The Complete Tolkien Companion (47 page)

The Haladin were now, like all the Edain and Eldar, grievously reduced in number, and in such daily fear that they posed no further threat to Morgoth's dominion; and they kept hidden as best they might. In this way a remnant survived the ending of the Age, and the inundation of their long home, afterwards gathering in Lindon. And in the 32nd year of the New (Second) Age, when most of the surviving Edain, of all Three Houses, set sail across the Sea to found Númenor, some of the People of Haleth went also, as part of that expedition.

Halbarad
– Ranger of Eriador and the captain of the Grey Company. He led the Dúnedain to the aid of their Chieftain during the War of the Ring, but fell in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

Haldad
–
See
HALETH
.

Haldan
– A chieftain of the
HALADIN
of Brethil.

Haldar
–
See
HALETH
.

Haldir
– The son of Halmir of the
HALADIN
. He wedded a noble-woman of the Third House (of Dor-lómin), Gloredhel daughter of Hador Lórindol (while at the same ceremony his sister Hareth wedded the Heir of Dor-lómin, Galdor). The son of Haldir and Gloredhel was Handir. Haldir perished at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, fighting in Fingon's rearguard, together with most of the force sent to that battle from Brethil. Also (Third Age) the name of one of the Galadhrim (Tree-Elves) of Lothlórien, a marchwarden of the land.

Haleth
– The first real chieftain of the
HALADIN
, the daughter of Haldad and sister of Haldar. Both father and brother were slain in the defence of the stockade in Thargelion, after which Haleth stepped into her father's shoes (he had organised the defence which had saved them) and took the leadership of the Haladin. She led them a dangerous road across northern Beleriand, but brought them to safety at last. Haleth then founded the settlement in the woods of Brethil, and dwelt there until her death, undisputed chieftainess of a House of Men. She was succeeded by her nephew Haldan. Everafter the Haladin called themselves, in her honour, ‘the people of Haleth'.

Also (Third Age) the elder son of King Helm Hammerhand of Rohan. He was slain defending the King's Hall when the Dunlendings invaded the Mark in 2758 Third Age.

Halfast of Overhill
– Samwise Gamgee's ‘cousin Hal'; the son of Halfred of Overhill, a village in the Westfarthing of the Shire.

Half-elven
– The
PEREDHIL
.

Halflings
– A translation of the Sindarin word
Periannath;
the name in the Common Speech for the Shire-folk; who spoke of themselves as
Hobbits,
a word derived from quite a different meaning.

Half-orcs
– An epithet used in Rohan for a particular race of creatures from Isengard; a fell breed with the height of true Men and all the ill-favoured characteristics of Orcs.

Halfred Gamgee
– The second son of Hamfast Gamgee and elder brother of Samwise. When a young Hobbit, he quitted Number Three Bagshot Row and moved to the Northfarthing.

Halfred Greenhand
– The eldest son of the fabled Holman the Greenhanded of Hobbiton. In token of his father's prowess, Halfred adopted the surname
Greenhand.
His only son Holman, the last of that family, passed on the gardener's trade to Hamfast Gamgee.

Halfred of Overhill
– The younger brother of Hamfast Gamgee and son of Hobson ‘Roper' Gamgee of Tighfield. Halfred had one son, Halfast, born after he went to live at Overhill in the Westfarthing.

Halifirien
– The northernmost of the seven
BEACON-HILLS
which lay along the feet of the White Mountains between Gondor and Rohan. Its original name was
Eilenaer.
The Halifirien overlooked the Firienwood, which stood at the border of the two countries. On a high place of the mountain stood the tomb of Elendil, built by his son Isildur in the days following the Victory of the Last Alliance. (In those days the Halifirien was the mid-point of the realm of Gondor.)
Halifirien
means ‘Holy Mountain' in the tongue of Rohan, and long before it had been known to the Dúnedain as
Amon Anwar,
the ‘Hill of Awe'; the Firienwood was called the ‘whispering wood'.

Halimath
– The ninth month in the Shire Reckoning. (In Bree the same month was called
Harvestmath.
)

Halla
– The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘tall'; also the title of the
tehta
or ‘sign' used for breathed
h.
The
tehtar
were diacritic marks which acted as vowel substitutes in the Fëanorian alphabet. Halla was a vertical raised bowless stem.

