Unfinished Tales - J. R. R. Tolkien [254]
17 A later, detached note denies that the palantíri were polarized or oriented, but gives no further detail.
18 The later note referred to in note 17 treats some of these aspects of the palantíri slightly differently; in particular the concept of ‘shrouding’ seems differently employed. This note, very hasty and somewhat obscure, reads in part: ‘They retained the images received, so that each contained within itself a multiplicity of images and scenes, some from a remote past. They could not “see” in the dark; that is, things that were in the dark were not recorded by them. They themselves could be and usually were kept in the dark, because it was much easier then to see the scenes that they presented, and as the centuries passed to limit their “overcrowding”. How they were thus “shrouded” was kept secret and so is now unknown. They were not “blinded” by physical obstacles, as a wall, a hill, or a wood, so long as the distant objects were themselves in light. It was said, or guessed, by later commentators that the Stones were placed in their original sites in spherical cases that were locked to prevent their misuse by the unauthorized; but that this casing also performed the office of shrouding them and making them quiescent. The cases must therefore have been made of some metal or other substance not now known.’ Marginal jottings associated with this note are partly illegible, but so much can be made out, that the remoter the past the clearer the view, while for distant viewing there was a ‘proper distance’, varying with the Stones, at which distant objects were clearer. The greater palantíri could look much further than the lesser; for the lesser the ‘proper distance’ was of the order of five hundred miles, as between the Orthanc-stone and that of Anor. ‘Ithil was too near, but was largely used for [illegible words], not for personal contacts with Minas Anor.’
19 The orientation was not, of course, divided into separate ‘quarters’ but continuous; so that its direct line of vision to a surveyor sitting south-east would be to the north-west, and so on. [Author’s note.]
20 See The Two Towers III 7.
21 In a detached note this aspect is more explicitly described: ‘Two persons, each using a Stone “in accord” with the other, could converse, but not by sound, which the Stones did not transmit. Looking one at the other they would exchange “thought” – not their full or true thought, or their intentions, but “silent speech”, the thoughts they wished to transmit (already formalized in linguistic form in their minds or actually spoken aloud), which would be received by their respondents and of course immediately transformed into “speech”, and only reportable as such.’
INDEX
This Index, as noted in the Introduction, covers not only the main texts but also the Notes and Appendices, since much original material appears in these latter. As a result a good many references are trivial, but I have thought it more useful, as it is certainly easier, to aim at completeness. The only intentional exceptions are a very few cases (as Morgoth, Númenor) where I have used the word passim to cover certain sections of the book, and the absence of references for Elves, Men, Orcs, and Middle-earth. In many cases the references include pages where a person or place is mentioned but not by name (thus the mention on p. 299 of ‘the haven where Círdan was lord’ is given under Mithlond). Asterisks are used to indicate names, nearly a quarter of the total, that have not been published in my father’s works (they are thus also set against the names, listed in the footnote on p. 399, that appeared on Miss Pauline Baynes’ map of Middle-earth). The brief defining statements are not restricted to matters actually mentioned in the book; and occasionally I have added notes on the meaning of hitherto untranslated names.
This Index is not a model of consistency in presentation, but its deficiency in this respect may be partly excused in view of the