Habren the Shepherd (Du.: "Running Water") was the widowed headwoman of a clan of herders in the northern foothills of Methedras. Her people were akin to Chieftain Torannen and looked up to him as leader in a crisis, but most seasons Habren looked after her people and their herds. They moved from place to place, season to season, within the loose borders of their part of the hills. Some stone huts stood year-round in the hills, stocked for winter when possible, but often they only built simple, rude houses at need.
Habren maintained quiet, uneasy truces with the Orc-tribes of the mountains and with Casgurauch the Cold’s highland raiders. Her people traded each season with villages such as Dinum and welcomed travellers who could bring news of the lowlands and the hill-clans. And from time to time they paid tribute to the Orcs and to Casgurauch, bringing leather, furs, meat and information: Habren told the raiders about the season’s easiest pickings, so that the raiders went there and left her tribe alone. Sometimes it didn’t help. Sometimes a raiding-party welcomed her news and then attacked her people anyway. But more often, they left Habren’s folk alone while they raided the other clans and each other. Until some force drew the raiders away to other lands, that’s the best Habren could do.
Notes[]
Original form: Gabren = Habren
References[]
- The One Ring - Roleplaying in Middle Earth - Horse Lords of Rohan