The Dale-lands

In May of 1910, Tolkien wrote the first version of the poem. He originally entitled it Spring, but soon thereafter changed it to Deep in the Vales before contemplating changing it to either The Dale Lands or Valley-Lands.

In early 1914, Tolkien rewrote the poem Wood-sunshine on a manuscript containing a version of The Dale Lands.

On May 18 of the same year, Tolkien rewrote The Dale Lands, changing the name to The Dale-lands. Following this, Tolkien made two nearly identical manuscripts of the poem, adding the Old English words On néolum dalum’ ("In deep dales") as a heading on both. Tolkien eventually made a professional typescript of the poem, inscribing "1907?" on it much later, possibly misremembering when he wrote the poem.

In September of 2024, the poem was published for the first time as entry 2 in The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien along with the earliest version.