The Military uses of the Palantiri.

[Inziladun]

Alfirin, I think you are correct in your comments regarding the Stone of Amon Sûl. The UT essay on the Palantíri says in Footnote 16:

The Kings of Arthedain....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.

As for 'eavesdropping' on the Elendil Stone at Emyn Beraid, that could not be done. By themselves the Stones did not transmit anything. It needed a surveyor at the other end for any connexion to be established, and there is no evidence the Elves in the region ever used the Stone. It does appear to be a 'one way' Stone in any case, only looking to Eressëa (and the Masterstone of Avallónë, according to the Silmarillion).

[Boromir88]

There are many limitations to the palantiri, that would make them poor for military uses. The main problem is you have to know where to look, and if Sauron was planning to launch a surprise attack, how would the person viewing the palantir know where to look...it's supposed to be a surprise.

That's just one of it's limitations though. These aren't clear, crisp, perfect images. The palantiri rely on light and shading. When Pippin looks into it, Sauron thinks the palantir was still in Orthanc...that is why he asks for Saruman and says he will be sending a messenger. Sauron had no idea Pippin was camping outside somewhere in the middle of Rohan, well removed from Orthanc.

Another problem is it takes a significant amount of will to even look into them. Tolkien in the UT writes that the Stewards eventually became rightful owners of the palantiri (as were Elendil and his heirs). As the rightful owners this gave them an advantage over someone like Sauron, who purely relied on his inherent power to use them. However, the only Steward whoever dared to use the palantir was Denethor. And he had spent most of his life as Ecthelion's heir studying all the records and lore about them. Denethor had begun to use the palantir after his wife died, and there are two different strains that Tolkien talks about which Denethor under goes. The mental strain of simply using the palantir, which caused Denethor to look physically aged, and the strain Sauron causes when he discovers Denethor using it. The combination of the two strains would eventually end up breaking Denethor's mind. Aragorn who also was a rightful owner of the stone, doubted his strength when he uses it to confront Sauron, and that was barely enough. Aragorn was pretty drained after using it.

So imagine someone without the mental abilities of someone like Sauron or Saruman, or someone who was not a rightful owner, as Aragorn or Denethor were trying to use it. Plus, not to mention Tolkien points out in the UT that Aragorn and Denethor, had a strong mental will, which was necessary to use the palantir even for being rightful owners.

The only benefit is that the palantiri cannot be made to lie, however they can be manipulated, as Sauron was able to do with Saruman and Denethor. Denethor didn't discover the Corsair ships, or Sauron's numbers, Sauron was essentially feeding Denethor images that Sauron wanted him to see. This increased the despair and hopelessness in Denethor, which led to Denethor losing his mind.

All in all, the palantir would be poor objects to use for military purposes. The person has to know where to look, they can unintentionally lead to bad intel simply because the images aren't clear and crisp. Afterall it led Sauron to make the mistake of believing Saruman was well and good in Orthanc and just with-holding a treat for Sauron. This error, caused essentially by the palantir's unclarity, leads Gandalf to take full advantage of Sauron having to play catch up and discover the error. Also, the viewer has to have a strong mental will to even use it, whether the viewer is a rightful owner or not, simply because of the strain it puts on the person looking into it.

It's interesting, despite the nature of the palantiri to not be able to lie, they are actually best used in acts of deception. Sauron does it with Denethor, and then Sauron himself is deceived by the palantir because of Pippin and Aragorn.

[JeffF.]

I don't think that was as great a problem as you state, take Umbar Any gathering of the Corsair fleet or preparations for war would take place in that great harbor. If the Haradrim invaded they must use the river crossing of the river Poros. The great nations of the various Haradrim & Easterlings must have had large cities, at least capitlos, these also would be known and the centers of marshaling any great hosts. Finally Barad-dur was known and the passes out or Mordor. These would all be focal points for observation.

[Boromir88]

That still leaves the other limitations, which I would stress more than first knowing where to look. The palantiri were mysterious and perilous objects, even in the hands of the rightful owners they were feared to be used. Why do you think Denethor was the only Steward who ever dared to use it? It is because Denethor believed he had the will and strength to do it. In some ways he was accurate, but mostly he foolishly over-estimated his strength, which leads to his madness. Aragorn feared to use it, and Gandalf continually stresses the danger.

They are objects that people should all in all, stay away from, and it should only be used by 1. the rightful owners and 2. those who were strong enough. Even then, they should only be used in the most dire situation, as when Aragorn decided he should reveal himself to Sauron. The bottomline is they were dangerous objects that someone needed to know how to use, but most importantly not abuse. With the palantiri it's like a "look at your own peril" kind of thing, because if you under-estimate the dangers who knows what you will wind up doing to yourself.

To me, that makes them poor for military purposes, much better, safer, and probably would get more reliable info just to use commando Rangers and spies.

[JeffF.]

One of the points made in UT was that Denethor was not trained in the use of the stones therefore the strain on him was greater. i think that each warden of a stone would have had assistants to minimize the strain on each individual using them. The special training would probably result in a special, secret (from the public) guild whose loyalty to the kings was proven and who were given many years of training. The stones were too valuable to use for mere communications, and after all they are called 'seeing stones' not talking stones. It would have been irresponsible to not use them. In fact there may have been too much dependence on them, the INTEL chiefs of the kings may have preferred info from what was seen rather than what traders, explorers, sailors, scouts and spies reported (rather like our own dependence on spie satellites in the mid 70's when we allowed other sources of INTEL to be dismantled).

[Andsigil]

I'd like to again point out that, while they have shortcomings as intelligence gathering devices (the ME equivalent of spy satellites) the Palantiri would be invaluable communication devices (the ME equivalent of a cell phone).

Imagine how much better coordination and response time would be between two allied kingdoms, each with a Palantir in the throne room. Mutual support would not depend on horsemen, carrying messages days or weeks old (the Red Arrow) or upon semaphore beacons, hours old which only give generic calls for aid instead of specific messages (the Beacons of Gondor).

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Andsigil

I'd like to again point out that, while they have shortcomings as intelligence gathering devices (the ME equivalent of spy satellites) the Palantiri would be invaluable communication devices (the ME equivalent of a cell phone).

Imagine how much better coordination and response time would be between two allied kingdoms, each with a Palantir in the throne room. Mutual support would not depend on horsemen, carrying messages days or weeks old (the Red Arrow) or upon semaphore beacons, hours old which only give generic calls for aid instead of specific messages (the Beacons of Gondor).

That's true, however still I believe that except for really urgent cases, one would still use the good old-fashioned way. "Hello my dear cousin, I hope everything's going fine in your land, we have produced five hundred tons of grain this year" is not necessary to transmit via the Palantír, and as it's been pointed out, the strain of using it, even by a king who had the right to it, would not be worth it in such simple cases.