Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 108, June 15th, 1895

There is, of course, to be an Eisteddfod in 1896; and it appears that the Llandudno Executive Committee have been making some revolutionary proposals with reference to it. They have resolved that they respectfully desire that the Gorsedd will see its way to concur in the subject for the chair being in any metre, and not restricted to an awdl. The Committee are aware that the awdl has antiquity and custom in its favour, but, while calculated to develop skill in metrical composition, the local Committee feel that the necessity of composing in the form of an awdl is fettering to the conception and imagination. I cannot say what an awdl is, but I am dead against fetters, and, therefore, I say, down with the dastardly, fettering awdl.
Swift, strike off the fetters, wherever they're found,
Let the song-loving Welshman go free and unbound.
To the awdl too long has he bended his knee,
But its fate has been sealed, and the Welshman is free;
As free as his ocean, as free as his breezes,
He shall write as he likes, in what metre he pleases;
And he faces his Gorsedd, and vows he won't dawdle
A manacled slave in the train of the awdl.
After this it seems somewhat bald and prosaic to read that
On the recommendation of Hwfa Mon (the Archdruid), Eifionydd (the registrar), Cadvan, Pedrog, Gwynedd, and Dyfed, of the Gorsedd Committee, who stated that the subject chosen for the arwrgerdd (heroic poem), for which a prize of £20 and a silver crown is offered, was unsuitable for an arwrgerdd, the subject was changed, Llewelyn Fawr being substituted for St. Tudno. —Instead of the galar-gan, the subject of which was Clwydfardd, for which £15 was the prize, it was decided to offer a prize of £15 and a gold medal for the best awdl on Clwydfardd, the Gorsedd stating that an awdl would be much more appropriate, as the late Archdruid was a great admirer of the twenty-four metres. Instead of the hir a thoddaid Cestyll Cymru (Castles of Wales) it was decided to offer a prize of £2 2 s. for the best hir a thoddaid Beddargraph 'Elis Wyn o Wyrfai,' and also £2 2 s. for the best hir a thoddaid Beddargraph 'Tudno.'