Cracks of Doom

This article refers to the fissure in Mount Doom. For other namesakes, see Crack of Doom (disambiguation).

Gollum and Frodo shortly before Gollum falls
Cracks of Doom
General information
Type	Volcanic fissure
Other names	Crack of Doom
Location	Sammath Naur, Mount Doom

"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 forever."

—Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring, "The Shadow of the Past"

The Cracks of Doom, or Crack of Doom, were a great volcanic fissure, a deep chasm filled with the Fire of Doom, in Sammath Naur where the One Ring was forged by Sauron and was destroyed when Gollum fell with the One Ring into it.

Geography

The Cracks of Doom were located in the Sammath Naur, the Chambers of Fire, a long cave with a high roof high up on the cone of Mount Doom on the Plateau of Gorgoroth in Mordor.

From the dark door of the Sammath Naur in the eastern side of Mount Doom, a long cave led inside until the great fissure of the Cracks of Doom cut across the floor and walls of the cave a short way from the door. From the Cracks of Doom, a red light, presumably from the Fire of Doom, 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. A road led from the west gate of Barad-dûr to the door of the Sammath Naur.

History

Sauron forged the One Ring in the Cracks of Doom in the year 1600 of the Second Age, and put so much of his own force into the Ring that the only way it could be destroyed would be to throw it back into the Cracks of Doom. Such an opportunity came in the year 3441 after the Battle of Dagorlad, but Isildur kept the Ring for himself against the council of both Elrond and Cirdan.

It was decided in the Council of Elrond that the One Ring must be brought to the Cracks of Doom to be destroyed. Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee reached the Cracks of Doom on March 25 in the year 3019 of the late Third Age. It was there that Frodo decided to keep the Ring and put it on his finger and where Gollum bit off the finger with the Ring and fell with it into the fiery chasm destroying the Ring and thus completing the Quest of Mount Doom.

Etymology

Sammath Naur

Sammath Naur is a Sindarin name meaning "Chambers of Fire" that is derived from the collective plural of sam ("chamber, room, hall") and the word naur ("fire").

Inspiration

The name Cracks of Doom, also sometimes just Crack of Doom, is a wordplay on "cracke of Doome" (Macbeth; IV i 117) meaning the crack/peal of thunder or the sudden sound of the last trumpet that announces the Last Day. Here, J.R.R. Tolkien uses "crack" to mean "fissure".

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. Gollum and Frodo fight at the Cracks of Doom before both falling (Frodo was rescued by Sam) while in the book Gollum falls by himself.

Sammath Naur in The Lord of the Rings Online

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.

Translations

Foreign Language	Translated name
Afrikaans	Krake van Straf
Albanian	Çarje e Dënim
Arabic	شقوق الموت
Armenian	Ծրածկս ոֆ Դոոմ
Azerbaijani	Apokalipsis çatlar
Belarusian Cyrillic	Расколіны кобі
Bengali	ক্র্যাকস অফ ডুম
Bosnian	Pukotine kobi
Bulgarian Cyrillic	Пукнатини на съдбата
Cambodian	បំបែកនៃសេចក្ដីវិនាស
Catalan	Esquerdes del Destí
Cebuano	Liki sa Kalaglagan
Chichewa	Ming'alu ya Kiyama
Chinese	裂缝的厄运
Corsican	Scrusciri di Andantino ?
Croatian	Napukline kobi
Czech	Pukliny osudu
Danish	Dommedagsspalterne
Dutch	Scheuren van Doom
Esperanto	Fendoj de Fatalo
Filipino	Bitak ng Tadhana
Finnish	Tuhon Halkeamat
French	Crevasse du Destin
Frisian	Scheuren fan Doom
Galician	Fendas do Destino
German	Schicksalsklüfte
Greek	Ρωγμές της μοίρας
Gujarati	ડૂમ તિરાડો
Hebrew	גיא האבדון
Hindi	विनाश की दरारें
Hmong	Kab nrib pleb uas Doom
Hungarian	Repedések a Végzet
Indonesian	Retak Kiamat
Italian	Voragine del Fato
Irish Gaelic	Scoilteanna na Seirbigh
Japanese	運命の亀裂
Javanese	Retak Siksa
Kannada	ಡೂಮ್ ಬಿರುಕುಗಳು
Korean	운명의 균열
Kurdish	Qulikên Qutên (Kurmanji Kurdish)
Kyrgyz Cyrillic	алаамат толтурулган жаракалар
Latvian	Nosodījuma plaisas
Lithuanian	Įtrūkimai Bausmė
Macedonian Cyrillic	Пукнатини на несреќата
Malayalam	ഡൂം വിഭജനം
Mongolian Cyrillic	Зөгнөлийн хагарал
Nepalese	डूम क्र्याक्स
Norwegian	Sprekker av Undergang
Pashto	د عذاب درزونه
Persian	ترک رستاخیز
Polish	Szczeliny Zagłady
Portuguese (Brazil)	Fendas da Perdição
Romanian	Crapaturi de Doom
Russian	Трещины гибели
Scottish Gaelic	Sgoltaidhean de Bhite
Serbian	Пукотине пропасти (Cyrillic) Pukotine propasti (Latin)
Slovak	Trhliny skazy
Slovenian	Razpoke obsodba
Spanish (Spain and Latin America)	Grietas del Destino
Sundanese	Retakan tina Doom
Swahili	Nyufa wa Adhabu
Swedish	Sprickor av Doom
Thai	รอยร้าวของการลงโทษ
Tajik Cyrillic	Тарқишҳои аз ҷазоро
Tamil	டூம் விரிசல்
Tatar	Апокалиптик ярыклар
Telugu	డూమ్ యొక్క పగుళ్లు
Turkish	Kıyamet çatlaklar
Turkmen	Apokaliptik çatryklar
Ukrainian Cyrillic	Тріщини приреченості
Urdu	عذاب کی درار
Uzbek	Қиёмат Йориқлар (Cyrillic) Qiyomat Yoriqlar (Latin)
Welsh	Craciau o Doom
Xhosa	Iintanda Kutshatyalaliswa
Yiddish	קראַקקס פון דום
Yoruba	Dojuijako ti Ìparun
Yucatec Maya	Grietas u Doom