Haleth

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Character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Legendarium
Name	Haleth
Titles	Lady of Brethil, Halad
Race	Men
Culture	Edain, Second House
Date of birth	Y.S. 341
Date of death	Y.S. 420
Realm	Brethil
Book(s)	The Silmarillion, The War of the Jewels

This article is about the Lady of Brethil. For the son of Helm Hammerhand, see Haleth (Third Age). For the son of Háma, see List of original characters in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

Haleth is a fictional character from J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. She was a leader of the Second House of the Edain, called the Folk of Haleth after her.

At the time of her birth, the Second House of Men had settled in Thargelion, in East Beleriand, living in separate homestades and having no lords of their own. But in Y.S. 375 of the First Age Morgoth sent out an Orc-raid against them. The Men were caught off-guard, and a great part of their people was wiped out. The remnant was gathered under one Haldad and his twin children, daughter Haleth and son Haldar; and they held out for days in a stockade until the Noldor rescued them, by which time both Haldad and Haldar were slain.

Caranthir offered to Men his lands to live in protected, but Haleth refused, for now she was chosen a Chieftain, being of great heart and no less in valour than her kinsmen. Next year she led her people to Estolad; and after a time again urged them to move further westward. They passed through the horrors of Nan Dungortheb only by the strength of Haleth's will, and at last came to the woods of Talath Dirnen. Later many removed the forest of Brethil, which was a part of Doriath outside the Girdle of Melian, but now was granted to them by Thingol.

Haleth ruled the Folk of Brethil until she died. She was buried in a green mound in the heights of the Forest, which was called therefore the Ladybarrow (Haudh-en-Arwen in Sindarin and Tûr Haretha in their own tongue). The next Chieftain of Brethil was her nephew Haldan.

[edit] Other versions of the legendarium

Tolkien originally wrote that there were only two Houses of Men: of Bëor and Hador; the latter he afterwards separated in two. The leader of the Second House became Haleth the Hunter, and this was still the case until the vast expansion into earlier generations took place after the writing of The Lord of the Rings. (See The History of Middle-earth)

In a late writing Haleth is described as "a renowned amazon with a picked bodyguard of women". (J. R. R. Tolkien (1996), Christopher Tolkien, ed., The Peoples of Middle-earth, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Of Dwarves and Men, p. 309, ISBN 0-395-82760-4 )