In our previous episode detailing the tragic lives of the Children of Húrin, we discussed
Túrin’s final venture North to the land of his birth and Nienor’s encounter with Glaurung.
With Túrin having found a new place for himself as a warrior among the Men of Brethil, he believed
that the dark shadow of his doom had been cast aside. Yet the coming of Nienor to the forests
in which her brother now resided would serve to bring upon the Children of Húrin their final end.
Following the Orcish ambush of Mablung and his companions, Níenor had fled so far that
she reached the burial mound of Finduilas. In a brutal storm, a company of the Men of Brethil led
by Turambar came upon her. While he initially believed her to be a wraith in the terrible
conditions, Turambar showed great kindness for the silent maiden, innately understanding that a
terrible story lay behind her current malaise. She was then given the name Níniel or Maid of
Tears and looked up and shook her head before repeating the name, which was the first word
she had spoken since her encounter with Glaurung. The next day she was brought to the Ephel Brandir;
however, she fell under a severe fever on the journey, which required Brandir to
utilize all his healing skills. She would sleep peacefully only when Turambar sat by her side.
In the period after her sickness, she was required to learn the art of speaking again, and she took
to this with great intelligence and continued joy at her progress. At this time, Brandir fell
madly in love with Níniel, but she viewed him as a brother, and it was to Turambar that her heart
was given, as they remained unaware that they were siblings. When she came to full health once more,
much to the chagrin of Brandir, Turambar asked for Níniel’s hand in marriage, with the leader
of the Men of Brethil counselling against the union due to the shadow which lay upon Turambar.
When Brandir revealed who Turaambar was and the fate of Nargothrond, Níniel hesitated,
though when spring came, she agreed to marry him, and in the mid-Summer, they were wed.
Their joy was not to last, as Morgoth, tired of the defiance of the men of Brethil,
tasked Glaurung with bringing fire and death to the forests where they made their home.
This left Turambar in a dire predicament, as he remained uncertain whether his intervention
would aid the stricken Men of Brethil or bring his doom to bear upon them. Initially,
he did not ride out to face the Orcs as Ephil Brandir was not threatened. However, Dorlas and
his warriors suffered in the early confrontations in the absence of their finest warrior.
Dorlas returned from one such skirmish and showed his wounds to his friend, and Turambar took up the
Black Sword Gurthang once more and drew to him a force of hundreds of woodsmen. With Turambar at
their head, they massacred the orcs and hung their bodies from the trees at the Crossing of Teiglin.
A second host was ambushed. Surprised by the wielder of Gurthang and the numbers of the
woodsmen, they were annihilated, with only a tiny remnant returning with ill tidings to Nargothrond.
Spring came, and with it, the conception of Turambar and Níniel’s first child. However,
once more, joy was to be stripped from them. News reached the Ephil Brandir of the coming
of Glaurung, who had begun to burn the Forest down to draw out his great foe Turambar. His
progress was brutal in its efficiency, and before long, Glaurung had reached the Teiglin, which gave
Turambar an idea to slay the great beast. Taking with him Dorlas and a relative of Brandir Hunthor,
as the only men brave enough to face the dragon, Turambar set out despite the protests of Níniel,
and before long, they came to the Nen Girith. Here Turambar revealed his plan.
Gauging Glaurung’s current path, he believed that Glaurung would have to pass over a gorge known as
the Cabed-en-Aras due to his great size. Despite misgivings of Dorlas as to the location upon which
they wished to strike, the trio moved at dusk to face one of the mightiest of all Morgoth’s
servants. In the meantime, Níniel fearing for her husband and ignoring the counsel of Brandir,
set out with a company of other concerned women to attain tidings of the encounter with the dragon.
The lame Brandir, upon his crutch, followed in pursuit, well aware that the curse of Morgoth
would bring nothing but despair to his beloved and hoping he could potentially avert such disaster.
Turambar and his companions soon came to Cabed-en-Aras, and the incredible noise of the
riverTeiglin disguised their movements such that even the keen ears of Glaurung could not pick them
out. During the initial phase of the climb towards a position that would give them the best chance of
felling Glaurung, Dorlas’s courage failed, leaving Turambar and Hunthor to complete their task.
As they continued their crossing, the reek of the dragon was such as to make the two men dizzy,
causing them to slip, only barely clinging to the tree stems. At the top, they waited
for Glaurung to arrive and lodge himself in a favourable position during his crossing.
Even the dragon’s movement was brutal and violent, and had the duo been any closer,
the burst of flame would have slain them he let out, yet they survived and quickly began to
clamber along the cliffside to reach the dragon. The ever-fearless Turambar hastened towards his
foe and, in the process, slipped, only to be saved by Hunthor. As he began to thank his companion,
a great rock fell upon his head, and his corpse tumbled into the Teiglin. Turambar rued the curse
which lay upon him and had slain such a brave man, yet he steeled himself for what lay ahead.
Drawing to him all his courage and hatred for the dragon, Turambar was imbued with great strength
and swiftly moved to the optimal point. He did so just in time for the dragon’s underbelly to
drop downwards into the gorge as he dragged his great weight across it. Túrin then drew his sword
and thrust it to the hilt into Glaurung’s gut. The scream Glaurung let out shook the entire
forest, and the thrashing which accompanied his final moments threw Turambar loose,
and if not for his strength of will, he would have also been slain. Turambar once more braved
the crossing, made his way to his dying foe, and looked upon him devoid of pity. He then
walked forward and spoke freely of his hatred for the dragon before drawing Gurthang from his gut.
