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Places in Middle-earth

Brethil

Type: Forests, Fields, Plains

Region: Beleriand & North

Other Names The Forest of Brethil

Location: The forest between the rivers Sirion and Teiglin in West Beleriand; home of the Haladin (the People of Haleth).

Description:

Now the great and fair country of Beleriand lay on either side of the mighty river Sirion.... And following Sirion from north to south there lay upon the right hand in West Beleriand the Forest of Brethil between Sirion and Teiglin, and then the realm of Nargothrond, between Teiglin and Narog.

The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 14, Of Beleriand and Its Realms

Down the ancient road [to Nargothrond] they came that led through the long defile of Sirion, past the isle where Minas Tirith of Finrod had stood, and so [south] through the land between Malduin and Sirion, and on through the eaves of Brethil to the Crossings of Teiglin. Thence the road went on into the Guarded Plain....

The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 21, Of Túrin Turambar

[South of the Ford of Brithiach] loomed a darkness, where the great forest of Brethil climbed away southward into a distant highland.

Unfinished Tales, Part 1, Ch 1, Of Tuor and His Coming to Gondolin

[They] passed over the Shadowy Mountains, and coming down into the Vale of Sirion they passed [eastward] into the Forest of Brethil; and at last... they reached the confines of Doriath.

Unfinished Tales, Part 1, Ch 2, Narn I Hîn Húrin: The Departure of Túrin

[Túrin] walked on the greensward before the mouth of the cave [on Amon Rûdh].... Northward he looked, and descried the Forest of Brethil climbing green about Amon Obel in its midst....

The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 21, Of Túrin Turambar

... Brethil was claimed as part of his realm by King Thingol, though it was not within the Girdle of Melian, and he would have denied it to Haleth; but Felagund... obtained this grace for her: that she should dwell free in Brethil, upon the condition only that her people should guard the Crossings of Teiglin..., and allow no Orcs to enter their woods.

The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 17, Of the Coming of Men into the West

Therefore the woodmen... bore [Túrin] away to their homes. Now those were set in a stockade upon a high place in the forest, Ephel Brandir upon Amon Obel; for the People of Haleth were now dwindled by war....

The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 21, Of Túrin Turambar

In the morning they bore Níniel towards Ephel Brandir, and the road went steeply upward towards Amon Obel until it came to a place where it must cross the tumbling stream of Celebros. There a bridge of wood had been built, and below it the stream went over a lip of worn stone, and fell down by many foaming steps into a rocky bowl far below.... [Over] the bridge there was a wide view towards the ravines of Teiglin some two miles to the west.

Unfinished Tales, Part 1, Ch 2, Narn I Hîn Húrin: Nienor in Brethil

[Brandir] came at last to the bridge over Celebros... five leagues1 at the least from [Ephel Brandir].

Unfinished Tales, Part 1, Ch 2, Narn I Hîn Húrin: The Death of Glaurung


Etymology
brethil  probably means 'silver birch'; cf. Nimbrethil the birchwoods in Arvernien, and Fimbrethil, one of the Entwives.

The Silmarillion, Appendix: Elements in Quenya and Sindarin Names


Notes
1A league is approximately three of our miles.

Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 1, The Disaster of the Gladden Fields: Appendix, Númenórean Linear Measures

Contributors: Elena Tiriel 5Dec04, 27Nov09

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