What Actually Are The Palantiri?

What are the palantiri, those magical seeing stones in The Lord of the Rings? What can they do, and what’s their history? Let’s take a look. Hi everyone, this is Robert. Welcome to In Deep Geek. Here we cover The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien’s wide legendarium in full, as well as covering other great fantasy worlds like A Song of Ice and Fire and The Witcher. Tolkien was a great lover of myth and legend and often took ideas that he found there and put his own spin on them so that when we discover them in his stories, we already have an instinctive understanding of what we are looking at. As such, the palantiri were Tolkien’s take on the crystal balls traditionally associated with divination and far-seeing. But as well as the similarities, they are perfect spheres made of dark semi-translucent crystal through which you can see things magically that others can’t. There are, of course, differences, and rare for Tolkien, he explains and quantifies a lot of the magic going on here. Most of the time, he uses quite a soft magic system, keeping the mystery of magic by not explaining exactly how it works, but here he gives more details. We get the fullest description of how they work in Unfinished Tales, but essentially palantir means "that which looks far away," and this was their primary function as a sort of magical telescope. Their optical zoom was most effective at a certain distance. For the smaller palantiri, which were about a foot in diameter, it was about 500 miles. Much nearer or further would be blurry, like looking through lenses of the wrong prescription. The greater palantiri, however, some of which were too large even to lift, could see greater distances, thousands of miles. And it wasn’t just distance they could look through. Palantiri could also look far away in time to the past, the further back in time the clearer. So you couldn’t easily look back to things that happened last week, say for example. Despite Aragorn knowing on March the 16th that Frodo had been on Henith Anoon on March the 8th, he could not have used the Orthank Stone to follow Frodo’s movements from that time to the present. It would be like looking through a telescope at a person at an entryway. Another limitation is that, like a telescope in their function of viewing far-off times and places, palantiri can only receive images, not sounds. They can see through objects such as walls by zooming in and out but cannot see things in the dark. You still needed your own eyesight, and crucially, also like a telescope, you only see things in the exact direction in which you are looking through the palantir. You can’t just pick it up and see anything. You have to look in the right direction. There’s an important story point here. When Pippin picked up the Orthank Stone and looked into it and saw Sauron, or Sauron saw him, Tolkien is clear that it was by chance, as men call it, that he was pointing towards Mordor. He could have been looking towards the Lonely Mountain or the Shire or some random place down in Far Harad, but no, the clear implication is that he was meant to do that, and it was fortunate because Sauron was looking for a hobbit and found one, just the wrong one. Anyway, a secondary function of the palantir is for long-distance video calls. Again, this doesn’t actually involve sound; it’s all about transferred thoughts. Tolkien tells us that the palantiri could not themselves survey men’s minds at unawares or unwilling, hence this sometimes becomes a bit of a battle of wills, such as when Aragorn and Sauron connected by the palantir. So that’s what they were, but why were they in Middle-earth? Where did they come from? When Gandalf explains the palantiri to Pippin, he says that they come from beyond the West, from Eldamar. The Noldor made them. Fëanor himself maybe wrought them in days so long ago that the time cannot be measured in years. Fëanor was the greatest Elvish craftsman. He would go on to make the Silmarils, and Gandalf was right in guessing that he