WHat do you reckon was the saddest part of the legendarium?

[Vaine]

The children of Hurin, in its wholeness.
When Beleg gets killed by Turin, when nienor commits suicide, when Hurin is set free and finds morwen. It all.

[Mnemosyne]

Here ends the Silmarillion. If it has passed from the high and the beautiful to darkness and ruin, that was of old the fate of Arda Marred; and if any change shall come and the Marring be amended, Manwe and Varda may know; but they have not revealed it, and it is not declared in the dooms of Mandos.

Simple, bleak, and all-encapsulating.

[skip spence]

Originally Posted by Vaine

The children of Hurin, in its wholeness.
When Beleg gets killed by Turin, when nienor commits suicide, when Hurin is set free and finds morwen. It all.

Yes. Another part that always gets me is when the broken Hurin goes to seek Gondolin, the city he marvelled at in his youth, then full of hope and dreams, only to find the sheer walls of Crissaegrim silent and the old escape-road blocked. He hopes to once again mark the eagles far above, but only sees dark clouds drifting in from the east.

[Tuor in Gondolin]

Close behind Sam's botching Gollum's repentence:

Well, I'm back.

Although that's more bittersweet.