Known as the Seven Seeing-stones, the Palantiri feature heavily in several of Tolkien’s written works, including the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Unfinished Tales, and The Silmarillion. Many fans of the franchise will especially recognize the name from the 11th chapter of The Two Towers, the second book of the trilogy. But what exactly are these stones, and where are they seen in the film adaptations?
There are all manner of things that exist in Middle Earth that contain mysterious and unusual powers, from the secret foods of the elves to magical wizards' staffs, from reforged blades holding lineage and strength, to, of course, enchanted rings. The Palantiri, although not technically of Middle Earth, fall into this category. They are a kind of crystal orb, which shows the user visions of time and space, if the viewer has the will to conjure them. They also aid in telepathy and allow the users to communicate with the other balls across the realm. They were originally brought to Middle Earth by Aragorn's ancestors, the Numenorians, to send messages between kingdoms of their wide-spread settlements.
Although a few of the stones were lost over time, some of the known locations listed include Weathertop, where Frodo is stabbed by the morgul blade before being spirited to Rivendell by Bill The Pony, Minas Tirith, the keep of Gondor just beyond the Anduin river where the two large statues of past kings known as the Argonath stand guard, and in Isengard.
However, the stones' unique gifts, like those of the rings, also come with their own dangers. In The Silmarillion, we learn that the evil lord Sauron is able to take over one of the seeing stones. With his immense will, and his ability to stop at nothing in order to achieve supreme dominion over all of Middle-earth, he is quickly able to corrupt the stone, and therefore all of the other stones it is linked to. That is how the first stone to make an appearance in the film adaptation comes into play: Through Saruman.
In The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf the Grey visits his friend in Isengard on the edge of Fangorn Forest, to seek counsel, and when he is taken up into the tower, he is shown one of the crystal balls. As he rushes to cover it up, fearing who may be watching on the other side, he gets a flash of the eye of Sauron, and it is then that he knows Sauroman has been sucked into the dark lord's power through the vessel of the seeing stone. Saruman then traps Gandalf on Orthanc so that he cannot interfere in the evil lord's plans.
Although it is never explicitly shown in the film adaptations, the orb in the tower of Minas Tirith is active also. Pippin, the youngest member of the fellowship and by far the most naive, is taken to the white city after his own run-in with the Palantiri in which he is offered a glimpse of the white tree of Gondor, and thus a hint of the enemy’s plan. Here he meets Denethor, the Steward of Gondor, whose rule is clearly failing, and who has given in to despair and grief after the death of his son Boromir. But aside from the grief of his son, there is another reason that Denethor is driven almost mad with hopelessness: His use of the seeing stone.
Unbeknownst to others in the kingdom, he has been looking through the stone for years, and although Sauron was not able to persuade or control him like Saruman, he has been slowly chipping away at the Stewards' resolve in order to weaken the stronghold of Gondor. By the time the War of the Ring takes place, Denethor has already succumbed to his anguish.
The only character who is seen in the trilogy to be able to truly withstand the power of the Palantiri is Aragorn. In order to draw the dark lord's attention, Aragorn looks into the Seeing Stone and attempts to goad Sauron, threatening him with Narsil, the blade that originally cut the One Ring from his finger. But Sauron’s will is also powerful, and he in turn shows Aragorn a vision of his love Arwen, who is fading away instead of joining her mother in the Undying Lands. What becomes of the stones after the war of the ring is not known, but it is assumed that they are locked away somewhere safe, so that their immense powers cannot be used by the creatures of Middle Earth again.
Perhaps the Amazon Lord of the Rings Series, which is set in the Second Age of the world, around 2000 years before the events of the Fellowship, will teach the audience a little more about the Palantiri and their uses, seeing as this is around the time that the Numenorians first brought them across from the Blessed Lands.
