What's in a Name?


How many times might've some of you wondered what in the name of Elbereth palanthirofisengard meant? This was a post scheduled looong-ago but due to reasons I don't remember myself today's the day it came to be finally posted. Perhaps no one
here needs an introduction regarding my devotion to J.R.R.Tolkien or his works, including even the merchandise (Games,Movies,Swords, what not maybe even tissues some day). If a few are unaware, you aren't any longer are you? If you're new to my blog I'd like to thank you for the considerable patience you've shown in doing so. Gimme 4 lines & I'd add 8 more to the original, that's my habit of going on writing/blabbering, not adding-up things as GauBHAI (ever heard of any such name?please lemme know if you do, lest I'd go on claiming to have invented a name and re-christened Santosh Gautham ) is well-known for incessantly complaining.



A post(what makes you think I'd stop at one?) dedicated solely to Tolkien will have to wait but in the meanwhile, explaining the meaning of palanthirofisengard wouldn't hurt John.Ronald.Reuel.Tolkien as much as it would if people were to pronounce his beloved Palantiri incorrectly. By dissecting the address of the blog you read now, it reads Palanthir Of Isengard, which is easier to comprehend than the whole thing apiece. Palanthir (or) Palantiri of old were seeing-stones wrought sometime in the first age of Tolkien's mythical creation ARDA (the world, as it is called in Tolkien's works) by the hands of Eldar/Valar and gifted to the Numenoreans. Though what else the Palantiri were capable of remains a question but for sure, they had the power to allow the endowed one see anyone/anything of his wish, the past, the present or the future depending on his will power. If I may remind you of the LOTR Trilogy movies, there is indeed a visual mention of the Palantiri in LOTR:ROTK & what deeper role it plays in the plot only those who've read LOTR may fully acknowledge. So, for beginners, you may assume that Palantiri is some kind of a spherical glass super-computer minus the Arithmetic & Logical capabilities, which can show streams of videos old & new as well as future,can be used to communicate like in Gtalk with a webcam, can be used to hack the other user's brain if you're stronger yet in the end fits into your palm when outstretched.


As for Isengard, there were of old 9 Stones/Palaniri, installed at nine places through out the kingdom of men(not as like in humans, but a race in Tolkien's books,the others being Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, Goblins) for the sake of communicating effectively & co-ordinating the adminstration of the vast empire, also for forewarning against impending attacks and wars. They were installed on peaks. At the end of the Third age when the LOTR trilogy takes place, only three of those are known to survive,the Palantiri installed at Isengard in the tower of Orthanc, the Palantiri in the citadel of the king at Gondor/Minar Tirith/Minar Anor & the Palanthir at Minas Ithil/Minas Morgul installed in the second age. There again, of these three, only the palanthir of Isengard survives and moves on to the fourth age ushered by the defeat of Dark Lord Sauron. The Palanthir of Gondor, having burnt in the funeral pyre of Lord Denethor( the steward of Gondor at the time of the War of The Ring and the last in the line of Stewards) appears to be destroyed beyond repair by magic of any form & it's said later that anyone who saw into it could only see two hands. The other one, as you already guessed was destroyed perhaps, in the fall of Barad-Dur and of the Dark Lord himself towards the end of the War of The Ring, following the Battle Of Cormallen.