Quote:
Originally Posted by Galadriel55
There are a few point that must be considered here. Firstly, Elrond did not, as it seems is assumed here, know that Denethor posessed a palantir. This changes things up a bit.
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Actually... if there was anyone in Middle-earth who would have known that Denethor
possessed a palantír, it would be Elrond. As loremaster of the North, he knew of the existence of the palantíri, which was little-known in the late 3rd Age, and it would have been apparent that Minas Anor/Minas Tirith was never lost to an enemy. To presume that Denethor
possessed the palantír would have been quite sensible.
Otherwise, however, what
Galadrield55 says is quite reasonable. There is no reason for Elrond--or pretty much anyone else--to assume that Denethor was
using the palantír. Even Gandalf only figures this out once the palantíri are brought back out of the depths of his memory by the discovery that Saruman was using the Orthanc-stone. If it was a surprise for Gandalf to discover that the Stones were still being used, it must have been unknown to Elrond as well.
Which is not to say that Elrond could not have passed on information to the Kings of Gondor in earlier times in some manner using the stones, but I would think it more likely that he passed information on "conventionally" to the Northern Dúnedain and they were the ones who relayed anything to their southern kin via the palantíri.
It also seems to me that the great
distance between Rivendell and Gondor should be emphasized.
Faramir Jones suggests that Rohan isn't far away--but over what roads? Travelling from Rohan to Rivendell was no easy journey for Boromir going north and it wasn't a piece of cake for the Fellowship going south. This is, after all, one of the things Tolkien does really well: convey how long--how much
walking--it took to get from one distant place to another.
And this is without getting into the question of both Gondor, Rivendell, and the nations between growing insular as the age passed--an insularity which is not, of course, to be commended, but is nonetheless a fact of the story--perhaps one might even call it a sociological or psychological fact.