- "We greatly wondered at the use of the word 'cabed' in the name given for this place, "Cabed Arheledh", "Gorge of Noble Glass", for the true meaning was 'a leap', and it had traditionally been applied only to a gorge someone has leapt over, or more commonly fallen into, as Cabed Naeramarth, "the Leap of Dreadful Doom" into which Nienor Níniel plunged, as told in the Narn-i-Chîn-Húrin. Of an evening the keeper of the Inn at Annogwain — a most wretched establishment — regaled us with grim tales told of the local Daen-folk, who he claimed had once made human sacrifice to the god of their holy well in the Cabed by casting the victims from the cliffs. These stories were obviously false, for the ancient well stands too far from the cliffs to provide a plausible target for human projectiles, but the innkeep probably found such lurid rumors a useful way to distract his guests' attention from the watered-down ale and tasteless pottage. Unfortunately, our gullible colleagues in the Cartographers' Guild apparently never visited the gorge themselves and took the innkeeper at his word, hence the name "Cabed Arheledh" on His Majesty's map. We, however, deem the proper name for this gorge to be Imlad Arheledh."
Imlad Arheledh was a vale of the White Mountains in Haerawreigion, west of the Lefnui. The Dúnedain of Anfalas gave the valley this name because the mountains surrounding it contained rich deposits of exposed quartz and glass-producing sand, which the Daen Lintis of the region procured for the men of Anfalas in exchange for iron implements and other goods needed in the wild lands. This trade was usually carried on at Annon Wain, which lay five days' journey south of the gorge. At the center of the barren, rocky vale was a spring that formed one of the two main sources for the Rúhónir river (which joined the Lefnui forty miles to the southeast of Imlad Arheledh). This spring emerged from a ruined well, rumored to have been delved by the ancient Drughu because of the "watch-stones" that encircled it. The Daen Lintis of Haerawreigion revered this well as a holy site, reckoning it to be the true source of the Lefnui itself. Because it was sacred to them, the Daen hade never sought to repair the stone work of the well (nor would they have had the skill to do so, if they were willing).
References[]
- MERP: Southern Gondor The Land