Middle-earth

Artifact

The Palantiri

Also known as The Seeing-stones, The Stones of Seeing

Seven great seeing-stones made in the Elder Days, brought to Middle-earth by the Numenoreans. Powerful, difficult and easily turned to evil, they play a decisive part in the War of the Ring.

Tolkien’s textsSupported by the narratives published in Tolkien’s lifetime.
Type
Object
Forged by
Feanor, in Eldamar, in the Elder Days
The Palantiri

Description

The palantiri are spheres of dark crystal in which a person of sufficient will can see things far away and, with another stone, speak to a distant viewer. They were a gift of the Eldar to the Numenoreans and were divided between the kingdoms in exile: some kept in Gondor, some in Arnor, with the chief stone of the north in the Tower Hills. They are not magic mirrors of simple convenience. Their use demands strength of mind, the images are not always reliable, and a stone can be seized and turned by a stronger will on the other side, which is exactly what Sauron does with the stone of Minas Ithil.

Powers

  • Allow a strong-willed user to see distant places and events.
  • Allow two stones to communicate across great distances.
  • Can reveal hidden things and far countries to a sufficiently powerful viewer.

Limitations

  • Require strength of will; the untrained or the proud can be hurt or deceived by them.
  • Can be dominated from the other end by a stronger will such as Sauron.
  • Some stones are limited: the stone of the Tower Hills is said to look only westward toward Eressea, and one account describes a stone that shows little but hands.

Line of owners

  1. 1

    Feanor and the Eldar

    Elder Days

    Originally made in Aman and later given to the Numenoreans.

  2. 2

    Elendil and his sons

    Second Age

    Divided between the northern and southern kingdoms after the Downfall of Numenor.

  3. 3

    The kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor

    Second Age into the Third

    Kept at Osgiliath, Minas Anor, Minas Ithil, Orthanc, Annuminas and the Tower Hills.

  4. 4

    Saruman, then the Reunited Kingdom

    Third Age into the Fourth

    The Orthanc stone passes from Saruman to the hands of the rightful kings.

Symbolism

Symbolism

Knowledge as a temptation and a danger: the wish to see everything, and the ease with which foresight becomes manipulation.

Fate

Several were lost in the wars and misfortunes of the North-kingdom. The stone of Orthanc survives into the Fourth Age under the Reunited Kingdom. The Master-stone of the Tower Hills is said in later tradition to have gone back over the Sea.

Interpretation

Reasoned analysis — not from the books

The systematic rules of the palantiri come mostly from the essay on them in Unfinished Tales; the narrative books show their use and abuse without spelling out every limit.

Characters

In the histories

Sources

  • The Lord of the Rings · 1954–55

    Three volumes: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King.

  • Unfinished Tales · 1980

    Expanded and alternative accounts of the First, Second and Third Ages.

  • The Silmarillion · 1977

    Posthumously edited. Contains the Ainulindalë, Valaquenta, Quenta Silmarillion, Akallabêth and Of the Rings of Power.

  • The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien · 1981

    Authorial commentary useful for interpretation, but not always narrative canon.

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