They are among the most interesting, powerful, and mysterious devices in Middle-earth.
Created before the ages of the world began and used through the days of The Lord of the Rings.
Today on Nerd of the Rings, we cover the palantiri, the Seeing Stones.
It is believed the palantiri were created by Feanor during the early days of the world in Valinor.
Feanor, who is best known for his creation of the silmarils, created many of these seeing
stones, though we don’t know exactly how many.
There are a total of eight palantiri that we know of for certain.
The first, and greatest we know of is the Master-stone - the chief of all the palantiri.
It was placed in the Tower of Avallone on the island of Tol Eressea.
The others we know of come into play later and in Middle-earth rather than Valinor.
In the latter part of the Second Age, Numenor is split into two factions - one is the King’s
Men, who have come to covet the elves' immortality and have fallen to Morgoth worship under the
guidance of Sauron.
The other, smaller group is known as The Faithful.
In those days, the elves give the palantiri to Amandil - the father of Elendil.
They did so in an effort to comfort the faithful numenoreans since they themselves were no
longer welcome in the land which had fallen to Sauron’s influence.
We are never told where these palantiri were or who possessed them during the First Age.
When Numenor is destroyed in 3319 SA, Elendil and his sons escape and take with them the
seven seeing stones.
They sail to Middle-earth as survivors of their once great kingdom.
As Elendil, Anarion, and Isildur establish the realms of Gondor and Arnor, Elendil stations
three palantiri in his northern kingdom, while placing four in the southern kingdom where his sons dwell.
We will begin in the north.
First, we have the Elendil-stone, also known as the Elostirion-stone.
Elendil places the palantir so that it is aligned West towards the Master-stone on Tol
Eressea across the sea.
It is said this stone could not make contact with the other 6 in Middle-earth, but only
Elendil was able to use it to look West to the Undying Lands.
Numenor, he could not see, for it was covered by the sea forever.
While Elendil was the only man to use the stone, the elves of Cirdan cared for it in
later days in it’s tower at Emyn Beraid.
Over the centuries, even after Arnor falls in it’s wars with the Witch-King, groups
of elves would make pilgrimages to the palantir, with which they could glimpse Varda in Valinor
- the most revered of all the Valar among the elves.
In fact, the group led by Gildor, which Frodo, Sam, and Pippin meet were returning from such a trip.
The Elendil-stone would remain in its tower until after Sauron’s downfall.
It is then taken back to Valinor on the White Ship along with the ringbearers of Middle-earth.
Next, we have the stones of Amon Sul and Annuminas.
Annuminas was the original capital of the kingdom of Arnor and the stone would remain
there throughout Arnor’s existence and when the realm is split into three in 861 TA, it
remains with the kingdom of Arthedain.
The Amon Sul-stone was placed in the great watchtower by Elendil as an important location in Arnor.
When Arnor is split, Arthedain, Rhudaur, and Cardolan each lay claim to Amon Sul in large
part because they wanted control of the palantir.
When Amon Sul is destroyed by the Witch-King’s army in 1409 TA, the stone is taken to Fornost
- the second capital of Arnor, and later Arthedain.
Nearly 600 years later (1974 TA), what remains of Arthedain is facing it’s final days and
is being overrun by Angmar.
It’s last king, Arvedui manages to save both the Annuminas and Amon Sul stones from
the Witch-king’s army and flees to the far north.
There, he is helped by the Lossoth people, who warn him that he should wait out the Witch-King
there rather than boarding a boat in the northern sea.
Arvedui ignores this advice and boards the ship.
The ship’s hull is crushed by ice and Arvedui, and his two seeing stones are lost to the sea.
As we make our way to the southern realm of Gondor, let’s cover how the Palantiri actually
work and what their capabilities are.
Their first purpose, which we get a sense of in the Peter Jackson adaptations, is to
communicate with one another.
But as you may have wondered as we talked about the Elendil-stone - a palantir had to
be aligned properly in order for it to communicate with other stones.
Essentially, the stones had axis, which had to be pointing up and down in order to work.
When someone wanted to use a palantir, they would orient themselves so they themselves
would also face the direction they wished to communicate.
The surveyor then sends their thoughts by thinking what they wished to say.
On the other end, the user would hear those thoughts in their mind.
This method of communication is an example of Osanwe - a Quenya term meaning “interchange of thought”.
Now what you might not realize if you primarily know the films, is that the palantiri could
also be used to see people and places throughout Middle-earth, though this requires much more
skill by the surveyor.
