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A pair of New Zealand rugby players have helped interpret carvings on a chair from their 1935 National Eisteddfod -- the annual Welsh festival of literature, music, and song competitions.
Former New Zealand Maori prop Deacon Manu and former All Black centre Regan King, now playing for Llanelli, inspected the NZ-designed and carved chair at the Welsh national library in Aberystwyth.
They had been asked by the library staff to see if they could shed some light on some of the Maori motifs carved into the "bardic" chair, Cardiff's Western Mail newspaper reported.
It was bequeathed to the library by the family of Rev E Gwyndaf Evans, who won it at the eisteddfod, a competition with traditions dating back to bards in the 12th century.
The players said motifs of warriors were probably carved on the chair to act as guardians before the chair was presented to the Caernarfon eisteddfod by Welsh migrants in New Zealand, the BBC reported.
It was carved by a Maori craftsman in honour of Lady Bledisloe, who was the wife of New Zealand's Governor General in 1935 and whose origins were in Wales.
The chair was left to the National Library following the death of Rev Evans' wife.
The carvings on the chair depict warriors down each side and tuatara on each of the chair's arms.
Manu, who said he had an uncle who carved, said: "Warriors on the chair probably symbolise the guardians of the chair.
"They are possibly warriors from the tribe of the person who carved it."
Manu added that Maori culture was spiritual and close to nature and the ocean and that might explain the tuatara.
The chair was carved from totara with decorative eyes from paua shell.
Rev Evans won the chair for his poem, Magdalen.
- NZPA