Dark Are the Clouds about the North
1915 poem by J.R.R. Tolkien
Dark Are the Clouds about the North is a poem written by J.R.R. Tolkien in 1915 at Whittington Heath in Lichfield.
Poem excerpt
Background
On 14 September of 1915, Tolkien wrote an unnamed first version of the poem.
Tolkien followed the initial draft with four more unnamed versions. It was only after Tolkien wrote the fifth and final version that he gave it the name Dark Are the Clouds about the North and wrote the date of the first version on it. Tolkien eventually made a professional typescript of the poem, inscribing "Whittington Heath Lichfield Oct[ober] 1915" on it.
In October, Dark Are the Clouds about the North was among some poems that were sent to Geoffrey Bache Smith. On 24 October, Smith sent a letter "from the Wisemans' house in London" to Tolkien thanking him for the poems, as he had apparently "never read anything in the least like them, and certainly nothing better than the best", further noting that he was "particularly impressed" by The Happy Mariners and Dark Are the Clouds about the North.
Two days later, Tolkien wrote a letter to Edith, mentioning to her that the sad poem he wrote for her was appraised by G.B. Smith.
In 2024, the poem was published for the first time in September as entry 38 in The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Referencias
1. Esta ficha se ha importado inicialmente de TolkienGateway.net el día 25/05/2026.
