Sinikäden Kuoleman Reikä

Beneath the Emyn Nimbrith lay the remnants of Thaurung, a giant dragon that had perished in the War of Wrath, buried in the destruction of the Iron Mountains. Most of Thaurung's remains Were buried deep, but occasionally the erosive forces of rain and wind revealed a glint of dragonbone. Deep within the hills there appeared a shallow cave with an almost perfectly round entrance. The entrance was actually the right eye-socket of Thaurung's skull. The skull formed the bulk of a small hill, slightly tilted so that the right eye looked up at a 45° angle while the left remained buried. The eye-socket measured some twenty Mannish strides. It was difficult to traverse its interior, as the floor dipped away suddenly from the entrance, following the curvature of the skull. The floor Was covered with splintered bits of bone, rock and soil that had washed in over the years. It also contained the skeletons of two deserters from the Witch-king's armies. Portions of their arms and legs were missing, and the bones had a well-gnawed look about them. Their leather armor and coin purses had all but vanished.

The cave was extant with a putrid aroma: the foul musk of death shrews. The creatures skittered and rustled about every corner of Thaurung's cavernous hollow, feeding upon rabbits, rats and other vermin. The voracious little beasts were likely to attack the exposed skin of any larger creatures who might have entered the skull, regardless of the odds. The Lumimiehet called the cave Sinikäden Kuoleman Reikä, "Hole of the Blue-handed Death", because of the deadly disease transmitted through the fangs of a death shrew, and regarded it as one more reason to avoid the hills.