Archdruid

Archdruid (Welsh: Archdderwydd) is the title used by the presiding official of the Gorsedd.

Although Iolo Morganwg was the first to preside over the Gorsedd when the National Eisteddfod came into being, his successor David Griffith, under the bardic name "Clwydfardd", was the first to be known by the official title "Archdruid".

These were redesigned in 1896 by Hubert von Herkomer, to be made of gold and decorated with oak leaves, symbolising the sacred groves associated with druidry.

The current sceptre has been in use since 1910, and a stola or cape was first worn in 1911 by the Archdruid "Dyfed".

Albert Evans-Jones ("Cynan"), a World War I veteran and a significant war poet, was elected in 1950 and again in 1963, and was regarded as a reforming influence on the festival; he publicly accepted that the eisteddfod and the gorsedd have no direct descent from Welsh mythology or from the druids.