saturday evening, and a traditional Cymanfa Ganu on Sunday.
The full programme is available at www.rsthomaspoetry.co.uk
Tickets are available at www.tinyurl.com/AberdaronFestival2026