Obel Halad

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Place from Tolkien's Legendarium
Name	Obel Halad upon Amon Obel
Other names	Ephel Brandir (rejected)
Description	Dwelling-place of the Halad
Realm(s)	Brethil
Lord	Halad of Brethil
Type	Fenced courtyard upon a hill
Lifespan	Built Y.S. c. 400 Burned Y.S. 501

In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, Obel Halad was a town of the Folk of Haleth in the First Age, located upon the hill of Amon Obel in the center of the Forest of Brethil. From the side of the hill the river Celebros sprang, along which a road towards the Crossings of Taeglin ran until it crossed the stream by a bridge above Nen Girith. In Sindarin amon means 'hill', while obel signifies a walled settlement; Tolkien usually employed the word town to translate it, using it in the ancient sense of 'enclosed dwelling-place'.

The chief building was the Hall of the Chieftains, a residence of the Halad of Brethil. It was situated on the slope of the hillside, surrounded with wide garth, which was bordered by a "round earthwall rising from a dry outer dyke". Half a mile from Obel Halad (possibly on the other side of Amon Obel) the Moot-ring was built, where the Folk of Brethil gathered to elect a new Chieftain or pass judgements. It "was shaped as a great crescent, with seven tiers of turf-banks rising up from a smooth floor delved into the hillside. A high fence was set all about it, and ... in the middle of the lowest tier of seats was set the Angbor or Doom-rock, a great flat stone upon which the Halad would sit." Not far from Obel Halad were also located the caves that served as a prison, and the Garth of the Graves where the Chieftains were buried.

The Hall of the Chieftains was burned during the civil war in Y.S. 501, and the Moot-ring was dishallowed by the spilling of blood. Afterwards the Men of Brethil were disunited, "each minding his own homelands", so Obel Halad presumably was not rebuilt.

[edit] Sources

The Wanderings of Húrin: J. R. R. Tolkien (1994), Christopher Tolkien, ed., The War of the Jewels, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, pp. 251-310, ISBN 0-395-71041-3

[edit] Other versions of the legendarium

Obel Halad appears only in The Wanderings of Húrin, the last story by J. R. R. Tolkien featuring the Men of Brethil, and in earlier writings, including those incorporated into The Children of Húrin, it was not present. Instead it is told that in their last years the Folk of Haleth for the most part dwelt within Ephel Brandir, a stockade upon Amon Obel, and it is implied that it was built by Brandir after his people retreated to the centre of the forest in Y.S. 495.

In The Wanderings of Húrin, on the other hand, the impression is made that no folk (save the household of the Chieftain) dwelt in Obel Halad, for during the Moot it was "swelled with tents and booths", and no other buildings except the Hall of the Haladin are mentioned. Nor does the name of the hill (Amon Obel in previous works) appear.

While it is improbable that Tolkien intended Ephel Brandir and Obel Halad to exist at the same time (both upon hills with a dwelling of the Chieftain), the story of Túrin's dwelling in Ephel Brandir is hard to be put together with the new conceptions. The name of the Hill, however, fits both versions (Amon Obel literally means 'Hill of Obel', where Obel originally was a synonim of Ephel in Ephel Brandir 'Encircling fence of Brandir', but later became Obel Halad ' "Town" of the Chieftain').