With this, a spurt of black blood shot forth, severely burning his arm. The cries he let out
then caused the dragon to stir, and when Glaurung made eye contact, it was with such incomparable
malice that Turambar felt he had been struck by an arrow and fell as one who had died.
Níniel soon came upon the scene with Brandir following her far behind and went straight
to her beloved despite her fear of the stricken dragon. His appearance left little doubt in her
mind as to his fate, and despite hearing a faint breath, she believed that Turambar now lay dead,
and so she began to cry and weep. Brandir arrived at the scene too late, as the cries of Níniel had
roused the dying dragon and with his dying words, he revealed her true identity. The dragon’s death
removed the spell he had cast upon her, and as a stunned Brandir watched on, Níniel bade
her brother farewell, now realizing the truth of their incestuous union, “Farewell, o twice
beloved! A Túrin Turambar Túrun ambartanen: master of doom by doom mastered! O happy to be dead!”
She then began to run despite the cries of Brandir and made her way to the Cabed-en-Aras,
and here she cast herself into the Teiglin and died with an all-consuming grief in her heart.
The gorge would be renamed the Cabed Naeramarth or the Leap of dreadful doom. However,
this was not the end of that day’s woes. Brandir returned to his people, and on the journey,
he came upon Dorlas, who was still ashamed of his failure to follow Túrin through the gorge.
Brandir acknowledged this cowardice berating his lesser and, as a result, enraged the warrior, who,
as he looked set to strike the leader of his people, was struck down with the shortsword
of Brandir. Disgusted by the bloodshed, Brandir dropped the blood-soaked blade to
the forest floor and continued back to his people. Once more amongst their company,
he would bring the ill news of the day to them before stating that the forest would no longer
be known as Brethil but rather Sarch nia Chin Húrin or the Grave of the Children of Húrin.
Unbeknownst to them, Túrin yet lived, and with the death of Glaurung, he had begun to
stir as the dragon’s power faded. Weary beyond all measure, he was forced to use Gurthang as a crutch
and came to the Nen Girith, where he met those who were readying to collect his corpse. Brandir
then told Túrin of the death of his beloved, and although he would not believe it at first, his
anger at Brandir and accusations that he now lied drove the latter to reveal Níniel’s true identity.
Then, a great rage overtook Túrin, and he drew Gurthang from its sheath. Brandir, unarmed as
he was, did not allow fear to overtake him and didn’t flee, allowing the Black Sword to kill him.
Those who witnessed the slaying fled from Túrin in fear, and he was left alone,
causing him to wander mad with grief through the forest trying to convince himself that
his sister still resided within Doriath. This illusion came crashing down around Túrin
as twelve Elvish huntsmen with Mablung at their head came across the weariest of warriors within
Beleriand. The tidings that Morwen and Nienor had left the girdle in search of Túrin shattered what
strands of willpower remained to him, and in his grief, he cursed Doriath before fleeing from the
huntsmen. Mablung ordered that they follow him, but Túrin outran his pursuers with ease and came
to the Cabed Naeramarth. Here he was unwilling to sully the waters in which his sister now lay and
instead drew Gurthang one final time. He said to his blade, “Hail Gurthang, iron of death,
thou alone now remainest! But what lord or loyalty dost thou know, save the hand that wieldeth thee?
From no blood wilt thou shrink! Wilt thou take Tùrin Turambar? Wilt thou slay me swiftly?”
And the blade responded, “Yea, I will drink thy blood, that may I forget the blood of
Beleg my master, and the blood of Brandir slain unjustly. I will slay thee swiftly.”
Túrin placed the hilt on the ground and cast himself upon the Black Sword, ending his life.
Too late did Mablung come upon his friend, and when the Men of Brethil came down from the Nen
Girith, they told him of what had occurred. In their sadness, the Edain began to weep,
and Mablung, having learned of his great failure and thinking back to the sacrifice
of Húrin at the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, placed an all-encompassing weight of guilt upon himself.
The dragon’s remains were burnt in a great pyre and Túrin’s body was placed upon the shoulders
of his companions and buried within a high mound with the shards of Gurthang beside him.
A great grey headstone was brought sometime after, and upon it in the runes of Doriath,
the names Túrin Turambar Dagnir Glaurunga and Nienor Níniel were carved upon it.
Having learned of the death of his children, Morgoth finally released Húrin from his bondage,
and in his wandering, he came to the Forest of Brethil. Coming to the Cabed Naeramarth,
Húrin would not look upon the great stone, for he knew what was carved upon it even then. He had
also noticed that he was not alone, for a fellow aged wanderer sat in the shadow of the headstone.
Even when they drew back their hood and revealed a beaten-down visage Húrin did not recognize the
wanderer. However, the instant they locked eyes, he knew her to be his wife, Morwen Eledhen,
who informed him that she, too, was now spent and would pass with the setting of the Sun.
Húrin did not respond and instead sat beside the stone with Morwen in his arms, and as the Sun went
down, she sighed and clasped his hand. Then she was still, and Húrin knew she had passed,
leaving him alone and broken beneath the shade of the headstone of his children.
Our chronicler concludes this story with these words: “Here ends the Tale of the Children of
Húrin, longest of all the lays of Beleriand.” The concluding documentaries on the history of
the First Age will focus on the Fall of Gondolin and the War of Wrath. We
plan to cover the battles of many other fantasy, sci-fi, and space opera universes,
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