LOOOOOOREMASTERS!!!!
On this episode we're talkin bout the palantiri!
The palantir is a dangerous tool Saruman.
Why?
Why should we fear to use it?
They are not all accounted for, the lost seeing stones,
we do not know who else may be watching!
That's right Gandalf!
And if you've ever watched The Lord of The Rings hopefully somewhere deep in your mind you've asked the question,
"Why aren't they all accounted for?
and on that note, "How many palanirss are there?"
Fortunately we here at LOREMASTERS have devoted our entire existence to answering such questions!
oh
Hold on I gotta take this.
HELLO??
Oh hey Sauron what's goin on?
uhh, no man, never heard of hobbits before.....
Yeah I dunno, maybe ask Saruman?
I think he goes in for that kind of stuff.....
yeaaaahhh I know what you mean,
Look I got some people over so I'm gonna have to uhh
yeah yeah it's
ok
ok cya later man
you too
byeeeee
I gotta figure out how to disconnect this thing.....
Anyways let's start where we always must, the beginning, with the lore of the stones!
Now we're gonna go off on a lot of tangents during this thing,
which is bound to happen whenever you're discussing such an in depth history,
but whatever,
HERE WE GOOOOOOOOO!!
During the Second Age of the world a group of the Numenoreans called "The Faithful"
received the seven seeing stones as a gift from the elves.
And already I'm gonna go off on a whole thing about Numenor.
Here's a brief history of Numenor, cause I gotta assume that no one knows what I'm talking about?
The First Age of the world ended with a great and terrible battle between the elves and the Valar and the Miar,
"The Good Guys"
Who fought against the forces of Morgoth, the orcs and the balrogs and the dragons!
"The Bad Guys"
Men fought on both sides but the one who fought with the good guys were called the Edain.
After the forces of Morgoth were defeated the Edain were given a gift!
The Island of Numenor!
Meaning "Westland"
Known as Elenna "The Land of The Star"
And Andor "The Land of Gift"
Or Anadune which is "Westernesse"
You know, Numenor...
The Edain were also given a great span of life, many time that of the men of Middle Earth.
And so they went to the land that had known no evil and became great kings of men.
And during the Second Age, which was like, 3000 years,
They flourished and prospered!
But at some time Sauron began to come into power in Middle Earth.
Well the Numenoreans said, "No you don't!"
And they went back and brought him to Numenor as a hostage, to keep an eye on him!
Long story short Sauron corrupted the majority of the Numenoreans over time,
and this majority began to despise the elves and the Valar and were known as the King's Men.
They then broke the ban of the Valar,
and sailed in to the West with a host of war in an attempt to claim the Undying Lands for themselves,
and gain that which they had become obsessed with, immortality.
Now at this point Iluvatar said, "You fools done goofed!"
And he opened a chasm in the sea, and all the Numenoreans fell in to it, and Numenor was drowned beneath the waves.
And even the name of that land perished, and men spoke thereafter not of Numenor, or Westernesse, or The Land of The Star,
but only of Akallabeth, "The Downfallen".
....and they became a race of water people!!! *gasp*
OK I made that last part up!
But a small portion of the Numenoreans, The Faithful, remained friends with the elves, and took no part in the evil deeds of those days,
While the King's Men were preparing for war the Faithful boarded their ships,
and when Numenor was drowned beneath the sea a great wave carried Elendil The Tall and his sons Isildur and Anarion and all their people to Middle Earth,
and with them went the palantiri, the seven seeing stones of Numenor!
Which like I said were a gift from the elves who came to Numenor at times from Tol Eressea, "The Lonely Isle",
easternmost of the Undying Lands.
Valinor...
Aman!
Everything has a lot of names!
The Elves saw that dark days were coming and they gave the palantiri to the Faithful as a gift,
so they could see each other, or communicate, or something?!
I dunno!?
Seems like a pretty good gift to me! Better than any mathom!
As for the actual origins of the stones little is said.
In The Lord of The Rings Gandalf mentions that they may have been made by Feanor himself,
He whose name means "Spirit of Fire" for a fire burned within him and he was the greatest of all the children of Iluvatar!
The elves,.... he was an elf...
Anyways Gandalf says something cool about it in The Lord of The Rings *throat clear*
"The palantiri came from beyond Westernesse, from Eldamar. The Noldor made them. Feanor himself, maybe, wrought them,
in days so long ago that the time cannot be measured in years."
OK so let's get back on track, the Numenoreans, right?
Aften the Downfall of Numenor, towards the end of the Second Age,
Elendil and his sons and all their people landed in Middle Earth and established the realms of Gondor and Arnor.
