LotR -- Book 3 - Chapter 11 - The Palantír

[davem]

I've been wondering about Mount Doom in the light of something said in The Palantiri in UT. There its stated that it was believed by the wise that he Palantiri were indestructible by any power that men had - unless they were thrown into the fires of Orodruin, when the heat might cause them to shatter.

So, like the Ring, the Palantiri could only be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom. My question is, what is it about Orodruin that makes it such a destructive force. It existed before the fall of Numenor certainly as Sauron chose Mordor as his seat of operations & began building Barad dur in 1000 (S.A.). Did he choose Mordor principally because of Orodruin?


Encyclopedia of Arda implies this is the case:

When Sauron chose the land of Mordor as his dwelling-place in the Second Age, Orodruin was the reason for his choice. He 'used the fire that welled there from the heart of the earth in his sorceries and his forging' (from Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age); the most famous result of his forging, and in fact the only one we know of for sure, was the One Ring, made in about the year II 1600. So powerful was the sorcery used in the making of the Ring that it could not be unmade, except by casting it back into the same fire that had forged it.

But I'm not sure whether this is speculation as they don't give a source for this statement.

Is Orodruin an 'ordinary' volcano, or is it a source of much greater, even 'magical' power? EoA again:

Orodruin was far more than a natural volcano - Sauron seems to have extended his own power into it, and was able to control its fires. It seems to have lain dormant when Sauron was away from Mordor, and sprung into life when his power grew.

This seems more in line with what Morgoth did - suffusing his malice into the stuff of Arda.

Its interesting to speculate on the significance of Tolkien's statement 'He used the fire that welled there from the heart of the earth in his sorceries and his forging' .

What kind of 'fire' is at the heart of Arda, & is it simply magma? Is it simply extreme heat that destroys the One & could potentially destroy the Palantiri, or is there more to it. Is it the 'Secret Fire'? And if it is, what does that tell us about Sauron's ability to make use of it?

I've also been wondering about whether there's any significance in the locations of the Palantiri - Orthanc-Minas Anor-Osgiliath-Minas Ithil are almost in an east-west line & so are Mithlond-Annuminas-Amon Sul. Is that coincidence, or is there some symbolic (or even some practical ) reason for it? Certainly orientation seems to play a part in the operation of the stones....