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Old 08-12-2020, 02:14 AM   #5
Huinesoron
Overshadowed Eagle
 
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Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: The north-west of the Old World, east of the Sea
Posts: 3,778
Huinesoron is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.Huinesoron is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Victariongreyjoy View Post
What about during Arnor's battle with Angmar? Wouldn't the stone be useful to expose the Witch King's forces whereabouts?
My understanding is that the Weathertop stone was indeed used as a tool for spying - but mostly on other Arnorians. Cardolan and Rhudaur were apparently always fighting over it, since it was the only palantir either of them had a chance of claiming. It's hard to see that as being because they just really wanted to chat with Minas Anor; they must have had a practical purpose. (Weathertop was also the 'master-stone' of the North, which presumably afforded it some control over the Annuminas-stone; again, as a tactical matter, claiming the former to disable the latter implies some military use.)

Unfinished Tales essentially describes them as magical telescopes: an untrained/unauthorised user would see things essentially at random, but if you knew how to point it, you could focus on a single point. The full description is quite fascinating; I recommend it if you're interested in the Stones.

Would they also have been useful against Angmar? I'm not so sure. Unfinished Tales says:

Quote:
Originally Posted by UT
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.
Would the Witch-King be able to shroud his armies and render them invisible? It's hard to imagine he wouldn't, given that he must have known the Stones were in play. Perhaps even more significantly, the Stones were designed to focus on a point, not a person or threat. You could use them to confirm an army was present where it was supposed to be, but not to hunt for one without meticulously and exhaustingly trawling the countryside.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Victariongreyjoy View Post
Or Numenors war against Sauron?
I'm sure Pharazon would have loved that, but the palantiri were given to Amandil (father of Elendil), leader of the Faithful. There's no way he would have told the king about them.

hS
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