Unfinished Tales

by J. R. R. Tolkien

  Alone the palantíri could only ‘see’: they did not transmit sound. Ungoverned by a directing mind they were wayward, and their ‘visions’ were (apparently at least) haphazard. From a high place their westward face, for instance, would look to vast distance, its vision blurred and distorted to either side and above and below, and its foreground obscured by things behind receding in ever-diminishing clarity. Also, what they ‘saw’ was directed or hindered by chance, by darkness, or by ‘shrouding’ (see below). The vision of the palantíri was not ‘blinded’ or ‘occluded’ by physical obstacles, but only by darkness; so they could look through a mountain as they could look through a patch of dark or shadow, but see nothing within that did not receive some light. They could see through walls but see nothing within rooms, caves, or vaults unless some light fell on it; and they could not themselves provide or project light. It was possible to guard against their sight by the process called ‘shrouding’, by which certain things or areas would be seen in a Stone only as a shadow or a deep mist. How this was done (by those aware of the Stones and the possibility of being watched by them) is one of the lost mysteries of the palantíri. 18

  A viewer could by his will cause the vision of the Stone to concentrate on some point, on or near its direct line. 19 The uncontrolled ‘visions’ were small, especially in the minor Stones, though they were much larger to the eye of a beholder who placed himself at some distance from the surface of the palantír (about three feet at best). But controlled by the will of a skilled and strong surveyor, remoter things could be enlarged, brought as it were nearer and clearer, while their background was almost suppressed. Thus a man at a considerable distance might be seen as a tiny figure, half an inch high, difficult to pick out against a landscape or a concourse of other men; but concentration could enlarge and clarify the vision till he was seen in clear if reduced detail like a picture apparently a foot or more in height, and recognized if he was known to the surveyor. Great concentration might even enlarge some detail that interested the surveyor, so that it could be seen (for instance) if he had a ring on his hand.

  But this ‘concentration’ was very tiring and might become exhausting. Consequently it was only undertaken when information was urgently desired, and chance (aided by other information maybe) enabled the surveyor to pick out items (significant for him and his immediate concern) from the welter of the Stone’s visions. For example, Denethor sitting before the Anor-stone anxious about Rohan, and deciding whether or not at once to order the kindling of the beacons and the sending out of the ‘arrow’, might place himself in a direct line looking north-west by west through Rohan, passing close to Edoras and on towards the Fords of Isen. At that time there might be visible movements of men in that line. If so, he could concentrate on (say) a group, see them as Riders, and finally discover some figure known to him: Gandalf, for instance, riding with the reinforcements to Helm’s Deep, and suddenly breaking away and racing northwards. 20

  The palantíri could not themselves survey men’s minds, at unawares or unwilling; for the transference of thought depended on the wills of the user on either side, and thought (received as speech) 21 was only transmittable by one Stone to another in accord.

  NOTES

  1 Doubtless they were used in the consultations between Arnor and Gondor in the year 1944 concerning the succession to the Crown. The ‘messages’ received in Gondor in 1973, telling of the dire straits of the Northern Kingdom, was possibly their last use until the approach of the War of the Ring. [Author’s note.]

  2 With Arvedui were lost the Stones of Annúminas and Amon Sûl (Weathertop). The third palantír of the North was that in the tower Elostirion on Emyn Beraid, which had special properties (see note 16).

  3 The Stone of Osgiliath had been lost in the waters of Anduin in 1437, during the civil war of the Kin-strife.

  4 On the destructibility of the palantíri see p. 529. In the entry in the Tale of Years for 2002, and also in Appendix A (I, iv), it is stated as a fact that the palantír was captured in the fall of Minas Ithil; but my father noted that these annals were made after the War of the Ring, and that the statement, however certain, was a deduction. The Ithil-stone was never found again, and probably perished in the ruin of Baraddûr; see p. 529.