And they strategically placed the palantiri across their lands so they could communicate and see what was going on.
One there was at Minas Ithil "The Tower of The Moon" which was made as a defense against the threat of Mordor!
Which of course in later years was taken by the enemy and named Minas Morgul "The Tower of Sorcery"!
Another palanitr was kept at Minas Anor "The Tower of The Sun" known as Minas Tirith in later days.
One of the major stones was kept at Osgiliath, the capitol city of Gondor.
And I don't wanna get too technical, but the major stones were larger and more powerful than the other minor stones.
Another palantir was kept further north at Isengard, in the tower of Orthanc,
which was one of the awesome structures that the Numenoreans made in Middle Earth by the way,
They also made the Argonath,
Helm's Deep
the Morannon
Cirith Ungol
And of course they made Minas Tirith and Minas Morgul and Osgiliath,
And waaaaay to the north of Orthanc they made the great watchtower of Amon Sul *interrupted by Aragorn*
...Please don't interrupt.
They also made the great watch tower of Amon Sul which was home to another seeing stone.
And to the west of Amon Sul was Annuminas, the capitol city of Arnor, home to yet another palantir.
And the last of the seven seeing stones of Numenor was kept at Emyn Beriad in the Tower Hills, west of Annuminas and the Shire.
This was the Elendil stone, which actually had special properties.
It was set to face the West so Elendil could see The Blessed Realm, you know what? I'm just gonna let the Silmarillion speak for itself ok? *throat clear
"Thither Elendil would repair, and thence he would haze out over the sundering seas, when the yearning of exile was upon him,
and it is believed that thus he would at whiles see far away even the tower of Avallone upon Eressea, where the Master-stone abode, and yet abides."
So there you have it! That's where the palantiri were kept with the coming of the Numenoreans at the start of the Third Age,
Or the end of the Second Age....... whatever
But by the end of the Third Age during the time of the Lord of The Rings some of the stones could not be accounted for, like Gandald said...
I wonder what happened to them......
Who am I kidding? I know exactly what happened to them! The first stone to be lost was the major stone of Osgiliath!
Which was said to have fallen in to the Anduin in the year 1437 of the Third Age during the Kin-strife civil war of Gondor!
Which I'm not even gonna go in to,
but remember that Anduin The Great runs right through the middle of Osgiliath,
So I guess the "dudes of Gondor" were fighting each other and whoops! it fell in to the river!
Next we have the stones of Amon Sul and Annuminas, which were lost at the same time in the year 1975.
Arvedui the last king of Arnor removed the stones and fled north from the forces of Angmar!
Cirdan the Shipwright, Lord of the Grey Havens sent a ship to Forochel for his rescue, but the ship foundered in the icy waters.
"So perished Arvedui Last-King, and with him the palantiri were buried in the sea."
And then there was the Ithil stone, which was presumed to have fallen in to the hands of the enemy in the year 2002 when Minas Ithil fell to the forces of Mordor
And there you have it! Four stones were lost but three remained:
The Anor stone in Minas Tirith, the Orthanc stone, and the Elendil stone at Emyn Beriad.
And then.....the stones were kind of forgotten about.
After Minas Ithil fell in 2002 the kings and stewards stopped using the palantiri, for they feared that Sauron might be in control of the Ithil stone.
It wasn't until the events of the Lord of The Rings, nearly 1000 years later, that the stones began to be used again by Denethor and Saruman.
But even in the days of their use the stones were not known to the public, being secretly used by the kings and stewards.
So towards the end of the Third Age, if the Orthanc and Anor stones were still guarded as treasures out of the past,
Then the Seven Seeing Stones of old were by the people generally forgotten,
and if the rhymes of lore that spoke of them were remembered they were no longer understood.
In fact people of later days thought that the kings of old had elvish powers, and bright piercing eyes,
and that bird spirits attended on them and carried their messages across the lands.
Which is just ridiculous, I mean come on people, let's be serious about this for a minute, alright?
They used magic crystal balls to speak with their minds!!!
So that's a very brief summary of the lore of the stones!
If you wanna learn more about them then I recommend reading the Lord of The Rings,
Also check out Appendix A, the annals of the kings and rulers, specifically part III:
Eriador, Arnor, and the heirs of Isildur.
You're also gonna wanna read the Silmarillion, and more specifically Akallabeth: The Downfall of Numenor
AND concerning the rings of power and the third age,
And of course you gotta read this chapter in The Unfinished Tales, "The palantiri"
And le'ts not forget
ALRIGHT that's enough lore! Even for us here at LOREMASTERS!
