XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm   
      
   On Mon, 18 Feb 2019 23:33:22 -0500, Bill O'Meally wrote:   
   >   
   > On 2019-02-18 16:17:35 +0000, Stan Brown said:   
   > > Come to think of it, was it already useless? In some sense, Aman and   
   > > Tol Eressëa were taken out of the round Earth at the end of the   
   > > Second Age. Could a Stone see them from Middle-earth?   
   >   
   > Very much so. Recall the hobbits' encounter with Gildor and company   
   > after their encounter with the Black Rider in the Shire. Tolkien states   
   > in _The Road Goes Ever On_  (pp 73-4) that the Elves were journeying   
   > back to Rivendell throught The Shire after going to the Tower Hills to   
   > look into the Stone for just such purpose.   
      
   Thanks for that. "The Road Goes Ever" is not in my personal library.   
   /Unfinished Tales/ is, but it's been a crazy-busy week and I haven't   
   been able to make time to reread the Palantíri article in that book.   
      
   And I should have remembered that the Palantír could look across time   
   as well as space, as you (or someone else) pointed out in another   
   article. In LotR III 11, "The Palantír", Gandalf says to Pippin:   
      
   "Have I not felt it? Even now my heart desires to test my will upon   
   it, to see if I could not wrench it from him and turn it where I   
   would--to look across the wide seas of water and of time to Tirion   
   the Fair, and perceive the unimaginable hand and mind of Fëanor at   
   their work, while both the White Tree and the Golden were in flower!"   
      
   > The same source reiterates that after the fall of Elendil (assuming   
   > that to mean the *House* of Elendil), the High-Elves took back this   
   > Stone into their own care. But again, as caretakers, should they not   
   > have returned their charge to the rightful owner when that House was   
   > restored? I mean, the care of the shards of Narsil were also taken up   
   > by the High-Elves, but was reforged and returned to Aragorn when his   
   > claim to kingship drew nigh.   
      
   Maybe the Elves figured they had plenty of swords, but only one   
   Westward-looking Palantír, and they just hopped Aragorn wouldn't ask   
   for it back? :-)   
      
   But seriously, it does seem a little tacky that they wouldn't give   
   back a gift that they had just been holding in safekeeping.   
      
   --   
   Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA   
                                          http://BrownMath.com/   
                                     http://OakRoadSystems.com/   
   Tolkien FAQs: http://Tolkien.slimy.com (Steuard Jensen)   
   Tolkien letters FAQ: http://preview.tinyurl.com/pr6sa7u   
   FAQ of the Rings: http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/ringfaq.htm   
   Encyclopedia of Arda: http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/default.htm   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)