Hallacar
– The son of Hallatan of Hyarastorni of Númenor; husband of Tar-Ancalimë.

Hallas
‘Long-leaf' (Sind.) – From 2567–2605 Third Age, the thirteenth Ruling Steward of Gondor.

Hallatan of Hyarastorni
– A lord of Númenor, descendant of Elros Tar-Minyatur.

Hallows
– A sacred or holy place; also a name for a tomb-complex. The Tombs of the Kings and other great men of Gondor were built on a high plateau behind the city of Minas Tirith, and could be reached only through a guarded door, Fen Hollen, on the inside of the sixth wall of the city.

Halls of Waiting
–
See
following entry.

Halls of Mandos
– The name given in traditions of the Eldar to the Houses of the Dead, in the Uttermost West of Valinor; the place of Awaiting after Death, where the spirits of the departed go perforce, to sit in meditation on their past lives before being released; thereupon the souls of earth-bound Elves awaken once more in the Blessed Realm, but the souls of Mortal Men pass on, away from Arda for ever, to be gathered into the Thought of Ilúvatar. The Keeper of the Houses of the Dead – and judge of the time of abiding there – is the Vala
Námo,
more often called
Mandos
(though this is properly the name of the Halls themselves).

Halmir
–
See
HALADIN
.

Háma
– The younger son of King Helm Hammerhand of Rohan. In the winter of 2758–59 Third Age he was besieged in the Hornburg, together with his father and many of the King's followers. He led a party of desperate men on a foray early in the new year and was lost in the snow. Helm himself died a short time afterwards. Also the name of the Captain of King Théoden's household and the Door-ward of Meduseld. He fell during the Battle of the Hornburg (March, 3019 Third Age) and was buried there in a separate mound.

Hamfast ‘the Gaffer' Gamgee
– The son of Hobson ‘Roper' Gamgee and the father of the illustrious Samwise. For much of his life Hamfast was the most well-respected gardener of Hobbiton and district, being rightly renowned as much for his rural witticisms as for his superb potatoes. He was born in 2926 Third Age (1326 Shire Reckoning), second son to a family of rope-makers in Tighfield. Young Hamfast, however, was more interested in the trade of his older ‘cousin' Holman Greenhand, a gardener of note, who lived in Hobbiton by the Pool of Bywater. He became apprenticed to Holman and eventually succeeded him as the area's principal horticulturalist, being employed mainly in the extensive gardens of Bag End.

Hamfast married Bell Goodchild, who bore him six children, of whom Samwise was the youngest. Yet only Sam shared his father's love of the soil; he assisted in the gardens at Bag End until ‘the Gaffer' retired, whereupon Sam in his turn took over the job. Old Hamfast enjoyed his retirement, living quietly in Number Three Bagshot Row – apart from a minor upset in 1419 Shire Reckoning, when he was temporarily evicted – until finally, in the year 1428, at the age of 102, he died content. In his later years the Gaffer had seen his favourite son acclaimed as a hero of the Shire, a leader of society and (best of all) as the greatest gardener of all time.

Also the name given by Samwise to his fourth son.

Hamson Gamgee
– The eldest son of Hamfast Gamgee and elder brother of Samwise. Rather than follow his father's trade of gardening, Hamson moved back to Tighfield (where a branch of the family still lived), and pursued instead his uncle Andy's profession of ropemaking.

Handir
– The father of Brandir the Lame of the
HALADIN
, the son of Haldir and Gloredhel of Dor-lómin. In his time he succeeded to the chieftainship of the Men of Brethil, but was slain in battle with Orcs while still in middle life. Brandir succeeded him.

Harad
‘South' (Sind. from Q.
Hyarmen
) – The name given in Gondor to all those lands south of the river Harnen; a fuller title was
Haradwaith
‘[Lands of the] South-peoples'. This area was divided (according to the reckoning of the Dúnedain) into Far and Near Harad, and comprised a patchwork of petty kingdoms, all of which were frequently – indeed, almost continually – at war with Gondor during the Third Age.

