Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Vale

Vale (vāl) , noun

[Old English val, French val, Latin vallis; perhaps akin to Greek 'e`los low ground, marsh meadow. Compare Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]

A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley.
Make me a cottage in the vale. — Tennyson
Beyond this vale of tears there is a life above. — Montgomery
In those fair vales, by nature formed to please. — Harte

Vale is more commonly used in poetry, and valley in prose and common discourse.

Vale , noun

See 2d Vail, 3.