The Forest-walker

Between August 25 and 26 of 1916, Tolkien wrote the first version of the poem alongside The Thatch of Poppies on some "squared notebook paper" in a dugout of Thiepval Wood. He entitled it The Forest Walker. In a second manuscript which was nearly identical to the first, Tolkien made a dedication "To Bus-lès-Artois Wood", a place that he visited on August 10th and 11th to think about the Tea Club, Barrovian Society and the ramifications of Robert Gilson's death.

Sometime between September 12th and 24th at Franqueville, Tolkien revised The Forest Walker, inscribed the same dedication as the second manuscript, and added the Old English words Se Wealdstapa ("Wood-stepper") to the title. Sometime later, Tolkien sent this version to Christopher Wiseman along with some other poems.

On January 18 of 1917, Christopher Wiseman returned the poems to Tolkien in a letter along with some comments on them in addition to suggesting that he write an epic.

Later, Tolkien revised The Forest Walker as The Forest-walker sometime around 1924, producing a typescript at Leeds with only minor changes.

In September of 2024, the poem was published for the first time as entry 50 in The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien.

1. Esta ficha se ha importado inicialmente de TolkienGateway.net el día 30/05/2026.