was indeed their inventor and fashioned the first few at least in Valinor. That said, we don’t know much more about their creation or even how many were made. We’re told that the masters who could make them were few and that their making was even beyond the art of either Sauron or Saruman, so no more could be made in Middle-earth. The only ones that were there were ones that came over from Valinor, and they could not be replaced, not that destroying them would be easy because they were indeed unbreakable by any violence, then controlled by men, though some believed that great heat, such as that of Orodruin, might shatter them. So they were forged back in the mists of time in Valinor. How did some of them end up in Middle-earth? Tolkien doesn’t tell us all the details, but they ended up in the Second Age of Middle-earth on Tol Eressëa, the island just off the coast of Valinor. Perhaps Fëanor and the Noldor elves took them with them to Middle-earth. Then they got brought back in the chaos of the War of Wrath. We don’t know, but they were definitely in Tol Eressëa towards the end of the Second Age. The Second Age was the age of Númenor, and for many years there was a positive relationship between Númenor and the elves of Tol Eressëa. But then, as the Second Age drew to a close, the shadow fell on Númenor, and only a minority of Númenóreans kept the faith. The Tol Eressëa elves were not permitted anymore to travel to Númenor. So towards the end of the Second Age, seven of the palantiri were given to the elf friends of Númenor, specifically to Amandil, grandfather of Isildur, as a comfort to the faithful, as the elves would no longer be permitted to visit Númenor. At least one palantir, the master stone, was kept in Tol Eressëa so they could keep in contact or at least see Avallónë, and one of the seven was locked onto that. Númenor fell near the end of the Second Age, but the faithful managed to smuggle the seven palantiri out in the fleets of Elendil, Isildur, and Anárion. They were accounted the greatest of all the treasures preserved from Númenor, equal only to the White Tree saved by Isildur. When Elendil and his sons established their two successor states, Arnor and Gondor, they placed these palantiri in strategic locations. Gondor possessed four stones. Three of these were minor stones, though still very powerful, each about a foot in diameter and more limited in their capabilities. They were situated in Minas Anor, which became Minas Tirith; Minas Ithil, which became Minas Morgul; and Isengard, which for most of its history was a possession of Gondor, not Saruman. Then there was a larger palantir, which had some control over those other three stones, which resided in the Dome of the Stars in Osgiliath, the original capital of Gondor. In Arnor’s original capital, Annúminas, there was another minor stone. Their major stone was atop Weathertop, a crucial lookout point and watchtower where much later the Nazgûl attacked Frodo. Arnor’s third stone was unlike the others and not capable of communicating with them. This was the one which looked ever westward. It was kept atop the town of Elostirion, the tallest of the three Elven towers just beyond the borders of the Shire. Elendil set it there so that he could look back with straight sight and see Eressëa in the vanishing West. The idea was that the two kingdoms could use the stones to more easily communicate with each other and keep an eye on their kingdoms, which was a good idea but doomed to failure. By the time of The Lord of the Rings, most were lost or forgotten. Over several centuries, the northern kingdom of Arnor was slowly destroyed, first dividing into three smaller kingdoms of Arthedain, Cardolan, and Rhudaur, then falling bit by bit to the relentless assaults of the Witch-king of Angmar. Arthedain was the last to fall and removed the Weathertop and Elostirion stones to the city of Fornost. King Arvedui’s desperate plea for help from the southern kingdom of Gondor was probably the last time those stones were used. Sadly, that help was too...