Haradrim
‘People of-the-South' (Sind.) – The inhabitants of the lands of Harad; the Southrons, a fierce race of Men divided into a number of different but belligerent kingdoms. Throughout much of the Third Age their armies repeatedly marched against Gondor; mostly they were defeated and driven back to their desert lands. Yet on only one occasion were the Haradrim totally overthrown by Gondor's might (
see
HYARMENDACIL I
); and for over two thousand years they remained an unpredictable threat on the southern borders.

For all their (observed) warlike intentions and (ascribed) lust for gold, the Haradrim were nonetheless accounted True Men. Their methods of warfare were unlike those of other folk: many horsemen, and troops of giant war-beasts, called
mûmakil,
on the backs of which rode their chieftains. Their soldiers were armed with spear and shield, helm and scimitar, all adorned with gold and much ornament. They were also reportedly darker-skinned than the Dúnedain of Gondor, due no doubt to the long effect of the bright Sun in those distant lands. By all accounts, the Men of Harad were formidable warriors and determined opponents, and their enmity towards Gondor was deep-rooted.

The principal issue behind the initial outbreak of hostilities between the two peoples was the possession of Umbar, which lay on the coast of Haradwaith some seventy leagues south of the river Harnen. Traditionally Black Númenorean land, it had been seized by Gondor in the tenth century of the Third Age; and in 1015 the Haradrim – stirred up by the dispossessed Black Númenoreans – attacked Umbar in great strength. Ciryandil King of Gondor was slain and both the Havens and City of Umbar were invested. But the besieged Dúnedain held out, and some years later the Southron Federates were heavily defeated by King Ciryaher – so heavily, in fact, that for several hundred years afterwards none of the Haradrim dared to cross the Poros, and the wide lands between that river and the Harnen became subject to Gondor.

But in the course of time Gondor's hold over the Harad was loosened and eventually broken. In 1540 a second King of Gondor was slain by the Southrons, and even though King Hyarmendacil II avenged him, Gondor could no longer prevent the Haradrim from raiding her frontiers. Moreover, it seems clear that from this point onwards there was an increasing measure of co-operation between the Haradrim and the Corsairs of Umbar (for Gondor had not long held Umbar, having lost it again in 1448). In any event the Haradrim themselves were in possession of Umbar by the nineteenth century; furthermore, in 1944 they made an alliance for the first time with an Easterling people (the Wainriders). So the net around Gondor drew ever tighter.

Yet although Gondor was eventually forced to evacuate the debatable land of Harondor, for many centuries her strength still proved sufficient to defend her shortened borders. And though there was intermittent raiding by land and sea throughout this period, it was not until almost a thousand years later that any further full-scale assault came from south of the Poros. It was Sauron himself – or rather, his emissaries – who brought this about; for in 2885 their whisperings stirred up the Haradrim, who invaded South Ithilien by their traditional route. This army was heavily defeated and driven south in disarray (
see
BATTLE OF THE CROSSINGS OF POROS
).

Nonetheless the Haradrim were never again quiescent while the Third Age lasted. Their incessant border-raiding bled Gondor's strength at a time when Sauron the Great was once more openly returning to power in Mordor; and in due course Sauron brought them more and more under his sway. During the War of the Ring, a great force of Haradrim, supported by many
mûmakil,
fought for Sauron's part at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. But in that great clash at Gondor's gate, they were defeated yet again, and their hopes of plunder dashed once more. Nevertheless, the warriors of Haradwaith were not so easily subdued, and in the first decades of the Fourth Age there was fighting again along the Harnen.

Harad Road
– The main route between the Harad lands and Gondor. In the latter years of the Third Age, this road, originally built by Men of Gondor, was mainly used by her enemies, the Haradrim, to speed their forces northwards.

Haradwaith
‘Lands-of-the-South-peoples' (Sind.) – All the lands south of the river Harnen.

Haranyë
‘Century' (Q.) – The hundred-year cycle in the system of
KINGS' RECKONING
.

Hardbottle
– A village of the Shire, home of the Bracegirdle family.

Harding
– A knight of King Théoden's Household. He perished in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.