How did Arwen see it......

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Here's the passage from RotK, Chapter 'Many Partings', that tells about it:

Celeborn and Galadriel... had much to speak of with Elrond and with Gandalf...
Often long after the hobbits were wrapped in sleep they would sit together under the stars, recalling the ages that were gone and all their joys and labours in the world, or holding council, concerning the days to come. If any wanderer had chanced to pass, little would he have seen or heard, and it would have seemed to him only that he saw grey figures, carved in stone, memorials of forgotten things now lost in unpeopled lands. For they did not move or speak with mouth, looking from mind to mind; and only their shining eyes stirred and kindled as their thoughts went to and fro.

According to this passage, Celeborn, Galadriel, Elrond and Gandalf were able to communicate telepathically - and Celeborn was not a Ring-bearer, so the ability was not limited to the Ring-bearers or caused by the rings.

Tolkien called this concept "Osanwe" and wrote about it in the publication "Osanwe-kenta". For those who would like to read more, I recommend the thread A review: JRRT's Osanwe-Kenta.

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 3:43 PM January 22, 2004: Message edited by: Estelyn Telcontar ]