| Palantír | |
|---|---|
| The Lord of the Rings element | |
| First appearance | |
| Created by | J. R. R. Tolkien |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| In-universe information | |
| Type | Crystal ball |
| Function | Scrying Telepathic communication |
| Traits and abilities | Indestructible sphere of dark crystal |
Apalantír ([paˈlanˌtiːr];pl. palantíri) is one of several indestructiblecrystal balls fromJ. R. R. Tolkien'sepic-fantasy novelThe Lord of the Rings. The word comes fromQuenyapalan 'far', andtir 'watch over'.[T 1] The palantírs were used for communication and to see events in other parts ofArda, or in the past.
The palantírs were made by theElves ofValinor in theFirst Age, as told inThe Silmarillion. By the time ofThe Lord of the Rings at the end of theThird Age, a few palantírs remained in use. They are used in some climactic scenes by major characters:Sauron,Saruman,Denethor theSteward of Gondor, and two members of theCompany of the Ring:Aragorn andPippin.
A major theme of palantír usage is that while the stones show real objects or events, those using the stones had to "possess great strength of will and of mind" to direct the stone's gaze to its full capability.[T 2] The stones were an unreliable guide to action, since what was not shown could be more important than what was selectively presented. A risk lay in the fact that users with sufficient power could choose what to show and what to conceal to other stones: inThe Lord of the Rings, a palantír has fallen into the Enemy's hands, making the usefulness of all other existing stones questionable.
Commentators such as the Tolkien scholarPaul Kocher note the hand ofprovidence in their usage, whileJoseph Pearce compares Sauron's use of the stones to broadcast wartimepropaganda.Tom Shippey suggests that the message is that "speculation", looking into any sort of magic mirror (Latin:speculum) or stone to see the future, rather than trusting in providence, leads to error.
In Tolkien's fantasyThe Lord of the Rings, the palantírs were made by theElves ofValinor in the Uttermost West, by theNoldor, apparently byFëanor himself fromsilima, "that which shines". The number that he made is not stated, but there were at least eight of them. Seven of the stones given to Amandil ofNúmenor during theSecond Age were saved by his sonElendil; he took them with him toMiddle-earth, while at least the Master-stone remained behind.[1][2]
Four were taken toGondor, while three stayed in Arnor. Originally, the stones of Arnor were at Elostirion in the Tower Hills,Amon Sul (Weathertop), and Annuminas: the Elostirion stone, Elendil's own, looked only Westwards from Middle-earth across the ocean to the Master-stone at the Tower of Avallonë uponEressëa, an island off Valinor. The stones of Gondor were inOrthanc,Minas Tirith,Osgiliath, andMinas Ithil.[1]
By the time ofThe Lord of the Rings, the stone of Orthanc was in the hands of the wizardSaruman, while the stone of Minas Ithil, (by thenMinas Morgul, the city of theNazgûl), had been taken by the dark lordSauron. That of Minas Tirith remained in the hands of the Steward of Gondor,Denethor. The stone of Osgiliath had been lost in the Anduin when the city was sacked.[1][T 3] Gandalf names two of these as theOrthanc-stone and theIthil-stone.[T 4]
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A single palantír enabled its user to see places far off, or events in the past.[T 3][T 2] A person could look into a palantír to communicate with anyone looking into another palantír. They could then see "visions of the things in the mind" of the person looking into the other stone.[T 3]
The stones were made of a dark crystal, indestructible by any normal means, except perhaps the fire ofOrodruin. They ranged in size from a diameter of about a foot (30 cm) to much larger stones that could not be lifted by one person. The Stone of Osgiliath had power over other stones including the ability to eavesdrop. The minor stones required one to move around them, thereby changing the viewpoint of its vision, whereas the major stones could be turned on their axis.[T 3]
| Viewer | Image | Presenter | Incorrect assumption | Actually | Result, deceived |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Dark Lord Sauron | Pippin, ahobbit | Pippin, foolishly | Pippin is "thehalfling", and has theOne Ring; Saruman has captured it | Another halfling,Frodo, has the Ring | SendsNazgûl toOrthanc, does not watchIthilien |
| TheSteward of Gondor Denethor | Sauron's armed might, fleet ofCorsairs of Umbar approaching Gondor | Sauron, selectively | Fleet is the enemy; victory in battle impossible | Aragorn has captured the fleet | Commits suicide[4] |
| Sauron | Elendil's heir (Aragorn) withElendil's sword | Aragorn, boldly | Aragorn now has the Ring, will soon attackMordor | The Ring is on its way to Mordor | Attacks Gondor prematurely; fails to guardCirith Ungol or to watch Mordor |
