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ArwenEvenstar
Joined: 14 Oct 2003
Posts: 28
Location: United Arab Emerites
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 Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 4:47 am Post subject: He..he another question! |
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Is a palantair a magical thing but it's something like a pendent ? 
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Hathor
Joined: 09 Jun 2003
Posts: 346
Location: Lancashire, England
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| Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 6:03 am Post subject: |
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Erm... bluntly, no.
A Palantir has a helluva lot of history behind it, all of which I can't remember since I haven't got my copies of the Silm or LOTR to hand. (Currently using college computer due to the problems with home computer.)
It's not magical in the term that you might think, the Harry Potter type. Instead, it's a 'Seeing Stone' used to communicate or see those far away, originally used by Elves if I'm correct, created by Feanor. By the Third Age, few were accounted for, although Saruman had one. That's why there's a Palantir in the first movie- "A Palantir is a dangerous object, Saruman! We do not know who else may be watching!"
Nothing like a pendant, either. It's extremly heavy and shaped something like a bowling ball, at least to my mind.  Again, see FOTR for reference.
Does that help?
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dolarabee
Site Admin
Joined: 21 Apr 2003
Posts: 175
Location: Sydney, Australia
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| Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 6:16 am Post subject: |
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Always one good place to start at: http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/
Look up 'Palantíri'. That's the plural form of palantir. It's in the items section of the Encyclopedia of Arda.
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ArwenEvenstar
Joined: 14 Oct 2003
Posts: 28
Location: United Arab Emerites
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| Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 9:57 am Post subject: Do u think it could be..? |
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Do you think it could be a small one attached to a necklas or something? -Now that I know what I palantair is.
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PoweroftheBook
Joined: 20 Aug 2003
Posts: 80
Location: Appalachin Mountains of North Carolina
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| Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 2:11 pm Post subject: |
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Extremely doubtful that it could be attached to a necklace. Comfortably, that is.
In The Two Towers, Wormtongue tosses Saruman's palantir from the tower of Orthanc, in a futile attempt to hit Gandalf, Aragorn, Theoden, or any one of the characters come to parley at Orthanc's door. You have to figure, if Wormtongue thinks it's going to do any damage to someone beneath the window, it's probably roughly the size of a bowling ball.
Not really something you'd want to string on a chain and carry around your neck.
Also, the prolonged contact with the palantir against the skin could possibly do some wacky things to the character carrying it. Remember when Gandalf sees the Eye of Sauron in the movie version of FOTR? Imagine seeing that 24/7 because of the palantir pressed against your chest! Denethor's madness is also partially attributed to Sauron messing with his head because Denethor looked in the palantir too often. Imagine Sauron messing with your head 24/7 
You might want to take this into consideration when you write your story. Hope this helps!
The Power of the Book 
"Every once in a while, make peace with your enemies. It confuses the hell out of them." |
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PoweroftheBook
Joined: 20 Aug 2003
Posts: 80
Location: Appalachin Mountains of North Carolina
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| Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 2:15 pm Post subject: |
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Ooops. Sorry, Hathor, didn't mean to copy your bowling ball analogy. This is why I should read the entire Forum before posting. (Sigh)
The Power of the Book
"Every once in a while, declare peace with your enemies. It confuses the hell out of them." |
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Hathor
Joined: 09 Jun 2003
Posts: 346
Location: Lancashire, England
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| Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2003 9:45 am Post subject: |
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| PoweroftheBook wrote: | | Ooops. Sorry, Hathor, didn't mean to copy your bowling ball analogy. This is why I should read the entire Forum before posting. (Sigh) |
Great minds think alike and all that! The big, black bowling ball has been my mental image of a palantir since I was about 10 and there it's stuck. It makes bowling a whole new game, I can tell you.
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Owner of 'Just Another Hole' and Lindir, The Pretty Noldo Totty
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NancyBrooke
Challenge Admin
Joined: 11 May 2003
Posts: 160
Location: In a motel 6 by the airport
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| Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2003 4:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Hathor wrote: | | I haven't got my copies of the Silm or LOTR to hand. |
I do (I am such the geek).
I always imagine a palantir like your garden-variety crystal ball. Tolkien descibes the Orthanc Stone as "a heavy shining thing ... a globe of crystal, dark but glowing with a heart of fire." The heart of fire, presumably, refers to the stone's link to Sauron; I'm not convinced it would be that way otherwise but, then, the next stone we see is also described as glowing "with an inner flame" so who knows.
On their way to Minas Tirith Gandalf tells Pippin that there were seven of them, originally, ("Seven Stars and Seven Stones and one White Tree") brought to Middle Earth from Eldamar and possibly made by Feanor. They were used to communicate from one part of Gondor and Arnor to another and kept at Minas Arnor (later Minas Tirith), Minas Ithil (later Minas Morgul; this is presumably the one that Sauron gets), Orthanc, Osgiliath and, in the North: Annuminas, Amon Sul, and at the Tower Hills.
If you don't mind spoilers, you can see the Orthanc stone in ROTK here:
http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&cf=trailer&id=1804738130&intl=us
More than you want to know? Well, depend on me ...
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Viv
Challenge Admin
Joined: 24 Apr 2003
Posts: 71
Location: Texas
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| Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2003 10:13 pm Post subject: |
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[quote="NancyBrooke"] | Hathor wrote: | | Ithere were seven of them, originally, ("Seven Stars and Seven Stones and one White Tree") brought to Middle Earth from Eldamar and possibly made by Feanor. |
Yes, though those seven were the ones given to the Numenorean faithful. But if you need one for a fic and don't want to use the mysteriously "missing" stone of Osgiliath, you can always make up another one. Feanor made a bunch of those, sort of as a dry run for his later silmaril-making. (From the Shibboleth, I think, or maybe the Lost Tales.) |
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