Nienor was the daughter of Húrin and Morwen, born in Dor-lómin after her father had been taken at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. She never knew her brother Túrin, who had been sent to Doriath before her birth.1
When Morwen rode out of Doriath to seek Túrin after the fall of Nargothrond, Nienor went with the escort in disguise, and would not turn back. On Amon Ethir she met Glaurung face to face. He held her with his eyes and laid on her a spell of utter forgetfulness, and she fled into the woods remembering nothing, not even her own name.1
Túrin, now called Turambar and living among the men of Brethil, found her lying on Finduilas's mound in a storm. Not knowing her, he named her Níniel, Tear-maiden, and in time they were wed. Brandir, lord of Brethil, who also loved her, foresaw evil but could not prevent it.1
When Glaurung came against Brethil, Turambar went out to meet him and slew him from beneath in the ravine of the Teiglin. Níniel found her husband lying senseless by the dying dragon, and Glaurung, with his last breath, lifted the spell and told her who she was and who Turambar was. She cast herself over the cliff of Cabed-en-Aras into the river, and the place was afterwards called Cabed Naeramarth, the Leap of Dreadful Doom.1
Sources
Citations name the chapter rather than the page, so they work in any edition. The colour of each note shows what kind of source it is.
- Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and Tolkien's late writings on the Elder Days, assembled by Christopher Tolkien from his father's papers.
- Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, ch. 21, “Of Túrin Turambar”