May 18, 2002

The Palantir
Brett C.

Anthony, by interpretation of how the Palantir operate, based on the text in Unfinished Tales, is that they require an active user to allow someone with another stone to see the area where a stone is resting. Therefore Sauron would not be able to see what was happening in Orthanc unless Saruman was actually using the stone. I would suppose Saruman had it covered when Gandalf arrived to maintain pretences until he knew how Gandalf would react to his offer. Of course, in TTT Gandalf speculates that Sauron was able to read more of Sauron's hidden thoughts thrugh the stone than the Wizard would have wished, so it is likely even without the stone being used Sauron would be suspicious.

Incidentally, another article mentioned movie Saruman being Sauron's henchman. As I've said before, I think the implication in the movie is quite the opposite. Gandalf quite rightly points out the Lord of the Rings does not share power, and when Lurtz is being briefed in Orthanc he declare his alleigance to Saruman, not Sauron, so I think it likely if movie Saruman had gained the Ring he would no more have yielded it to Mordor than novel Saruman would.