Nivrim

A minor part of the wide woodlands that made up the forest realm of Doriath, the kingdom of Thingol and Melian in the middle of Beleriand. Nivrim was the only part of the forests of Doriath that lay westward of the river Sirion, forming a small enclave of dense oak-woods beyond the river that extended westward from the great forest of Region to the east. It ran southward along Sirion from the inflow of Teiglin down as far as the fens of Aelin-uial.²

Within the northern parts of the wood was a bridge, guarded by the marchwardens of Doriath. It was by this bridge that the Elves of Doriath were able to pass westward into the wide lands beyond, especially on missions to Thingol's ally Finrod in Nargothrond. After Nargothrond was sacked by the Dragon Glaurung, Mablung led a small force this way to investigate. He brought with him on that journey Morwen and Niënor, the mother and sister of Túrin. They reached Nargothrond, and Mablung was later able to return through Nivrim, but without either Morwen or Niënor. These had both become lost during the expedition, and thus set in motion the final acts in the tragedy of Túrin Turambar.

In the published Silmarillion, the woods of Nivrim are mentioned only fleetingly, but this western outlier of Doriath almost played a much greater part in the history of Beleriand. In the early Lost Tales, Tolkien experimented with the idea that this would be the Land of the Dead that Live, the place where Beren and Lúthien dwelt after their return from the Halls of Mandos. Tolkien changed his mind on this point, instead siting that land far from Nivrim, on the Green Isle of Tol Galen in Ossiriand, and so the West March of Doriath faded into near obscurity.