There were originally seven palantíri in
Middle-earth, gifts of the Eldar of Tol Eressëa to Amandil, last Lord of Andúnië, father of
Elendil the Tall, “for the comfort of
the Faithful of
Númenor in their dark days, when the
Elves might come no longer to that land under the shadow of
Sauron.” Elendil spread the seven palantíri among
the nine ships in his little fleet in the harbor of Rómenna in the last days Númenor, from whence he and his sons and followers were driven to Middle-earth by the tsunami that accompanied the Downfall of Númenor.
Originally, the stones were set up this way:
The stones at Annúminas and Amon Sûl were taken to Fornost Erain, but subsequently lost at sea in the Icebay of Forochel. The stone at Osgiliath was lost during the Kin-Strife of Gondor. The stone at Minas Ithil was taken to
Barad-dûr and lost in the Downfall of
the Lord of the Rings. Unless its user exercised great will and determination, the stone of Minas Tirith would show only
Denethor’s hands withering in flames.
Aragorn and his successors used the stone of Orthanc to see what they wanted.
The
palantír of Elostirion was in accord only with the Master-Stone of all the palantíri in
Tirion upon Túna in Eldamar, where either
Fëanor or his kinsmen set it. When
Elrond departed Middle-earth at the end of
the Third Age, he removed that stone and returned it to Tol Eressëa, breaking forever direct communication between
Valinor and Middle-earth.
Gildor and the Elves whom
Frodo,
Sam, and
Pippin encountered in the Woody End were returning from a pilgrimage to look into this stone, saving the
Hobbits from the
Nazgûl pursuing them when it retreated from the presence of the
Noldor.
Communication by means of the palantíri was mind-to-mind, but directed as if it were speech. What a viewer in one stone wanted to convey to a viewer using another was communicated as if they were conversing verbally, but the words were “spoken” and “heard” only in the mind. When Pippin looked into the Orthanc-stone and found Sauron looking back with the Ithil-stone, Sauron at first thought he was “speaking” with
Saruman. When Pippin failed to respond, he quickly realized his error and capitalized upon it, supposing Saruman had forced the
hobbit to look into the stone to torture him: part of the “spell” he placed upon Pippin – the recitation he repeated mechanically, “Tell Saruman that this dainty is not for him. I will send for it at once,” the “spell”
Gandalf gently broke – was a warning to Saruman not to pressure Pippin for more information.
Likewise, when Aragorn looked into the stone and Sauron found
him, Aragorn “spoke no word to him, and in the end … wrenched the Stone to [his] own will,” breaking communication and ending the “conversation.”
Think of the palantíri as Fëanor’s version of Skype and satellite surveillance, and you will not be far off; except that when
Tolkien wrote this story seventy years ago, neither Skype nor satellite surveillance were anything other than pipe dreams: Fantasy.