Let's actually take a look at the palantiri in The Lord of The Rings.
The stones don't make an appearance in the book until about halfway through,
book 3 chapter 10: The Voice of Saruman, after the battle of Helm's Deep, and after the ents have destroyed Isengard and everything.
Although the Orthanc Stone does appear briefly in the first of the three films.
In the book Grima throws the Orthanc Stone down at our characters, not really knowing what it was,
and then Pippin picks it up and Gandalf is all like, "I'll take that".
The same outcome is reached in the movies too but it's interesting to note a few things here:
First of all, Gandalf has never actually seen a palantir, so he wasn't certain of what Grima had thrown down at them.
And up to this point the link between Isengard and Mordor was quite a mystery to Ganldalf.
He had studied lore in Minas Tirith,
and being friends with the LOREMASTER himself he was certainly knowledgeable about the stones,
but he hadn't really considered them up to this point, being primairly concerned with the ring of power.
It wasn't until Pippin accidentally used the stone that he realized how dangerous it could be,
especially considering that the Ithil stone had probably fallen in to enemy hands way back when.
Gandalf's mind then turned to the only remaining palantir besides the one at Emyn Beriad: The Anor Stone of Minas Tirith.
He was afraid that Denethor may have also been using his palantir.
And on the way to Minas Tirith Gandalf tries to briefly explain the history and the significance of the stones to Pippin,
and he recites and ancient rhyme of lore that had been passed down amongst the Dunedain rangers,
and it goes something, like, this:
Tall ships and tall kings, three times three,
What brought they from the foundered land, over the flowing sea?
Seven stars, and seven stones, and one white tree.
And in regular LOREMASTERS fashion we're gonna break it down!
Alright "Tall ships and tall kings", He's talking about the Numenoreans, the sea kings of old!
"Three times three" nine ships carrying remnants of the Faithful survived the downfall of Numenor and landed on Middle earth.
"What brought they from the foundered land?" = Numenor,
"over the flowing sea? Seven stars, and seven stones, and one white tree."
The seven stones are obviously the palantiri.
And then you got the White Tree, a scion of Nimloth, an important tree that comes from a line of important trees,
go down the line far enough.......keep goin........
And there's the White Tree of Gondor!
The trees deserve their own video, I'm not even gonna go in to the trees right now,
just know that they brought a tree, alright?
And the seven stars are referring to the house of Elendil.
And I'm just gonna quote Tolkien Gateway on this one, *throat clear*
"The livery of Elendil were a number of symbols used by the Realms in Exile and their descendant kingdoms, Gondor and Arnor,
It consisted of the Seven Stars, the crown of Gondor, and the White Tree.
Apon Arnor's fall and the failing of the line of the kings of Gondor the crown was largely dropped from usage,
and not until the coming of Aragorn and the raising of his banner at the Battle of Pelannor Fields, was the crown used again."
but more specifically the Seven Stars are a constellation known as The Sickle of The Valar,
made by Varda, who the elves call Elbereth, because,...it's lore, loremasters,.. LORE!
It was set in the sky to enlighten the awakening of the elves and challenge the might of Morgoth!
OK good, so now you know what this means, right?.... *crickets*
ok let's get back to The Lord of The Rings.
So Gandalf is riding to Minas Tirith because he's afraid Denethor may have started using his palantir.
I mean, they also have to prepare for the inevitable war and eveything, but the palantir is on his mind.
And of course Denethor has been using his stone for quite some time actually,
so he's kind of already aware of what Gandalf is up to.
He even mocks him to his face when he arrives in Minas Tirith:
"Yea, for though the stones be lost they say, still the lords of Gondor have keener sight than lesser men"
Oh yeah, sure, of course they have keener sight, when they use the palantir! You fraud!
In the book, Beregond, a solder if Minas Tirith who befriends Pippin, mentions Denethor's far sight as well:
"And the lord Denethor is unlike other men, he sees far.
Some say that as he sits alone in his high chamber in the Tower at night, and bends his thought this way and that,
he can read somewhat of the future; and that he will at time search even the mind of the Enemy, wrestling with him."
.....but he forgot to mention that he's a hack and a cheat and he uses the palantir!
Which by the way actually means "farsighted" or "one who sees from afar".
But anyways Beregond's little story is actually a good illustration of how secret the Seeing Stones really are; no one knows about them!
Maybe if Denethor knew more about them then he wouldn't haves used it all willy nilly? But what are ya gonna do?
He's actually pretty learned in the lore of Gondor, he probably knows more than I do.
He certainly had the authority to use it, being the steward of Gondor,
and he deemed himself strong enough even to confront Sauron, which was his ultimate undoing.
