LotR -- Book 3 - Chapter 11 - The Palantír

[Lyta_Underhill]

Maybe Eru simply decided to give him enough rope to hang himself......

A universal truth about evil, one might say!

'Strange powers have our enemies, and strange weaknesses,' ' said Theoden, 'But it has long been said: oft evil will shall evil mar,'

Interesting that this quote comes at this precise time in the storyline, isn't it?

One point I would like to throw in, though, is that the presence of Eru, the clearest manifestation of his power, is seen in the events at the Sammath Naur, where the Fires well up from the heart of the earth, the very place where Eru sent the Secret Fire into Arda....

This would seem to point to Morgoth's inability to alter the plan of Arda, though he might throw his greatest of evil efforts into the endeavor. All would redound to the glory of Eru's design for Arda (even if the acts themselves are evil). Morgoth was unable to alter anything in Eru's despite, for Eru is all. Thus it only makes sense that Eru's influence would be found in strength even in the heart of the realm of Sauron. This seems to be a universally recognized pattern, pointed up in the yin-yang symbol, also, strangely enough, in fractal geometry, where even in the smallest conceivable cross-sections, one might find infinite variety of color changes based on the outcome of iterated equations. Thus, I wouldn't be surprised if one found the heart of Light inside the Mountain of Fire; but I would expect it to be present everywhere in such measure and not limited to that one location, even though it be an important focus at the end of the Third Age.

The thing I find most interesting is not speculating on what such a tool as the palantir might make someone do, but in the way that it is used and/or viewed by the individual user. Sauron, who has great mental power, has very short sight, and his focus is mainly himself and what the palantir can do to heighten his own power over others (for the greater glory of himself alone). Saruman, whose proximate cause of fall to darkness is murky, but perhaps attributable in part to his dabblings with the palantir, seemed to begin with mere curiosity, but this curiosity was accompanied by greed, thus he hoards the palantir to himself and a new fear is born that it might be discovered and taken away. Personally, I think this weakness was inherent in Saruman's character, and just as Smeagol began as "a mean sort of thief" in Tolkien's words, even before his path crossed that of the One Ring, so Saruman fulfills his character's weakness when the temptation presents itself to him.

Pippin, on the third hand (why do I have three hands? The world may never know!), is driven by a nebulous 'urge' to look into the Stone. Does this urge come from its link to Sauron (active evil), or the nature of the Palantir itself (addictive-amplifying a personal weakness), or is it the Hand of Eru working through our hero Pippin (divine will)? I'm inclined to think the third thing, because I'm firmly convinced that Pippin is God's Fool, or perhaps like an avatar of Eru that simply loses himself from time to time (those curious 'urges'!) and acts beyond logic and reason and enters the realm of serendipitous, unforeseeable fortune. Of course, someone let me know if you think I'm just too Pippin-centric about this whole episode...


Cheers!
Lyta

[Formendacil]

In contrast to the majority of the posts on this thread, which got swept up into speculation about the palantiri, I'm going to consider more how Tolkien places this chapter, so that after a period of resolution, we get the introduction of new excitements. I don't think there is a point anywhere in Book III where I am less interested in leaving the thread of this side of the story and going back to Frodo! Who cares about Frodo? I want more Gandalf, more Aragorn and his testy rights to mysterious stones, more about the stones themselves, more Pippin, more Merry!

And yet, we get a cliffhanger. The Nazgul are streaming over Rohan toward Isengard, Gandalf is madly dashing to Minas Tirith, no one knows what Sauron knows. It's a fantastic chapter pointing the plot forward.

I didn't mention it last chapter, but I should have: Wormtongue throwing the Orthanc-stone out the window is one of my least favourite moments in the books. If anything feels just a little too coincidental, that's the moment. I bring that up here because, by contrast, the action in this chapter fits together perfectly. It may be a narrow escape for Pippin--even divine providence, as a younger me once remarked--but it is also completely in accord with his character, and everything that follows clatters after it like dominoes.

Not given much emphasis in the thread above, though it really struck me during this reread, is the fact that Pippin's encounter here is the only direct experience of Sauron that we get as readers in the whole book--and Pippin is the only hobbit that actually faces the great enemy. It's simultaneously a crime and a great relief that the change in the movies of Sauron to a great eyeball means that this scene is rendered unfilmable in a book-true fashion, because I find it to be a passage that grows in horror for me each time I read it, and whether that's just imagination or the cumulative effect of knowing more and more who Sauron is (say, pondering the Akallabeth or the Lay of Leithian) really doesn't matter so much as the fact that I truly enjoy reaching this scene.

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

Not given much emphasis in the thread above, though it really struck me during this reread, is the fact that Pippin's encounter here is the only direct experience of Sauron that we get as readers in the whole book--and Pippin is the only hobbit that actually faces the great enemy.

I agree that this is a very striking moment and one that I think is often overlooked. We know Aragorn later confronts Sauron through the Orthanc-stone, but Aragorn does not speak to him: "I spoke no word to him, and in the end I wrenched the Stone to my own will." Even Pippin's brief conversation is reported, albeit word-for-word, after the fact, keeping the Dark Lord aloof and mysterious to the reader even when he directly converses with one of the heroes.