The Silmarillion (Extended) by J.R.R. Tolkien

Author:J.R.R. Tolkien [Tolkien, J.R.R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0100-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Turambar looked out over the falls of Celebros and saw the sun going down to its setting, and

black spires of smoke rising by the borders of the river. "There is no time to lose," he said; "yet these tidings are good. For my fear was that he would seek about; and if he passed northward and

came to the Crossings and so to the old road in the lowland, then hope would be dead. But now

some fury of pride and malice drives him headlong." But even as he spoke, he wondered, and

mused in his mind: "Or can it be that one so evil and fell shuns the Crossings, even as the Orcs?

Haudh-en-Elleth! Does Finduilas lie still between me and my doom?"

Then he turned to his companions and said: "This task now lies before us. We must wait yet a

little; for too soon in this case were as ill as too late. When dusk falls, we must creep down, with all stealth, to Teiglin. But beware! For the ears of Glaurung are as keen as his eyes - and they are

deadly. If we reach the river unmarked, we must climb then down into the ravine, and cross the

water, and so come in the path that he will take when he stirs."

"But how can he come forward so?" said Dorlas. "Lithe he may be, but he is a great Dragon, and how shall he climb down the one cliff and up the other, when part must again be climbing

before the hinder is yet descended? And if he can so, what will it avail us to be in the wild water

below?"

"Maybe he can so," answered Turambar, "and indeed if he does, it will go ill with us. But it is my hope from what we learn of him, and from the place where he now lies, that his purpose is

otherwise. He is come to the brink of Cabed-en-Aras, over which, as you tell, a deer once leaped

from the huntsmen of Haleth. So great is he now that I think he will seek to cast himself across

there. That is all our hope, and we must trust to it.

Dorlas' heart sank at these words; for he knew better than any all the land of Brethil, and

Cabed-en-Aras was a grim place indeed. On the east side was a sheer cliff of some forty feet, bare

but tree-grown at the crown; on the other side was a bank somewhat less sheer and less high,

shrouded with hanging trees and bushes, but between them the water ran fiercely among rocks, and

though a man bold and surefooted might ford it by day, it was perilous to dare it at night. But this

was the counsel of Turambar, and it was useless to gainsay him.

They set out therefore at dusk, and they did not go straight towards the Dragon, but took first

the path to the Crossings; then, before they came so far, they turned southward by a narrow track

and passed into the twilight of the woods above Teiglin. 26 And as they drew near

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