Above: Y Tywysogion (‘The Princes’), rustic Ffestiniog slate and Portland stone, 1968. Llys Llywelyn Centre, Aberffraw.
Over 5 feet tall, Y Tywysogion was a symbolic sculpture to be erected at Aberffraw on Ynys Môn, the site of the court of the medieval princes of Gwynedd. Two of the four flat slate forms can be seen as warriors and two as upturned shields, a reference to the ancient Celtic greeting between armed strangers as mentioned in the second branch of the Mabinogi, “A oes heddwch?” (Is there peace?). Shelagh Hourahane, writing in Planet in 1987, noted that these figures “are anonymous but clearly symbolise upright defenders, grouped closely in a circle. Their ‘Celtic’ ancestry is indicated in the familiar inscribed knotwork and interlace.” After being vandalised (which Hourahane thought “may suggest the potency of political art in Wales”), the sculpture was moved to its current site, the Llys Llewelyn Centre in Aberffraw.
Above: the damaged sculpture on its current site at the Llys Llewelyn Centre.
Above: wooden maquette for Y Tywysogion. Private collection.