Rings and tolkien's wide legendarium in full as well as covering other great fantasy worlds Like A Song of Ice and Fire And The Witcher Tolkien was a great lover of myth and Legend and often took ideas that he

found there and put his own spin on them so that when we discover them in his stories we already have an instinctive understanding of what we are looking at as such the palantiri were tolkien's take on the crystal balls traditionally

associated with divination and far-seeing but as well as the similarities they are perfect spheres made of Dark semi-translucent Crystal through which you can see things magically that others can't there are of course differences and rare for Tolkien he explains and

quantifies a lot of the magic going on here most of the time he uses quite a soft magic system keeping the mystery of Magic by not explaining exactly how it works but here he gives more details we get the fullest description of how

they work in unfinished Tales but essentially palantir means that which looks far away and this was their primary function as a sort of magical telescope their optical zoom was most effective at a certain distance for the smaller palantiri which were about a

foot in diameter it was about 500 Miles much nearer or further would be blurry like looking through lenses of the wrong prescription the greater palantiri however some of which were too large even to lift could see greater distances thousands of miles

and it wasn't just distance they could look through palantiri could also look far away in time to the past the further back in time the clearer so you couldn't easily look back to things that happened last week say for example despite

Aragorn knowing on March the 16th that Frodo had been on henith anoon on March the 8th he could not have used the orthankstone to follow Frodo's movements from that time to the present it would be like looking through a telescope at a

person an entryway another limitation is that like a telescope in their function of viewing far-off times and places palantiri can only receive images not sounds they can see through objects such as Walls by zooming in and out but cannot see things

in the dark you still needed your own eyesight and crucially also like a telescope you only see things in the exact direction in which you are looking through the palantir you can't just pick it up and see anything you have to look

in the right direction there's an important story Point here when Pippin picked up the all thanks Stone and looked into and saw Sauron or Sauron saw him Tolkien is clear that it was by chance as men call it that he was

pointing towards Mordor he could have been looking towards the Lonely Mountain or the Shire or some random place down in Farhad but no the clear implication is that he was meant to do that and it was fortunate because Sauron was looking

for a hobbit and found one just the wrong one anyway a secondary function of the palantir is for long distance video calls again this doesn't actually involve sound it's all about transferred thoughts Tolkien tells us that the palantiri could not themselves survey

men's Minds at unawares or unwilling hence this sometimes becomes a bit of a battle of wills such as when Aragorn and Sauron connected by the palantir so that's what they were but why were they in Middle Earth where did they come

from when Gandalf explains the palantirito Pippin he says that they come from Beyond the Western s from eldemar the noldor made them feyeno himself maybe wrought them in days so long ago that the time cannot be measured in years

feyenoor was the greatest Elvish Craftsman he would go on to make the silmarils and Gandalf was right in guessing that he was indeed their inventor and fashioned the first few at least in valinor that said we don't know

much more about their creation or even how many were made we're told that the Masters who could make them were few and that their making was even Beyond The Art of either Sauron or Sarah man so no more could be made in Middle Earth the

only ones that were there were ones that came over from valinor and they could not be replaced not that destroying them would be easy because they were indeed Unbreakable by any violence then controlled by men though some believed

that great heat such as that of oradruin Might shatter them so they were forged back in The Mists of time in valinor how did some of them end up in Middle Earth Tolkien doesn't tell us all the details

but they ended up in the second age of Middle Earth on toll erasaya the island just off the coast of valinor perhaps svenor and the noldor elves took them with them to Middle Earth then they got brought back in the chaos of the war of

Roth we don't know but they were definitely until erase towards the end of the second age the second age was the age of numenor and for many years there was a positive relationship between numenor and the elves of tol erase but then as the

second age Drew to a close the shadow fell on numenor and only a minority of numenoreans kept the faith the tall erase and elves were not permitted anymore to travel to numenor so towards the end of the second age seven of the

palantiri were given to the elf friends of numenor specifically to a Mandel grandfather of isildura as a comfort to the faithful as the elves would no longer be permitted to visit numenor at least one palantir the master Stone was

kept in tol eraser so they could keep in contact or at least see avalone and one of the seven was locked onto that numenor fell near the end of the second age but the faithful managed to smuggle the seven palantiri out in the fleets of

elendil isildur and anarian they were accounted the greatest of all the treasures preserved from numenor equal only to the white tree saved by isilda when elendil and his sons established their two successor States arnor and Gondor they placed these palantiri in

strategic locations Gondor possessed four Stones three of these were minor Stones though still very powerful each about a foot in diameter and more limited in their capabilities they were situated in Minas Anor which became ministeris minus ethyl which became

minus morgul and eisengard which for most of its history was a possession of Gondor not sanamman then there was a larger palantir which had some control over those other three stones which resided in the Dome of the stars in

australiath the original capital of Gondor in arnor's original capital anuminesce was another minor Stone their major Stone was a top weather top a crucial Lookout Point and Watchtower where much later the Nazgul attacked Frodo Arnold's third Stone was unlike

the others and not capable of communicating with them this was the one which looked ever Westward it was kept atop the town of elusterion the tallest of the three Elven Towers just beyond the borders of the Shire elendil set it there so that he could

look back with straight sight and see eraser in the vanishing West the idea was that the two kingdoms could use the stones to more easily communicate with each other and keep an eye on Their Kingdoms which was a good

idea but doomed to failure by the time of The Lord of the Rings most were lost or forgotten over several centuries the northern kingdom of Arnold was slowly destroyed first dividing into three smaller kingdoms of arthurdine cardallan and

through door then falling bit by bit to the Relentless assaults of the witch king of angma arthurdine was the last to fall and removed the weathertop and illuminous stones to the city of fornost King ardovi's desperate plea for help

from the southern Kingdom of Gondor was probably the last time those stones were used sadly that help was too late in coming and out of we had to abandon his City taking the two palantiri with him into Exile North where he was given

