As I wrote earlier, I’m just passing through today. This thread appeared in the
Tolkien Monthly Newsletter, and I felt compelled to respond.
The answer to the purpose of the Elostirion stone is found, I believe, in its origin. The Seven Palantíri were gifts of the Eldar to
Elendil’s father Amandil, last Lord of Andúnië, when Ar-Gimilzôr, twenty-third
king of Númenor, forbade visits to his kingdom by the Eldar of Eressëa. The palantíri must therefore have been smuggled to Amandil on the last Elven ship, which probably came in secret. Whatever the circumstances, think about
why the
Elves of Eressëa would give these
precious artifacts to their friend Amandil.
True, the stones allowed
the Faithful to remain secretly and securely in communication with one another, first in exile in
Númenor, then in exile in
Middle-earth. But the Elostirion stone, Elendil’s stone, only gazed west: “it looked only to the Sea.” Númenor was hidden beneath the waves: what was west of that? Eressëa;
Tirion, the origin of the stones where
Fëanor made them, and
the Master Stone yet resided in the Tower of Tirion; and Oiolossë among the Pelóri. The answer lies, I think, in the Master Stone of Tirion, and perhaps in Eressëa: the
palantír of the Dúnedain that came to be known as the Elendil Stone, kept in the Elostirion of
the White Towers Gil-galad built for his friend along the common border of their
realms,
was used to communicate with the Eldar of Eressëa, the friends of Elendil’s family since the
First Age.
Perhaps Elendil met and spoke with and touched (shaking hands, for instance) the Eldar of Eressëa before they departed forever under the threats of the tyrant Ar-Gimilzôr, and perhaps not; but his father, Amandil, certainly knew them face-to-face, for the stones were a gift to him. And through that particular stone, Amandil and later his son and heir Elendil communed with their friends in the Uttermost West even after it was removed from the Circles of the World. Their communication with the Eldar was not broken, and though impaired by uncrossable distance, remained intact.
I suspect Elendil’s sons, Anárion and particularly
Isildur, continued this friendship which had passed from father to son for around thirty generations of
Edain from their first meetings with the Eldar in
Beleriand. It may even be – and I strongly suspect it was – that Isildur’s older sons also began acquaintance and friendship through the palantír with those who knew their forefathers back into days that were recorded by
Men but no longer remembered: so the Dúnedain were enriched with the knowledge and grace of the Eldar of Eldamar, and the Eldar remained in friendship with the Dúnedain they loved.
But Isildur’s three older sons died in the battle across the
Anduin from the Gladden
Fields, and Isildur himself died in the Gladden Fields. Who then would introduce young Valandil to the Eldar kith of his kin? No one. Communication between the Eldar of Eressëa and Eldamar and the Dúnedain was forever broken.
In after days, the Eldar of Middle-earth would gaze into the stone, and there they might see a vision of
Taniquetil, of Oiolossë, where
Varda and
Manwë sat. If they communicated with their kindred in the Far West, we are not told.
But when
Elrond departed Middle-earth, he took with him the Stone of Elendil, severing forever any communication between Middle-earth and the Uttermost West.
