Rings of Power: What Are the Seeing Stones?

Spoilers follow for the latest episode of The Rings of Power! The connectivity between Amazon Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and Tolkien's original trilogy continues to get stronger. Not only did this week's episode introduce Mithril to the world, reminding fans of its valuable properties, but episode 4 of The Rings of Power brought another powerful object to the forefront, The Seeing Stones. Perhaps best known to some fans as being one of the key items held by Saruman in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, these powerful objects have arrived in The Second Age and will be pretty important moving forward.

What can The Seeing Stones in The Rings of Power do?

Known as the palantíri, but typically referred to as The Seeing Stones, these perfectly round objects had a few different abilities. Chief among the powers of the palantíri was their ability to communicate with one another. In The Third Age of Middle-earth, Tolkien noted that the stones were taken by Elendil and spread across the kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor. The stones would serve as a chief communication tool in that time but as the Third Age progressed they would mostly become lost to the ages. To make things even stranger however, the current King of Numenor in Rings of Power, despite not being recognize by his court, is also named Tar-Palantir.

Speaking between the two observers of each stone wasn't the only power that the palantíri have though, they also offered the ability to see across space and time, offering visions of the future to users. The Rings of Power shows this off in a big way, revealing that the Queen Regent is aware of Numenor's eventual downfall and that it will sink into the sea.

Where are The Seeing Stones?

As of now, in the context of The Rings of Power, the seven seeing stones should all be in Numenor. The series only reveals to us that one is present, but there should be six others as well. In the Tolkien text we know that The Faithful take all seven of the stones to Middle-earth when Numenor sinks into the sea. All of them should be revealed at some point, though perhaps this is where the TV series will differ from Tolkien's mytholgoy.

Did The Seeing Stone reveal the truth about Númenor?

The Queen Regent's vision of Númenor falling into the sea and being destroyed by the ocean around it is true. The city is punished for the actions of Ar-Pharazôn, who was in turn blinded by the lies of Sauron, and as a result it is destroyed. Fun fact, up until the destruction of Númenor, Arda (the planet that The Lord of the Rings takes place in) was actually flat, and was turned into a round world after it was sunk into the sea.

How to Watch The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

The new series can only be streamed on Amazon Prime Video, be it directly through an internet browser or on a Prime Video app on a Smart TV or other device. The series is only available to watch for Amazon Prime subscribers, available on a monthly or annual subscription, but you can sign up for it here.

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