Palantír

A palantír (plural palantíri), meaning "that which looks far away" in the Elvish tongue Quenya, is one of a set of seeing-stones made in the First Age by the Elves of Valinor and brought to Middle-earth in the Second Age. The palantíri are dark crystal spheres of great power, by which one who masters a stone may see distant places and times and communicate mind to mind with the keeper of another stone. They are among the most significant artifacts in The Lord of the Rings.

The stones came to the realms of Gondor and Arnor among the heirlooms of the Númenóreans, having been a gift of the Elves to Elendil's forebears. Over the long ages many were lost, and those that remained became objects of peril as well as power.

Description and use

A palantír appears as a flawless sphere of dark glass or crystal. By concentration of will, a viewer can use it to perceive far-off scenes and to look into other stones, which are all attuned to one another. The greater the strength of will of the user, the more they can direct what the stone shows and to what other stone it turns. The stones do not lie in what they show, but a strong will at the other end can choose what is revealed, and so the truth seen through a palantír may be made to deceive.

History in the narrative

By the time of The Lord of the Rings, several palantíri had passed out of knowledge or into hostile hands. Sauron had gained control of the Ithil-stone from the fallen city of Minas Ithil, which had become Minas Morgul. Through it he was able to ensnare and corrupt Denethor, the Steward of Gondor, who used the Anor-stone of Minas Tirith and was driven to despair by the images Sauron allowed him to see.

The Orthanc-stone, kept in the tower of Isengard, was used by the wizard Saruman, and through it he too fell under Sauron's influence. After the fall of Isengard, the hobbit Pippin looked into the Orthanc-stone and was nearly undone, after which Aragorn, as the rightful heir of Elendil, dared to use it to reveal himself to Sauron and turn the Dark Lord's own gaze against him.

Significance

The palantíri illustrate one of Tolkien's recurring themes: that even tools of great craft and lawful origin become snares when Sauron can twist their use. The stones repeatedly bring ruin to those, such as Denethor and Saruman, who trust to them and are deceived by partial truths, while in the hand of the rightful heir Aragorn a stone becomes a means of bold and decisive action.