Inspiration

“‘The palantiri came from beyond Westernesse, from Eldamar.  The Noldor made them.  Feanor himself, maybe, wrought them, in days so long ago that the time cannot be measured in years…

‘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 Anuminas, and Amon Sul, and Elendil’s Stone was on the Tower Hills that look towards Mithlond in the Gulf of Lune where the grey ships lie.

‘Each palantir 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 palantir 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-dur.  Then he was caught!’”

~J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers (2004 [1954]), pp. 597-8.  New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.