  5 By themselves the Stones could only see: scenes or figures in distant places, or in the past. These were without explanation; and at any rate for men of later days it was difficult to direct what visions should be revealed by the will or desire of a surveyor. But when another mind occupied a Stone in accord, thought could be ‘transferred’ (received as ‘speech’), and visions of the things in the mind of the surveyor of one Stone could be seen by the other surveyor. [See further pp. 530 – 1 and note 21.] These powers were originally used mainly in consultation, for the purpose of exchanging news necessary to government, or advice and opinions; less often in simple friendship and pleasure or in greetings and condolence. It was only Sauron who used a Stone for the transference of his superior will, dominating the weaker surveyor and forcing him to reveal hidden thought and to submit to commands. [Author’s note.]

  6 Cf. Gandalf’s remarks to the Council of Elrond concerning Saruman’s long study of the scrolls and books of Minas Tirith.

  7 For any more ‘worldly’ policy of power and warlike strength Isengard was well placed, being the key to the Gap of Rohan. This was a weak point in the defences of the West, especially since the decay of Gondor. Through it hostile spies and emissaries could pass in secret, or eventually, as in the former Age, forces of war. The Council seems to have been unaware, since for many years Isengard had been closely guarded, of what went on within its Ring. The use, and possibly special breeding, of Orcs was kept secret, and cannot have begun much before 2990 at earliest. The orc-troops seem never to have been used beyond the territory of Isengard before the attack on Rohan. Had the Council known of this they would, of course, at once have realized that Saruman had become evil. [Author’s note.]

  8 Denethor was evidently aware of Gandalf’s guesses and suspicions, and at once both angered and sardonically amused by them. Note his words to Gandalf at their meeting in Minas Tirith (The Return of the King V 1): ‘I know already sufficient of these deeds for my own counsel against the menace of the East’, and especially his mocking words that followed: ‘Yea; for though the Stones be lost, they say, still the lords of Gondor have keener sight than lesser men, and many messages come to them.’ Quite apart from the palantíri, Denethor was a man of great mental powers, and a quick reader of thoughts behind faces and words, but he may well also have actually seen in the Anor-stone visions of events in Rohan and Isengard. [Author’s note.] – See further p. 531.

  9 Note the passage in The Two Towers IV 5 where Faramir (who was born in 2983) recollected seeing Gandalf in Minas Tirith when he was a child, and again two or three times later; and said that it was interest in records that brought him. The last time would have been in 3017, when Gandalf found the scroll of Isildur. [Author’s note.]

  10 This is a reference to Gandalf’s words to Peregrin (The Two Towers III 11): ‘Who knows where the lost Stones of Arnor and Gondor now lie, buried, or drowned deep?’

  11 This is a reference to Gandalf’s words after the death of Denethor in The Return of the King V 7, at the end of the chapter. My father’s emendation (arising from the present discussion) of ‘Denethor did not presume to use it’ to ‘Denethor would not presume to use it’ was (apparently by mere oversight) not incorporated in the revised edition. See the Introduction, p. 18.

  12 Thorongil (‘Eagle of the Star’) was the name given to Aragorn when he served in disguise Ecthelion II of Gondor; see The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A (I, iv, The Stewards).

  13 The use of the palantíri was a mental strain, especially on men of later days not trained to the task, and no doubt in addition to his anxieties this strain contributed to Dene-thor’s ‘grimness’. It was probably felt earlier by his wife than by others and increased her unhappiness, to the hastening of her deat
h. [Author’s note.]

  14 An unplaced marginal note observes that Saruman’s integrity ‘had been undermined by purely personal pride and lust for the domination of his own will. His study of the Rings had caused this, for his pride believed that he could use them, or It, in defiance of any other will. He, having lost any devotion to other persons or causes, was open to the domination of a superior will, to its threats, and to its display of power.’ And moreover he had himself no right to the Orthanc-stone.

