This year, for the first time, the chair has been designed and made by a woman.

The prize is offered for a poem not exceeding 200 lines in length and written in "cynghanedd".

This is a traditional alliterative pattern and the poem has to be constructed on more than one of the accepted metrical forms.

After nine months of studio work, designer Dwunwen Parry of Moelfre, Anglesey, presented the chair in memory of her brother Gareth.

Made from the oak of one tree, the design is packed with symbolism and also includes a piece of wood from Zaire in West Africa.

Chair designer Dwunwen Parry

"There are a few things on the chair that nobody will know about until whoever wins it, takes it home and has a good look," Dwunwen said.

This year's subject for entries to the competition is "pontydd" or bridges.

This is a fitting topic for a year when the eisteddfod venue is on the island of Anglesey, linked to the Welsh menu by two famous crossings - the Menai and the Britannia.

Adjudication will be delivered by John Gwilym Jones on behalf of his two fellow adjudicators.

Gwilym Jones is an former Archdruid and himself a National Eisteddfod chair winner at the festival in Machynlleth in 1981.

But, as crowds gather at the Pavilion in anticipation of the ceremony, they will be mindful that the judges role is not always an easy one.

The chair is not always awarded.