XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: mr@sandman.net   
      
   In article , Stan Brown   
    wrote:   
      
   > On Thu, 18 Sep 2014 20:40:36 +0000 (UTC), Steve Morrison wrote:   
   >> 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.   
   >>   
   >   
   > Tolkien explains in a letter somewhere that when Gandalf says "I   
   > guess" that Gollum had the One Ring, what he really means is "I   
   > deduce".  I don't think there's any doubt that Sauron's Palantír was   
   > the one from Minas Ithil.   
   >   
   > We do know that the one from Fornost was lost at sea. I'm not sure   
   > what happened to the one at Weathertop.   
      
   Same faith, both were on the same ship. The Weathertop palantir was taken   
   to Fornost when the tower was destroyed by the Witch King. They both rest   
   at the bottom of the Icebay of Forochel.   
      
   >> We are clearly meant to understand that Minas Morgul and Barad-dûr   
   >> communicate by palantír.   
   >   
   > No, I don't think so. In my opinion we are meant to understand that   
   > Sauron and his chief slaves, the Nazgûl, communicated by some means   
   > unavailable to lesser servants. I think Tolkien's essay Osanwe-kenta   
   > explains it: it was what we would call telepathy.   
      
   Most probably, yes.   
      
   That said, the one ring was found after having been lost in the Anduin, so   
   it's not impossible that the master stone of Osgiliath, also lost in   
   Anduin, had been found as well.   
      
      
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