  15 1998 was the year of the death of Pelendur, Steward of Gondor. ‘After the days of Pelendur the Stewardship became hereditary as a kingship, from father to son or nearest kin,’ The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, I, iv, The Stewards.

  16 The case was different in Arnor. Lawful possession of the Stones belonged to the King (who normally used the Stone of Annúminas); but the Kingdom became divided and the high-kingship was in dispute. The Kings of Arthedain, who were plainly those with the just claim, maintained a special warden at Amon Sûl, whose Stone was held to be the chief of the Northern palantíri, being the largest and most powerful and the one through which communication with Gondor was mainly conducted. After the destruction of Amon Sûl by Angmar in 1409 both Stones were placed at Fornost, where the King of Arthedain dwelt. These were lost in the shipwreck of Arvedui, and no deputy was left with any authority direct or inherited to use the Stones. One only remained in the North, the Elendil Stone on Emyn Beraid, but this was one of special properties, and not employable in communications. Hereditary right to use it would no doubt still reside in the ‘heir of Isildur’, the recognized chieftain of the Dúnedain, and descendant of Arvedui. But it is not known whether any of them, including Aragorn, ever looked into it, desiring to gaze into the lost West. This Stone and its tower were maintained and guarded by Círdan and the Elves of Lindon. [Author’s note.] – It is told in Appendix A (I, iii) to The Lord of the Rings that the palantír of Emyn Beraid ‘was unlike the others and not in accord with them; it looked only to the Sea. Elendil set it there so that he could look back with “straight sight” and see Eressëa in the vanished West; but the bent seas below covered Númenor for ever.’ Elendil’s vision of Eressëainthe palantír of Emyn Beraid is told of also in Of the Rings of Power (The Silmarillion p. 292); ‘it is believed that thus he would at whiles see far away even the Tower of Avallónë upon Eressëa, where the Master-stone abode, and yet abides’. It is notable that in the present account there is no reference to this Master-stone.

  17 A later, detached note denies that the palantíri were polarized or oriented, but gives no further detail.

  18 The later note referred to in note 17 treats some of these aspects of the palantíri slightly differently; in particular the concept of ‘shrouding’ seems differently employed. This note, very hasty and somewhat obscure, reads in part: ‘They retained the images received, so that each contained within itself a multiplicity of images and scenes, some from a remote past. They could not “see” in the dark; that is, things that were in the dark were not recorded by them. They themselves could be and usually were kept in the dark, because it was much easier then to see the scenes that they presented, and as the centuries passed to limit their “overcrowding”. How they were thus “shrouded” was kept secret and so is now unknown. They were not “blinded” by physical obstacles, as a wall, a hill, or a wood, so long as the distant objects were themselves in light. It was said, or guessed, by later commentators that the Stones were placed in their original sites in spherical cases that were locked to prevent their misuse by the unauthorized; but that this casing also performed the office of shrouding them and making them quiescent. The cases must therefore have been made of some metal or other substance not now known.’ Marginal jottings associated with this note are partly illegible, but so much can be made out, that the remoter the past the clearer the view, while for distant viewing there was a ‘proper distance’, varying with the Stones, at which distant objects were clearer. The greater palantíri could look much further than the lesser; for the lesser the ‘proper distance’ was of the order of five hundred miles, as between the Orthanc-stone and that of Anor. ‘Ithil was too near, but was largely used for [illegible words], not for personal contacts with Minas Anor.’

  19 The orientation was not, of course, divided into separate ‘quarters’ but continuous; so that its direct line of vision to a surveyor sitting south-east would be to the north-west, and so on. [Author’s note.]

  20 See The Two Towers III 7.

  21 In a detached note this aspect is more explicitly described: ‘Two persons, each using a Stone “in accord” with the other, could converse, but not by sound, which the Stones did not transmit. Looking one at the other they would exchange “thought” – not their full or true thought, or their intentions, but “silent speech”, the thoughts they wished to transmit (already formalized in linguistic form in their minds or actually spoken aloud), which would be received by their respondents and of course immediately transformed into “speech”, and only reportable as such.’