The only limitations on what they could see in addition to the will of the user were darkness
and shrouding.
Shrouding was the technique where one could keep their actions secret from any potential
use of a palantir.
If someone tried to view a person using this technique, the surveyor would only see a shadow
or a deep mist.
The knowledge of how to use shrouding was one of the lost mysteries of the palantiri.
The largest of all the Middle-earth palantiri - and the chief of the seven in Middle-earth
- is placed in Osgiliath, the capital city of Gondor.
It is so large it cannot be lifted by a single man.
It is placed in a chamber known as ost-giliath (the Dome of Stars), named for its ceiling
which was painted to look like a starry sky.
This stone, being the master, had the unique ability to spy on the other stones.
The Osgiliath-stone is the first of the seven to be lost.
From 1432-1447, Gondor is consumed by a civil war known as the kin-strife.
In 1437, in the midst of this conflict, the city of Osgiliath is burned.
As the city is engulfed in flames, the Palantir is lost in the River Anduin and would never
be retrieved.
Finally, we have the three remaining palantiri that come into play during the Lord of the Rings.
The Ithil-stone was placed in Isildur’s city of Minas Ithil.
Roughly 30 years after Arvedui and his palantiri are lost to the sea (2002 TA), the city of
Minas Ithil is attacked and captured by the Nazgul and transformed into the city of Minas Morgul.
The Ithil-stone was taken by the Nazgul to Barad-dur, where Sauron would use it to influence
both Saruman and Denethor.
It’s possible the Ithil-stone was destroyed when Barad-dur is destroyed at the end of
the War of the Ring.
In the city of Minas Tirith, we have the Anor-stone - named for the original title of the city - Minas Anor.
After the line of kings ends in 2050, the palantir is kept secret by the Ruling Stewards
of Gondor.
It would go unused until Denethor begins to use it after becoming Steward, with his realm
falling under the Shadow of Mordor and the growing threat of Sauron.
Denethor, who uses the stone to watch his lands, comes to engage Sauron in a battle
of wills while both are using their respective palantiri.
In a testament to his incredible strength of will, Denethor is not corrupted by the dark lord.
The toll of this effort does however, cause Denethor to age prematurely and leads him
to despair about the future of Gondor.
Another im Denethor is holding the stone as he burns on the pyre in his final moments of life.
As for the stone, it is said that after this only those of extraordinary power could see
anything in the stone except two flaming hands.
Finally, we have the Orthanc-stone.
This palantir is placed in the Tower of Orthanc at Isengard.
By the late third age, as the kings of Gondor are long gone, the stone of Orthanc is nearly
forgotten by the Stewards.
It is partially due to this stone that Saruman offers to take up residence in Orthanc - in
hopes of obtaining the stone for himself.
In 2759 TA, Saruman is given the Key of Orthanc by Steward Beren of Gondor and welcomed by
King Frealaf of Rohan to become their northern ally.
There, just as he expected, he finds the Palantir of Orthanc in its rightful place.
Roughly 250 years later (3000 TA), Saruman uses the palantir for the first time.
By now, Sauron has the Ithil stone in Barad-dur, and unlike Denethor, he is able to wrestle
the Orthanc-stone - and the wizard - to his will.
After the Parley with Saruman, Wormtongue - not realizing what it is - throws the Orthanc-stone
at Gandalf and the others.
Pippin uses the stone later that night, causing Sauron to see him and assume Pippin is the
halfling carrying the One Ring.
Knowing what we now know of how the palantiri work, we realize it was by chance that as
Pippin is fumbling with the Orthanc-stone that he sets it properly on his axis.
He himself sitting on it’s western side, pointing toward Barad-dur, allowing Sauron
to communicate with him.
Soon after this, Aragorn would also use this stone - revealing himself to be the heir of
Isildur and that he possessed the reforged sword of Elendil.
This leads Sauron into open war with Gondor, keeping his eye on Aragorn and the men of
Middle-earth, rather than his own lands and the hobbits making their way to Mount Doom.
In the end, the Orthanc-stone is the only stone to remain in Middle-earth into the Fourth
Age and to be wholly usable and unmarred.
Like so many things throughout the History of Middle-earth, these once great relics are
largely lost to time, only remaining in tales and songs, such as the one Gandalf tells to
Pippin as they travel to Minas Tirith...
Tall ships and tall kings Three times three,
What brought they from the foundered land Over the flowing sea?
Seven stars and seven stones And one white tree.
What other relics or objects from Middle-earth would you like me to cover in a future video
- let me know in the comments!