Cabed-en-Aras
Also calledThe Deer's Leap, Cabed Naeramarth, The Leap of Dreadful Doom
Cabed-en-Aras was a narrow ravine of the river Teiglin on the edge of Brethil where Túrin climbed the cliff and slew Glaurung from below. Nienor cast herself into the river there when the truth was revealed, and Túrin died on his own sword beside it.
Description
The ravine
The Teiglin, below the Crossings, ran through a deep and narrow cut in the rock, and at one point the gorge was so tight that a hunted deer was said once to have leapt across it; the woodmen of Brethil called the place Cabed-en-Aras, the Deer's Leap. The cliffs on either side were sheer and the water below ran fast and cold. It was a place few visited, but it gave Túrin the one chance he saw of reaching a dragon's soft underside.
When Glaurung came against Brethil after the sack of Nargothrond, he crawled to the gorge and prepared to cross it at this narrow point. Túrin with the woodmen Dorlas and Hunthor went down into the ravine by night; Dorlas lost his courage and turned back, Hunthor was killed by a falling stone, and Túrin alone climbed the far cliff as the dragon's belly passed over and drove the black sword Gurthang into it up to the hilt. Glaurung's death-agony threw him back across the gorge, and Túrin, returning to reclaim his sword, was struck senseless by the dragon's venom and malice as it died.
The dreadful doom
Níniel, who was Nienor, came searching for her husband and found him lying as if dead beside the dragon. Glaurung's last words gave back her memory, and knowing herself Túrin's sister and carrying his child, she threw herself from the cliff into the Teiglin. Brandir witnessed it. When Túrin woke and learned the truth he killed Brandir and then, returning to the ravine, asked his sword to take his life, and fell on it. The men of Brethil raised a mound over him and set a stone with his name and Nienor's, though her body was never found. After that the place was called Cabed Naeramarth, the Leap of Dreadful Doom, and no one would go down into the gorge or let their beasts drink from the river there. Húrin found Morwen at the stone and buried her beside it, and the stone alone was said to have survived the drowning of Beleriand as an island in the sea.
Associated figures
Died in
First of the Urulóki
Glaurung
Fire-drakesThe first of the dragons and the greatest of the fire-drakes, bred by Morgoth in Angband. He led the flames of the Dagor Bragollach, broke the allied host at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, sacked Nargothrond, and with lies and the dragon-spell drove Túrin and Nienor to their ruin before Túrin killed him at Cabed-en-Aras.
Angband; NargothrondLord of Dor-lómin
Túrin
House of HadorTúrin, son of Húrin and Morwen, was the greatest and most ill-fated warrior of the Edain. Cursed by Morgoth through his father, he wandered from Doriath to outlawry, to Nargothrond and to Brethil, killed his friend Beleg by mischance and unknowingly married his own sister, and slew the dragon Glaurung before taking his own life.
Dor-lómin; Doriath; Nargothrond; BrethilLady of Dor-lómin
Morwen
House of BëorMorwen Eledhwen, daughter of Baragund of the House of Bëor, was the wife of Húrin and the mother of Túrin and Nienor. Proud, beautiful and unbending, she held her house in Dor-lómin under the Easterlings for more than twenty years and died at the grave of her children beside the Teiglin.
Dor-lómin- House of Hador
Nienor, daughter of Húrin and Morwen, was born after her father's capture and never knew her brother Túrin. Robbed of her memory by Glaurung, she was found by the woodmen of Brethil, named Níniel, and married Túrin unknowing. When the dying dragon restored her memory she threw herself into the Teiglin.
Dor-lómin; Doriath; Brethil
Visited
Lord of Dor-lómin
Húrin
House of HadorHúrin Thalion, lord of Dor-lómin, was the greatest warrior of the Edain. He held the Fen of Serech alone at the end of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, was taken alive to Morgoth, defied him and was cursed with his whole house, and sat bound on Thangorodrim for twenty-eight years watching the ruin of his children Túrin and Nienor.
Dor-lóminLord of Brethil
Brandir
House of HalethBrandir the Lame, son of Handir, was the last lord of the House of Haleth in Brethil. A gentle man who preferred healing to war, he took in Túrin and later Níniel, whom he loved, and was slain by Túrin after telling him the truth of Nienor's death.
Brethil
Buried in
Lord of Dor-lómin
Túrin
House of HadorTúrin, son of Húrin and Morwen, was the greatest and most ill-fated warrior of the Edain. Cursed by Morgoth through his father, he wandered from Doriath to outlawry, to Nargothrond and to Brethil, killed his friend Beleg by mischance and unknowingly married his own sister, and slew the dragon Glaurung before taking his own life.
Dor-lómin; Doriath; Nargothrond; BrethilLady of Dor-lómin
Morwen
House of BëorMorwen Eledhwen, daughter of Baragund of the House of Bëor, was the wife of Húrin and the mother of Túrin and Nienor. Proud, beautiful and unbending, she held her house in Dor-lómin under the Easterlings for more than twenty years and died at the grave of her children beside the Teiglin.
Dor-lómin
Timeline
- F.A. 499
Glaurung slain
Túrin climbs the gorge and kills the dragon from below.
- F.A. 499
Death of Nienor
Restored to memory by the dying dragon, Nienor leaps into the Teiglin.
- F.A. 499
Death of Túrin
Túrin slays Brandir and falls on his own sword beside the ravine.
- F.A. 501
Morwen buried at the stone
Húrin finds his wife dying at the memorial and lays her beside their children.
Sources
- The SilmarillionQuenta Silmarillion, chapter 21
- The Children of Húrinchapters 17 and 18
See also
Part of
Elsewhere in Brethil
- Crossings of Teiglinplace
- Amon Obelmountain