towers

780 the two towers
Sauron cannot turn to evil uses. Alas for Saruman! It was his
downfall, as I now perceive. Perilous to us all are the devices
of an art deeper than we possess ourselves. Yet he must bear
the blame. Fool! to keep it secret, for his own profit. No word
did he ever speak of it to any of the Council. We had not yet
given thought to the fate of the palantíri of Gondor in its
ruinous wars. By Men they were almost forgotten. Even in
Gondor they were a secret known only to a few; in Arnor
they were remembered only in a rhyme of lore among the
Dúnedain.’
‘What did the Men of old use them for?’ asked Pippin,
delighted and astonished at getting answers to so many questions,
and wondering how long it would last.
‘To see far off, and to converse in thought with one
another,’ said Gandalf. ‘In that way they long guarded and
united the realm of Gondor. They set up Stones at Minas
Anor, and at Minas Ithil, and at Orthanc in the ring of Isengard.
The chief and master of these was under the Dome of
Stars at Osgiliath before its ruin. The three others were far
away in the North. In the house of Elrond it is told that they
were at Annúminas, and Amon Sûl, and Elendil’s Stone was
on the Tower Hills that look towards Mithlond in the Gulf
of Lune where the grey ships lie.
‘Each palantír replied to each, but all those in Gondor were
ever open to the view of Osgiliath. Now it appears that, as
the rock of Orthanc has withstood the storms of time, so
there the palantír of that tower has remained. But alone it
could do nothing but see small images of things far off and
days remote. Very useful, no doubt, that was to Saruman;
yet it seems that he was not content. Further and further
abroad he gazed, until he cast his gaze upon Barad-dûr. Then
he was caught!
‘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.