Chronicled in the wilds of Arthedain-that-was in Eriador,
On this the 37th day of Firith in the Year 3018 of the Third Age.
Three eraid travel from Ered Luin has brought me into the lands that lie betwixt Emyn Uial in the north, and Emyn Beraid to the south. Alas that I had not the will to divert my course and pass by the White Towers that give their name to the Tower Hills, but I resolved to take the more direct course south-east and join the Great East Road in i Drann.
Long has it been since I have laid eyes upon Elostirion, tallest and westernmost of the three towers; for in my childhood I attended my father on the ten league pilgrimage from Mithlond, so as to behold Valinor through the Palantír housed in its summit. For the White Towers were built by Gil-galad, High King of the Elves of the West, during the Second Age, as a gift for Elendil, first King of Arnor and Gondor; and Elostirion is abode to the Palantír that is called the Elendil Stone, the last of the Palantíri of the North. Never did this Stone call to the others (even ere some were lost), but looks only westwards across the Sundering Seas to the haven of Avallónë on Tol Eressëa.
For in the Tower of Avallónë abides the Master-stone, the chief of all the Palantíri, both in Aman and Ennor; and the Elendil Stone is used to look back along the Straight Road and glimpse the white-shining city with its great harbour's lamplit quays. In elder times only Elendil the Fair could look west across the Sea and see the Undying Lands, but those lawfully authorised by Círdan, who is now its guardian, and who possess great strength of will and of mind might now direct their gaze thither.
Thus it is that Elostirion is oft the goal of pilgrimage by Edhil in Eriador, who desire a glance of easternmost Aman, even such as I and Adar in my twelfth idhrinn. Alas, I lacked then the needed power of will, and saw naught within the Stone but small lights that shone briefly like distant stars ere they were extinguished.
Perchance it should have been nostalgic to revisit Elostirion along this journey, even without Círdan's sanction to look into the Stone, but that my sorrowful memory of Adar's death and Naneth's departure for the Undying Lands is still too near.
'These stones were gifts of the Eldar to Amandil, father of Elendil, for the comfort of the Faithful of Númenor in their dark days, when the Elves might come no longer to that land under the shadow of Sauron.'
- The Silmarillion, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age."
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