Brandir

Lineage

Brandir was the son of Handir, lord of Brethil, and the great-great-grandson of Haldar, the brother of Haleth. A childhood injury had left him lame, and he grew up unable to fight or hunt as the woodmen did. Instead he turned to the lore of plants and healing, and the folk of Brethil came to value him as a physician even as some of them scorned him as a lord. When Handir was killed fighting Orcs in F.A. 495, Brandir became chieftain of the House of Haleth in a time of growing danger.

Lord of Brethil

Brandir's policy was to hide. He knew that Brethil could not withstand the power that had just destroyed Nargothrond, and he hoped that if the woodmen kept to the forest and avoided provoking Morgoth they might survive. Many of his warriors, especially the bold and quarrelsome Dorlas, thought him a coward for it.

In F.A. 496 a stranger came to Brethil, a tall dark man of great strength who had been found on the mound of Finduilas at the Crossings of Teiglin. He called himself Turambar and asked to live among the woodmen as a plain forester. Brandir welcomed him but guessed soon enough that this was Túrin son of Húrin, and he feared what the man's doom might bring on his people. Túrin's skill in arms quickly drew the fighting men to him, and Brandir's authority faded, though he was still called lord.

Níniel

Some time later the woodmen found a naked woman lying senseless on Finduilas's mound. Brandir took her into his care and healed her of a fever, and when she recovered with no memory of her past, Túrin named her Níniel, Maid of Tears. Brandir loved her, but she loved Túrin, and in F.A. 498 they were married. Brandir, who had foreboding of disaster, tried to warn her against it and was set aside. He did not know, any more than she did, that she was Nienor, Túrin's own sister, robbed of her memory by the dragon.

The dragon and the truth

In F.A. 499 Glaurung came against Brethil. Túrin went with Dorlas and Hunthor to ambush the dragon at the ravine of Cabed-en-Aras. Brandir, unable to keep Níniel from following, went after her as fast as his crutch allowed. He saw Túrin lying as if dead beside the slain dragon, and he saw Glaurung open his eyes before he died and tell Níniel who she was. He heard her cry out in horror and saw her cast herself into the Teiglin, and he could not stop her.

Brandir went back to the woodmen and told them everything, and named Túrin the son of Húrin for the curse he had brought to Brethil. Then Túrin, who had only been stunned, walked out of the forest alive. Brandir told him that Níniel was dead and that she had been his sister. Túrin, refusing to believe it and calling him a liar and a cripple who had driven her to her death, drew Gurthang and killed him.

Legacy

Brandir was the last of the line of Haleth to rule Brethil. His death, and Túrin's suicide that followed when Mablung confirmed the truth, left the Men of Brethil leaderless. He is remembered in the tale as the one man who saw clearly where the doom of Túrin was leading and was powerless to prevent it.

Slain by Túrin at the Crossings of Teiglin in F.A. 499 after telling him of Nienor's death.