The initial idea for this essay arises out of my pondering what to make of the different objects associated with the Elf Towers on the Tower Hills (Emyn Beraid) to the West of Hobbiton.

These towers were built by Gilgalad as a gift for Elendil. In the tallest of the towers, Elostirion, Elendil set one of the seven stones (the Palantíri) that the Eldar had given to his father, Amandil, before the fall of Númenor. This particular stone, the Seeing Stone, was different to the others. Rather than communicating with one another on Middle-earth, the Seeing Stone looked straight into the West, over the sundering sea, and was aligned with the Master-stone in the Tower of Avallonë in Eressëa. It is said that only Elendil was able to use this stone to look west across the Sea and see the Undying Lands.

After the death of Elendil the Seeing Stone is taken back by the Elves, guarded by Círdan and the Elves of Lindon. Nevertheless, the Seeing Stone would seem to have remained in Elostirion, for (in The Road Goes Ever On) Tolkien suggests that Gildor and the company of high elves that Frodo, Sam and Pippin meet in the woods of the Shire were returing from a pilgrimage to the Stone.

Be this as it may, at the beginning of the war of the Ring, the hobbits maintain a dim tradition of Emyn Beraid. In the Prologue it is said:

Three Elf-towers of immemorial age were still to be seen on the Tower Hills beyond the western marches. They shone far off in the moonlight. The tallest was furthest away, standing alone upon a green mound. The Hobbits of the Westfarthing said that one could see the Sea from the top of that tower; but no Hobbit had ever been known to climb it.

Early in the fourth age (year 1452 of the Shire reckoning) the Westmarch - the land from the Far Downs to the Tower Hills (Emyn Beraid), is added to the Shire by the gift of the king. The colony of Undertowers is established, with Fastred, husband of Elanor (daughter of Samwise) the first Thain of Westmarch.

When Sam leaves Bag End and travels to the Grey Havens he passes the Tower Hills. It is said that he was last seen by Elanor, to whom he gave the Red Book. The Red Book of Westmarch was subsequently housed at Undertowers, that is, at Emyn Beraid.

In short: Emyn Beraid, in different ages, is home to two very different 'technologies'. An 'elvish technology' - a Palantír through which Elendil can gaze over the sea; and, in a later age, the book that tells, not only of the events of the war of the Ring, but contains also many records of the Eldar days recorded and translated by Bilbo in Rivendell.

Are we to take if from this that the book is in some way a similar, if lesser version of the elvish Palantír?