  INDEX

  This Index, as noted in the Introduction, covers not only the main texts but also the Notes and Appendices, since much original material appears in these latter. As a result a good many references are trivial, but I have thought it more useful, as it is certainly easier, to aim at completeness. The only intentional exceptions are a very few cases (as Morgoth, Númenor) where I have used the word passim to cover certain sections of the book, and the absence of references for Elves, Men, Orcs, and Middle-earth. In many cases the references include pages where a person or place is mentioned but not by name (thus the mention on p. 299 of ‘the haven where Círdan was lord’ is given under Mithlond). Asterisks are used to indicate names, nearly a quarter of the total, that have not been published in my father’s works (they are thus also set against the names, listed in the footnote on p. 399, that appeared on Miss Pauline Baynes’ map of Middle-earth). The brief defining statements are not restricted to matters actually mentioned in the book; and occasionally I have added notes on the meaning of hitherto untranslated names.

  This Index is not a model of consistency in presentation, but its deficiency in this respect may be partly excused in view of the interlacing ramification of names (including variant translations, partial translations, names that are equivalent in reference but not in meaning), which makes such consistency extremely difficult or impossible to achieve: as may be seen from such a series as Eilenaer, Halifirien, Amon Anwar, Anwar, Hill of Anwar, Hill of Awe, Wood of Anwar, Firienholt, Firien Wood, Whispering Wood. As a general rule I have included references for translations of Elvish names under the Elvish entry (as Langstrand under Anfalas), with a cross-reference, but I have departed from this in particular cases, where the ‘translated’ names (as Mirkwood, Isengard) are generally used and familiar.

  Adanedhel ‘Elf-Man’, name given to Túrin in Nargothrond.

  Adorn Tributary of the river Isen, forming with it the western bounds of Rohan. (The name is ‘of a form suitable to Sindarin, but not interpretable in that language. It must be supposed to be of pre-Númenórean origin, adapted to Sindarin.’)

  *Adrahil (1) A commander of the forces of Gondor against the Wainriders in Third Age 1944; called ‘of Dol Amroth’, and presumably an ancestor of Adrahil (2).

  Adrahil (2) Prince of Dol Amroth, father of Imrahil.

  Adûnaic The language of Númenor. Númenórean tongue, speech.

  *aeglos (1) ‘Snowthorn’, a plant that grew on Amon Rûdh.

  Aeglos (2) The spear of Gil-galad (as a word-formation the same as the preceding).

  Aegnor Noldorin prince, the fourth son of Finarfin; slain in the Dagor Bragollach.

  Aelin-uial The region of marshes and pools where the river Aros flowed into Sirion. Translated Twilit Meres.

  Aerin Kinswoman of Húrin in Dor-lómin; taken as wife by Brodda the Easterling; aided Morwen after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.

  Agarwaen ‘Blood-stained’, name given to himself by Túrin when h
e came to Nargothrond.

  *Agathurush Adûnaic translation of the name Gwathló.

  *Aghan The Drûg (Drúadan) in the story of ‘The Faithful Stone’.

  Aglarond ‘The Glittering Cavern’ of Helm’s Deep in Ered Nimrais; used also in reference to the fortress more strictly called the Hornburg, at the entrance to Helm’s Deep. See Glˆæmscrafu.

  *Ailinel The elder of Tar-Aldarion’s sisters.

  *Aiwendil ‘Lover of Birds’, Quenya name of Radagast the Wizard.

  Akallabêth ‘The Downfallen’, Númenor. References to the work named Akallabêth (The Downfall of Númenor) are not given here.

  *Alatar One of the Blue Wizards (Ithryn Luin).

  Al(a)táriel ‘Maiden crowned with a radiant garland’ (see Appendix to The Silmarillion, entry kal-), Quenya and Telerin forms of the name Galadriel.