In Welsh poetry, an awdl (pronounced [ˈau̯dl̩]) is a long poem in strict metre (i.e. cynghanedd).
By the nineteenth century however it came to its modern definition as a long poem using at least two of the twenty-four recognised "official" strict forms (without the single end-rhyme).
After the extinction of Welsh royalty with the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in 1282, standardisation and codification of the rules of professional poetry led to recognition of 24 strict metres, each of which must use cynghanedd.
Prizes are given at eisteddfodau for the best awdl, the most lauded being that of chair at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, held each year in August.
Well known 20th-century examples include Ymadawiad Arthur by T. Gwynn Jones, and Yr Arwr, by Hedd Wyn, which won the Eisteddfod chair in 1917 shortly after the death of its author in the First World War.