While Sauron couldn't show him deceits with the stone he could choose what Denethor saw,
like the armies of Mordor, or the corsairs sailing from Umbar.
But it wasn't until the death of Boromir, and the seemingly inevitable death of Faramir, that Denethor looked in to the Anor stone one last time.
But he himself went up alone into the secret room under the summit of the Tower;
and many who looked up thither at that time saw a pale light that gleamed and flicked from the narrow windows for a while,
and then flashed and went out.
And when Denethor descended again he went to Faramir, and sat beside him without speaking,
but the face of the lord was grey, more deathlike than his son's.
We here at LOREMASTERS believe that, looking into the palantir Denethor at last saw his greatest fears,
the death of his only remaining son, which was his doing,
or perhaps the burning of Minas Tirith and the futility of their defense of the city, and he finally succumbed to utter despair.
in the movies just like in the book Denethor has a pyre made and intended to burn himself and Faramir,
like the heathen kings of old *interrupted byDenethor
Why, do they always have to interrupt me?
like, just let me,
I wanna say it
Just let me say it!
And just to expand on this heathen king stuff a little bit,
Denethor is renouncing his lineage, and the West, and the blood of Numenor, and all that stuff.
Before the Numenoreans came back to Middle Earth a lot of the men of those times were under Sauron's sway;
and they worshiped him, and made sacrifices to him, and burned themselves and each other.
So that's what Denethor is, uh, recreating here.
But I gotta give him some credit cause his lore is on point! Heathen lore!
That was like, thousands of years ago, I think? He really knows his stuff!
Anyways, it's at this point in the book when Denethor reveals that he's been using the Anor stone and we finally understand his madness.
Long story short he yells at Gandalf and talks about what he's seen in the palantir, and so on and so forth.
They end up saving Faramir, just like in the movies, but Denethor, with stone in hand, jumps back on the pyre and lays down in the flames,
with both hands clutching the palantir to his breast.
"And it was said that ever after, if any man looked into that Stone,
unless he had a great strength of will to turn it to other purpose,
he saw only two aged hands withering in flame."
Woah!......that's pretty metal!
And if you're only familiar with the theatrical edition of The Lord of The Rings then you're probably unfamiliar with another scene involving the Orthanc Stone
which can be found in the extended edition as well as in the book.
Before the muster or Rohan Aragorn looks into the palantir to confront Sauron,
with the hope of forcing his hand, making him panic, you know, act hasty.
And although he didn't actually say anything to Sauron,
he did reveal the shards of Narsil reforged as Andural "Flame of The West"
And Sauron will not have forgotten the sword of Elendil *interrupted by Aragorn*
Alright that's it! Go sit in the hall! You clearly have no respect for me, or the rest of the class!
Don't make me call your mom!
After the War of The Ring and Sauron's defeat not much is said about the palantiri; not about the Orthanc and Anor Stones anyways.
We here at LOREMASTERS assume that Aragorn, being the smart dude that he was, put them to good use or had them locked away.
There is one mention of the Elendil Stone in a footnote of the appendices of The Lord of The Rings,
which states the Cirdan put it aboard Elrond's ship when he sailed into the West.
So I guess they were just like, "uhh we're taking this!"
What do they even need it for anyways? They got the Master Stone over there, in the West.
The Elendil Stone doesn't even belong to them, technically it's Aragorn's.
ehhh maybe he told them to take it? I dunno.
It was the coming of a new age, the dominion of men...
The power of the elves was fading, or whatever.
Maybe they didn't want mortals to be able to see the Undying Lands,
Maybe they didn't want another Numenor situation on their hands?
What with the elves and the immortality......
the rings loosing their power, and the, uhh....*slowly loosing interest*
you know, it's just........
it's whatever, I dunno
it's, it's just whatever, ya know, *mumbling* Numenoreans.......*mumble*
LOOOOOOOOREMASTERS!!!!
So that's the palantiri! And in typical LOREMASTERS fashion we're already looking ahead to the future!
Maybe this stupid thing can show us what our next video will be about!
oooo it looks like something dark and sinister. Is that the Barad-dur?!
No, wait, it's something that creepeth on all fours! *gasp* or all eights?!
Is that a man in the woods?
A tree?
A talking tree?
A white tree....?
Two trees?!
Enough with the trees! Show me something besides trees!
Is his sword supposed to fall out like that?
Is that Lembas waybread?
*gasp* Little hobbit rascals!
BEHOLD! thought to be lost in the watery depths: The Major Stone of Osgiliath!!!!
oh
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