Mererid wins chair and makes history (From Western Telegraph)

Mererid wins chair and makes history

THE first woman ever to win the chair at a National Eisteddfod has always thought of Pontiago on Strumble Head, as her home.

Dr Mererid Hopwood now lives in Carmarthen, but her mother comes from Pontiago in Pencaer and her father was born there too.

The chair was awarded unanimously at Denbigh last week by three adjudicators for an Awdl, a poem of about 200 lines in strict metre, on the subject of Dadeni (Rebirth or Renaissance).

It tells the familiar story of a young woman who falls in love, gives birth, and then tragically loses the child and shows how each event both happy and sad leads to a rebirth of the woman as a new person whose faith, though shaken, is never shattered.

It is the first time in 140 years that the Chair at the National Eisteddfod has been won by a woman.

Mererid, who was born in Cardiff, was schooled at Bryntaf in Cardiff and Llanharri in Glamorgan. She went to university at Aberystwyth to obtain first class honours in Spanish and German and then to London, Salamanca and Freiburg Universities to proceed to her doctorate.

In Dr Hopwood's opinion, however, winning this chair is the pinnacle of her achievement to date.

Dr Hopwood, aged 37, is married to Martin, a solicitor in Carmarthen, and has three children, Hanna, aged 12; Miriam, 11, and Llewelyn, five. Her parents are Dr Eurig and Mrs Margaret Davies.

Previously a lecturer in London and Swansea Universities, and head of the West and Mid Wales office of the Arts Council, she now works as a freelance lecturer and consultant.

CAPTION: Dr Mererid Hopwood.