... who Tolkien gave us very little about, which (as is usual in the case of minor Silm characters) means I get most of my impression of her from Philosopher at Large's Leithian Script. Haleth actually gets mentioned twice, the first time in Nargothrond:
Finrod: [musing]
--Haleth was like that. Wonderful child, but one had to be careful not to agree with her too closely, or she'd take it all wrong.
Beren:
I'm not
that bad. I don't think. --Hey! You knew Haleth? As in
the Haleth?
Lady Haleth of Brethil?
Finrod:
Yes, she was having a run-in with Elwe, as it happens. Or Elu, as he calls himself now. Life's funny like that.
Beren:
It makes a little more sense if he's like the rest of the crew, but I never understood why she wouldn't take up Lord Caranthir's offer of shelter.
Finrod: [drily]
Obviously you've never met Caranthir.
Beren:
? . . . ?
Finrod:
--Let me put it this way:
I don't cross him. --
Ever. No, that wasn't the incident I was referring to. Why? Because Haleth was an intelligent and perceptive young woman and was not fooled by Caranthir's charming ways and words. Ever wonder why they showed up a week late,
after the lord of the land was killed, and the heir, when they were practically in his backyard? Caranthir knew them for efficient fighters, and wanted them grateful, and leaderless. And he has not, so far as I can tell, the slightest compunction about using mortal Men as a screen for his more --
valued, shall we say -- troops. --I don't know that for a fact, of course. That's just my reading of the events. And the way he spits when he hears her name. No, I was referring to the -- tenor, of her exchanges with Elu over that unused property of his. It was a rather, er, heated crossfire to be caught in. A little tact might have made a great difference.
She's also discussed midway through Act IV (which takes place in the Halls of Mandos, with a whole bunch of dead people...)
Fingolfin:Or -- what was her name, that young mortal woman who caused so much fuss not too long ago?
[the other Belerianders stare at him]
[simultaneously (overlapping)]
Everyone from Middle-earth, native or returned:-- Haleth!!
[there is an embarrassed moment as everyone sort of recollects themselves]
Fingolfin: [defensive]
You must grant, I never
met the lady.
Aegnor: [sarcastic aside]
There's a surprise --
Angrod:Neither did I -- but we still heard about her enough to remember her name, uncle! It wasn't as though there weren't relatives of hers straggling through the realm for the better part of a decade.
Aegnor: [faint amusement]
It was almost like the first years here, where you never knew
when you were going to walk into a settlement of strangers giving you funny looks and speaking a language nearly but not
quite comprehensible. It was rather hard
not to cross Nargothrond and hear the name "Haleth" in the process --
Angrod: [interrupting]
-- But he didn't, don't you recall?
[the Princes shake their heads in too-obvious pity, to their uncle's chagrin]
Luthien:Yes, annexing part of the kingdom and then telling Mablung off for trespassing --
[to the Valinorean Eldar, living and otherwise]
-- well,
you don't know our Captains, so that doesn't mean much to you, but people
listen to them, most of the time -- when he came to try to evict them, does sort of stick in people's memory.
Finrod:Not to mention dragging half-a-thousand unwilling kinsmen through a vale full of giant spiders and other assorted monstrosities, and her with no natural abilities whatsoever to help her defend them, and most of them increasingly convinced she was insane for not staying in a land already cultivated and partially settled, because there was too much "
open" to the northward. Or commanding a successful defense against the Enemy's minions, when everyone else was on the verge of giving up and dying before rescue arrived -- which was partly the reason they didn't kick her out as chief after the business with the Old Road and the mutant beasts. "The spiders were a mistake," she told me, "I thought they were bogles out of tales to frighten bad children -- or Men who might think of going too close to the Shadowking's woods otherwise."
[shaking his head]
The way they talked about her, you couldn't tell if they thought she was brilliant, mad, or both -- and that they weren't sure either. But not being around her wasn't an option, any more than for moths about a lit candle.
And from the notes to the first scene:
Caranthir: perhaps I read too much ancient history and political intrigue, but I can't escape the conclusion that for some reason, the Haladin found their rescuer even more scary, and the thought of his active involvement in their lives a worse prospect, than Orcs. One doesn't become refugees for no good reason, particularly just after having fought a hard war. Add that to the chroniclers' asides as to Caranthir's insolence, arrogance, hideous temper, and later actions — and it adds up, for me, to a picture of someone charismatic, dynamic, charming, and violent, whom you don't ever, ever want to tangle with if you have any sense… He is after all a Son of Feanor too.
Haleth: It's been at least three generations since the legendary Chieftain of the Haladin led her people to a new homeland in the western forests, and for most of us, fifty years ago is — a long time. A hundred years ago is a long time. A hundred-fifty years ago is a long time…two hundred a really long time… Intellectually we may even know that, realize that compared to say "geological time", it's nothing, but on a basic personal level — it's all "a long time ago." Even for those of us who really know history and study family lore, there's a certain cognitive dissonance involved in keeping the relative scale present. I do think that this would be the case for Beren, who never even had the opportunity to achieve the level of accustomed familiarity that his older relatives had with Elvenkind in the Leaguer — and that it would trouble Finrod, divided as in Canon between loyalty and prudential considerations.
Yeah... Lady Haleth's pretty cool.
hS