XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: rimagen@toast.net   
      
   So I noticed something odd the last time I read through LotR. When   
   Gandalf is explaining the palantíri to Pippin, he says this:   
      
     ‘Who knows where the lost Stones of Arnor and Gondor now lie,   
     buried, or drowned deep? But one at least Sauron must have   
     obtained and mastered to his purposes. I guess that it was the   
     Ithil-stone, for he took Minas Ithil long ago and turned it   
     into an evil place: Minas Morgul, it has become.   
      
   which clearly favors the hypothesis that Mordor has only one   
   palantír, the Ithil-stone. But when Sam overhears a conversation   
   between Shagrat and Gorbag, we get this (spoken by Gorbag):   
      
     ‘No, I don’t know,’ said Gorbag’s voice. ‘The messages go   
     through quicker than anything could fly, as a rule. But I   
     don’t enquire how it’s done. Safest not to. Grr! Those Nazgûl   
     give me the creeps. And they skin the body off you as soon as   
     look at you, and leave you all cold in the dark on the other   
     side. But He likes ’em; they’re His favourites nowadays, so   
     it’s no use grumbling. I tell you, it’s no game serving down   
     in the city.’   
      
   We are clearly meant to understand that Minas Morgul and Barad-dûr   
   communicate by palantír. But that seems to imply that they each have   
   one, and so presumably the Ithil-stone remains at Minas Morgul. If   
   they have two, where did Sauron get his palantír? Or, do they only   
   have one? Perhaps someone in Minas Morgul is putting up messages on   
   some large, well-lit board somewhere, and Sauron periodically   
   surveys it with his palantír? Thoughts, anyone?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)