Just in passing, I have to quote Aragorn's response to Gimli after looking in the Palantir from an early draft:
Quote:
'You looked in the Stone?' said Gimli, amazed, awestruck & rather alarmed. 'What did you tell - him?'
'What did I tell him? said Aragorn sternly, & his eyes glinted. ' That I had a rascal of a rebel Dwarf here that I would exchange for a couple of good orcs, thank you!...'
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Also, on the Stone of Erech, the development of the idea is kind of interesting. Originally it was to have been a Palantir,
then there was to have been a Palantir in a Tower at the site. Finally, we just have the great stone. It seems that in Tolkien's mind there was to have been some kind of 'link' between the Palantir of Erech & the Dead. The only thing that springs to mind is that the Palantiri were not simply a means of seeing what was happening in the present moment, but also, in some way, retained images of the past - things that had been seen in them. Maybe the Stone of Erech would have shown the original meeting of Isildur & the men of the Mountain, kind of duplicating the moment of their swearing of service to Isildur & his heir - pure speculation for novelty value.