A wielder of great power such asSauron could dominate a weaker user through the stone, which was the experience ofPippin Took and Saruman. Even one as powerful as Sauron could not make the palantírs "lie", or create false images; the most he could do was to selectively display truthful images to create a false impression in the viewer's mind. InThe Lord of the Rings, three such uses of the stones are described, and in each case, a true image is shown, but the viewer draws a false conclusion from the facts. This applies to Sauron when he sees Pippin in Saruman's stone and assumes that Pippin has theOne Ring, and that Saruman has therefore captured it.[3][T 4] Denethor, too, is deceived through his use of a palantír, this time by Sauron, who drives Denethor to suicide by truthfully showing him the Black Fleet approaching Gondor, without telling him that the ships are crewed byAragorn's troops, coming to Gondor's rescue.[5][4] Shippey suggests that this consistent pattern is Tolkien's way of telling the reader that one should not "speculate" – the word meaning both to try to double-guess the future, and to look into a mirror (Latin:speculum 'glass or mirror') orcrystal ball – but should trust in one'sluck and make one's own mind up,courageously facing one's duty in each situation.[3]
TheEnglish literature scholarPaul Kocher similarly noted the hand of providence:Wormtongue's throwing of the stone providentially leads to Pippin's foolish look into the stone, which deceives Sauron; and it allows Aragorn to claim the stone and use it to deceive Sauron further. This leads him to assume that Aragorn has the One Ring. That in turn provokes Sauron into a whole series of what turn out to be disastrous actions: a premature attack on Minas Tirith; a rushed exit of the army ofMinas Morgul, thus letting the hobbits through the pass ofCirith Ungol with the One Ring, and so on until the quest to destroy the ring succeeds against all odds.[7]
The Tolkien scholarJane Chance writes that Saruman's sin, inChristian terms, is to seek Godlike knowledge by gazing in a short-sighted way into the Orthanc palantír in the hope of rivalling Sauron. She quotes Tolkien's description inThe Two Towers, which states that Saruman explored "all those arts and subtle devices, for which he forsook his former wisdom".[8] She explains that he is in this way giving up actual wisdom for "mere knowledge", imagining the arts were his own but in fact coming from Sauron. This prideful self-aggrandisement leads to his fall.[8] She notes that it is ironic in this context that palantír means "far-sighted".[8]
Joseph Pearce compares Sauron's use of the seeing stones to "broadcast propaganda and sow the seeds of despair among his enemies" with the communications technologies used to spreadpropaganda in theSecond World War and then theCold War, when Tolkien was writing.[6]
A palantír appears in the film directorPeter Jackson'sThe Lord of the Rings films. The Tolkien critic Allison Harl compares Jackson to Saruman, and his camera to a palantír, writing that "Jackson chooses to look through the perilous lens, putting his camera to use to exert control over the [original Tolkien] text."[9] Harl cites Laura Mulvey's essay "Visual Pleasure and the Narrative Cinema"[10] which describes "scopophilia", thevoyeuristic pleasure of looking, based onSigmund Freud's writings on sexuality. Harl gives as an example the sequence inThe Two Towers where Jackson's camera "like the Evil Eye of Sauron" travels towards Saruman's tower, Isengard and "zooms into the dangerous palantír", in her opinion giving the cinema viewer "an omniscient and privileged perspective" consisting of a Sauron-like power to observe the whole of Middle-earth. The sequence ends fittingly, in her opinion, withMordor and theEye of Sauron, bringing the viewer, like Saruman, to meet the Enemy's gaze.[9] As a consequence of Jackson's exclusion ofThe Scouring of the Shire,Saruman is killed byWormtongue much earlier (at the beginning of the extended edition ofThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), while Gandalf acquires the Orthanc palantír afterPippin retrieves it from Saruman's corpse, instead of having Wormtongue throw it from a window of the tower.[3] Further, Sauron uses the Palantír to show Aragorn a dyingArwen, (a scene from the future) in the hope of weakening his resolve.[11]
The software data-collection companyPalantir Technologies was named by its founder,Peter Thiel, after Tolkien's seeing stones.[12]
Anastronomical telescope at theLowell Observatory, using a main mirror with sphericalcurvature, has the acronym PALANTIR.[13] This stands for Precision Array of Large-Aperture New Telescopes for Image Reconstruction, and is meant to reference the "far-seeing stones in[The] Lord of the Rings".[14]
