A narrow chasm among the Ravines of Teiglin on the western fringes of Brethil. It had originally been called Cabed-en-Aras, the Deer's Leap, because it was so narrow that a deer could leap across it. When the Dragon Glaurung approached the Forest of Brethil, he chose this narrow gorge as the place to enter that land, throwing his forward parts across the river and pulling his great body after. Beneath the near bank lurked Túrin with the sword Gurthang, and thrusting up from beneath, he wounded the Dragon mortally. As events unfolded, Túrin's wife Níniel heard the Dragon's dying words, which revealed that she was in fact Túrin's sister Niënor. Thus the curse of Morgoth on the Children of Húrin struck Niënor, and in her despair she leapt from the brink into the foaming waters below. After that time Cabed-en-Aras was renamed Cabed Naeramarth, the Leap of Dreadful Doom.
Notes
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Most of Beleriand was drowned by the Sea in the War of Wrath, less than a century after Niënor cast herself from the Leap of Dreadful Doom. We might expect that the Ravines of Teiglin would have been lost in this inundation, and that might very well be the case. It is worth considering, however, that the Stone of the Hapless, which stood just a few miles away, was said to have withstood the incoming waters to survive as an island. Given its proximity to the Stone, there is at least a possibility that the crags of the Leap of Dreadful Doom also remained above the Great Sea in some form.
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- Updated 21 September 2025
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