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Places in Middle-earth

Cracks of Doom, The

Type: Other Natural Formations

Region: Mordor/Allies

Other Names
The Fire
The Fire of Doom
The Gulf of Doom
The Crack of Doom

Location: A large crevice within the Chambers of Fire in Mount Doom which allows volcanic heat and magma to issue forth; the source of heat for the forges in which Sauron made the One Ring.

Description: [Said Gandalf,] 'It has been said that dragon-fire could melt and consume the Rings of Power, but there is not now any dragon left on earth in which the old fire is hot enough; nor was there ever any dragon, not even Ancalagon the Black, who could have harmed the One Ring, the Ruling Ring, for that was made by Sauron himself. There is only one way: to find the Cracks of Doom in the depths of Orodruin, the Fire-mountain, and cast the Ring in there, if you really wish to destroy it, to put it beyond the grasp of the Enemy for ever.'

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 2, The Shadow of the Past

'I was going to find a way into Mordor,' [Frodo] said faintly. ... 'I must find the Mountain of Fire and cast the thing into the gulf of Doom. Gandalf said so. I do not think I shall ever get there.'

The Two Towers, LoTR Book 4, Ch 5, The Window on the West

At first [Sam] could see nothing [inside the Sammath Naur]. ... Fearfully he took a few uncertain steps in the dark, and then all at once there came a flash of red that leaped upward, and smote the high black roof. Then Sam saw that he was in a long cave or tunnel that bored into the Mountain's smoking cone. But only a short way ahead its floor and the walls on either side were cloven by a great fissure, out of which the red glare came, now leaping up, now dying down into darkness; and all the while far below there was a rumour and a trouble as of great engines throbbing and labouring.

The light sprang up again, and there on the brink of the chasm, at the very Crack of Doom, stood Frodo, black against the glare ...

The fires below awoke in anger, the red light blazed, and all the cavern was filled with a great glare and heat. ...

The Return of the King, LoTR Book 6, Ch 3, Mount Doom

For Frodo the Halfling, ... alone with his servant ... passed through peril and darkness and came at last in Sauron's despite even to Mount Doom; and there into the Fire where it was wrought he cast the Great Ring of Power, and so at last it was unmade and its evil consumed.

The Silmarillion, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age

There was a roar and a great confusion of noise. Fires leaped up and licked the roof. The throbbing grew to a great tumult, and the Mountain shook. ...

'Well, Master, we could at least go further from this dangerous place here, from this Crack of Doom, if that's its name.' ...

... they rose and went slowly down the winding road; and even as they passed towards the Mountain's quaking feet, a great smoke and steam belched from the Sammath Naur, and the side of the cone was riven open, and a huge fiery vomit rolled in slow thunderous cascade down the eastern mountain-side.

The Return of the King, LoTR Book 6, Ch 3, Mount Doom

Contributors: Elena Tiriel 6May05. 29May05

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