Shelter by the losoth people sent a ship to bring them to safety but it had barely set off back with them when Ice broke its Hull and both palantiri as well as the king and many others died lost at the bottom of the

Frozen sea the third Northern Stone their elosterian Stone may have technically been owned by arnor but had hardly been used by humans other than the lender that was the one that was locked onto a view of the island of tol eraser so less

useful in terms of governing the kingdom and with the kingdom of arnor now gone kildan kept it where it was but under lock and key under his protection it was lost from Human memory though elves still traveled there from time to time

to gaze westwards so that's what happened to the three stones of the kingdom of arnor meanwhile in Gondor things were also not going well a marriage between the heir to the throne and a woman of apparent lesser lineage led to a succession

crisis and subsequent civil war known as the kinstrife during this in 1437 the capital city oskiliath was besieged and burned with parts collapsing into the anduin river including the tower holding its palantir the stone sank into the waters and was lost forevermore

that left three another fell in the year 2002 of the third age the Nazgul sacked minus ethyl known afterwards as miness morgul and the ethyl Stone went missing it was taken to baradur and this was the one that Sauron was using during the

Lord of the Rings although nobody knew for sure that it had fallen into the hands of the enemy the possibility was taken very seriously particularly as that stone was the palantir most closely in accord with that of ministereth so

none of the Kings or stewards of Gondor dared to use the minister of stone until denethor it was kept hidden and known only to the ruler of ministerith and therefore largely forgotten by everyone else the final Stone the all thanks Stone was

also forgotten over centuries more tragedies struck Gondor and their Kingdom shrank and all thank an impregnable Fortress built with numenorean technology or magic none now understood was as good a place as any to hide the potentially dangerous artifact

when saraman took over the keys to orthank later in the third age it will actually have felt like a blessing to the stewards of condor they had long since given up using the stones and who better to entrust with its safety than

the head of the white Council himself not that saraman had told anyone he was looking for it or had found it which brings us up to the build up to the Lord of the Rings of the Seven original Stones three were now lost at

the bottom of the Seas and one was under Kier Dan's control but could only look West anyway but the other three would all play a role in the war to come one was in sauron's control in barador and

the other two had not been used for a very long time but were in possession of Saruman and denethor before saraman dared to use his denethor did the first ruling Steward to do so probably immediately upon becoming Steward in 2984. this is evidenced by

the fact that he was unusually aged for one of numenorian noble descent there was a certain strain inherent to using the palantiri though this was less for one with the authority to use them as with Aragorn and denethor such strained

denethor could probably have endured his aging was primarily due to contesting his will against saurons we often dismiss denethor as being weak but that's not how Tolkien saw it defending denethor's actions a little he must have guessed that the Ethel

Stone was in evil hands and risked contact with it trusting his strength his trust was not entirely unjustified Sauron failed to dominate him and could only influence him by deceits contrast that with Sarah man a Maya of Greater intrinsic power but less right

to wield the palantir he finally used his own Stone around the year 3000 probably as part of his search for the ring whereas denethor strove against Sauron saraman quickly came under the Dark Lord's domination so using the palantiri was not like

using the ring they were neither made nor controlled by Sauron nor was he always aware of when one of them was being used as Tolkien says the stones were only a small item in sauron's vast designs and operations a means of dominating and

deluding two of his opponents but he would not and could not have the Ethel Stone under Perpetual observation it was not his way to commit such instruments to subordinates nor had he any servants whose mental Powers were Superior to

sarumans or even dinosaurs so denethor and salamand often used their palantiri for observation without making contact with Sauron Sarah Mann looking for the ring and denethor obsessing over the strength of Mordor and the rise of Aragorn sometime after the uduks captured Marion

