The Lord of the Rings: The Palantir (Part Four and Last)

The Tale 

Shadowfax goes flying over the plain, carrying Gandalf and Pippin with surprising speed. In an hour they pass the Fords of Isen. Pippin is very comfortable and feels safe with Gandalf; the horror of his encounter is passing away with the land behind him. Pippin notices that Gandalf rides Shadowfax ‘elf-fashion’, without saddle or bridle. Gandalf says he only does this on Shadowfax, as the horse makes it his business to keep the rider he chooses on his back. Shadowfax is now easily running as fast as the fastest horse can go, and this is not a stretch for him.

The two fall silent a while, and Gandalf begins singing verses and snatches of song. Finally one comes clear and peaks Pippin’s interest.

The hobbit asks what he’s doing, and Gandalf says he is running over a few Rhymes of Lore. Hobbits might have forgotten them, if they ever knew them. Pippin asks what are the seven stars and seven stones? The seven stones, Gandalf replies, were the Palantiri of the Kings of Old; the name means that which looks far away. The Orthanc-stone that Pippin looked into was one.

They weren’t made by the Enemy, then, asks Pippin hesitantly. No, nor by Saruman; the work is beyond either of them. They were made by the Noldorin elves in Eldamar beyond the sea. Maybe even the great craftsman Feanor himself made them. Saruman must have found one hidden in Orthanc and never told the White Council.

Pippin is delighted to be getting so many answers and asks what the stones were for. They were used to see things far off and communicate in thought with each other, Gandalf answers. There were palantiri at Minas Anor and Minas Ithil and at Orthanc, and at Annuminas, Amon Sul, and at the Tower Hills in the east. But the great stone at Osgiliath could look at all the others all at once and was so big it could not be lifted by a single man.

Saruman, after he found the Orthanc-stone, could gaze afar, and he must have looked farther and farther until he looked to Barad-dur. Then he was caught! For Sauron had at least one of the lost stones, probably that of Minas Ithil, because he conquered that city long ago, changing its name to Minas Morgul. Sauron would have persuaded him to his service or daunted him by fear. ‘The biter bit, the hawk under the eagle’s foot, the spider in a steel web!’ So often have they communicated that it would take an adamant will to look elsewhere. It’s no wonder Pippin was taken to him automatically.

Gandalf sighs. He had not realized right away that the stone was indeed a Palantir; it was just as well that Pippin accidentally had discovered its nature before the wizard could look into it. Even now he feels its draw, to look into the past age and see the fair city of Tirion and Feanor at work, while the Two Trees were still in bloom.

Pippin wishes he had known before; he had no idea what he was doing. But he did, counters Gandalf. Pippin knew he was acting wrongly and foolishly, but wouldn’t listen to himself, and if Gandalf had been able to explain it to him it wouldn’t have lessened the temptation. ‘No, the burned hand teaches best. After that advice about fire goes to the heart.’ Pippin agrees. If all seven stones were before him now, he’d shut his eyes and put his hands in his pockets. But he would like to know …

Mercy! cries Gandalf. If answering questions will cure Pippin’s curiosity, he’ll spend the rest of his days talking to the young hobbit. What more does he want to know?

‘The names of all the stars, and of all living things, and the whole history of Middle-earth and Over-heaven and of the Sundering Seas,’ laughed Pippin. ‘Of course! What less?’ But what he wants to know now is what the wizard meant by a ‘messenger of Mordor’?

It was a Black Rider on wings, a Nazgul, apparently headed for Isengard. ‘It could have taken you away to the Dark Tower.’ Pippin is worried that it might have been coming for him on purpose. Of course not, Gandalf replies. It’s two hundred leagues or so between Barad-dur and Isengard: it would take even a Nazgul a few hours to fly between them.

But ‘Saruman will come to the last pinch of the vice that he put his hand in.’ Sauron has probably read more in his thought than he knew, knowing he wants the Ring for himself. Without the stone to communicate, Sauron will no doubt assume that Saruman is rebelling against him. While in Orthanc, Saruman might still have the power to repel the Nazgul, maybe even slay their flying beasts.

But he may also try to bargain with the Dark Lord with information. He might tell him of Gandalf standing at Orthanc with hobbits in tow, or that ‘the Heir of Elendil lives and stood with me’, for Wormtongue heard that title at Edoras. ‘And so we fly – not from danger but into greater danger.’ Each stride of Shadowfax brings them closer to Mordor.

Pippin asks, weren’t they headed for Edoras? No, they’re going to Minas Tirith now, ‘before the seas of war surround it.’ They’ll ride until morning, when even Shadowfax must rest a while. Then they must go on; their hope is now in speed. Gandalf urges Shadowfax on. The great horse tosses his head, cries aloud, and springs forward, fire flying from his feet.

‘As he fell slowly into sleep, Pippin had a strange feeling: he and Gandalf were still as stone, seated upon a statue of a running horse, while the world rolled away beneath his feet with a great noise of wind.’

Bits and Bobs

Tirion

And with that we come to the end of the chapter, the end of this ‘book’ in The Two Towers and half-way through the entire The Lord of the Rings. The next book and last half of The Two Towers is called The Journey to Mordor and takes up again the story of Frodo and Sam and their lonely efforts to reach Mt. Doom, along with the unexpected, dangerous, and peculiar guide that they pick up along the way.

This part of the chapter is very lore-heavy and filled with many names that are introduced with little explanation. The Noldorin are a kindred of the Elves given to technical skills, strength, and ambition, and Feanor was the Noldorin Elf who made the Silmarils and led his people to Middle-earth to regain them from the first Dark Lord, Morgoth. Eldamar was the region of the Undying Lands appointed as the homeland of the Elves, and Tirion was the city of the Noldor there. Annuminas (Tower of the West) was once the capital of the Kingdom of Anor, located on the southern shores of Lake Evendim (north of what would become the Shire), Amon Sul is Weathertop, Minas Anor (the Tower of the Sun) became Minas Tirith (the Tower of Guard), and as explained, Minas Ithil (the Tower of the Moon) became Minas Morgul (the Tower of Black Sorcery).

Annuminas

“Over-heaven, contrasted with Middle-earth, is a name used by Peregrin Took. It means the same as Quenya Menel 'Heaven' or Tarmenel 'High Heaven'. Over-heaven is a word translated from Westron to English, based on Old Norse uphiminn.” – The Tolkien Gateway. It seems to apply to the upper atmosphere and not to anything more mystical.

Gandalf reminding Pippin of the distance between Orthanc and Barad-dur and how long it would take even a Nazgul to travel between them is another reminder that, even in a fantasy land like Middle-earth, ‘miles are miles.’

It is probably a planned irony that the name for the dangerous device palantir (‘that which looks far away’) is the same as German fernseher (‘far seer’), or, as we would say, television, a machine Tolkien would have been well-aware of since its development during the Thirties and its popularity after WWII.