Cracks of Doom

The Cracks of Doom, also referred to as Sammath Naur, was the name given to the volcanic fissure in Mount Doom where the One Ring was forged by Sauron, and the only place at which it could be destroyed.

History and description[]

This place is described in The Return of the King as a great fissure boring a large tunnel down into Mount Doom. From the Cracks of Doom, a red light, presumably from lava, was emitted. The red glow was the only light in the cavern, as even the Phial of Galadriel was dimmed by the power of Sauron in the heart of his realm. There was a road leading from Barad-dûr to the Cracks of Doom.

Frodo claimed the One Ring here; he and Gollum fought over it. Gollum subsequently fell into the Cracks itself with the Ring, thus completing the Quest of the Ring.^[1]

Etymology[]

Sammath Naur is Sindarin, indicated to mean "chambers of fire".

In adaptations[]

Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring[]

In The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring film, Elrond leads Isildur to the Cracks of Doom to destroy the One Ring immediately after it is cut from Sauron's hand, but Isildur refuses and takes the Ring for himself. It appears as a doorway with a long bridge that ends with a narrow cliff, to where the lava falls.

In The Lord of the Rings Online, a flashback depicting the creation of The One Ring shows a great ring-forge of Sauron inside Sammath Naur. The location is not accessible to the player and is visited only once again, during a Session Play depicting the destructions of the Ring, in which the player controls Gollum.

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