Pippin Sarah man ceased to regularly report to Sauron via his palantir thinking that one of those Hobbits possessed the ring Sarah man ordered them brought to him betraying his alliance with Mordor after the ants captured eisengard and all his plans

crashed down around him saraman refused Gandalf's overdures thinking that he could explain his actions to Sauron via the stone but this is when fate intervened grima not knowing the palantir's power or purpose tried to kill Sarah man with it or perhaps

scandalf by hurting it at them whatever his Target he missed and the stone was recovered by Pippin this was important because it meant that on March the 5th and 6th Pippin and Aragorn respectively made contact with Sauron through the

palantir Pippin not really knowing what he was doing just being a took an Aragorn intentionally Sauron speculated wrongly about what he then saw and his actions were then Guided by a very wrong idea of what was going on on seeing Pippin Sauron decided

that this Hobbit must have been the ring bearer captive in Isengard and dispatched a Nazgul there to retrieve it on seeing Aragorn several hours later Saron then assumed that isildur's Heir had overthrown orthank and taken the ring for himself

such speculation directly contributed to sauron's downfall as Aragorn intended it drew the eye away from Mordor allowing Frodo to pass through once seen by Sauron when Aragorn later marched on Mordor itself it was clearly a bluff but a bluff that only worked because of what

Sauron had seen through the palantir and the assumptions he had made such is a fascinating example of an object with power over nature the machine as Tolkien would term it of being not merely a tool of the enemy but

dangerous in and of itself even to the enemy still Aragorn used it for good upon mastering the stone he also used it to perceive the Peril of the corsairs of umbar a force coming to attack ministereth from the south and decided

to pass through the paths of the Dead to deal with it without this Minister if May well have fallen the next unknown use of a palantir occurred on March the 13th within an hour of faramir returning wounded to

ministerith it was only in this final confrontation with Sauron that denethor was finally driven to full despair Sauron showed him the Black Sails of the corsairs coming up the anduin dinosaur speculated that this Fleet would be reinforcing the forces of Mordor tipping

the scales further in its favor in truth Aragorn had by then captured the corsairs at palagia earlier that day and was racing to rescue the city Dennis saw disaster where really there was salvation driven to his despair denethor committed

self-immolation Upon A funerary pyre on the early hours of March the 15th clasping the Arnold Stone as he burned and it was said that ever after if any man looked in that stone for it was not destroyed by the fire unless he had

great strength of will to turn it to other purpose he saw only two aged hands withering in flame ten days later on March the 25th Mount Doom erupted and its fires were presumed to have destroyed the ithel stone in

ballador finally on September the 29th 3021 kirdan placed the elosterian stone aboard the ring bearer's ship to avaloni thus at the start of the fourth age only two palantiri remained in Middle Earth three had been drowned the australiath

stone in the anduin and the anumanasan Amon Soul stones in fullerkel in the Frozen North one more was destroyed or buried so deep underground to never be found again the ethyl stone at barador and one went West the elastidian stone

of the two that remained due to denethor few had sufficient strength of will to make use of that one but the all thanks Stone remained Ever After in Aragorn's possession and he used it for the purpose it was intended as king to

survey what was happening throughout Israel he presumably passed the palantir down to his successors but what became of it in ages to come is an Untold Tale palantiri were never going to just be tolkien's take on crystal balls

incredibly powerful and given as a gift they could and should have blessed the land but like so many Technologies if they are approached with ill intent or arrogance they can do much harm or deeper still Tolkien uses the palantiri

to show us more about the person using them than the technology itself denethor's despair leads him to see enemies approaching ministereth when in fact it is Friends Sauron sees a hobbit to then Aragorn and assumes that Aragorn has seized the ring for himself because

that's what Sauron would do grima usually so subtle and nefarious throws the orthank stone in anger because that's who he really is under the surface inside a very angry man Tolkien may have given us magical seeing stones but as a literary device he used

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