Elendil on Amon Sul

[Valandil]

In "A Knife in the Dark", as they approach Weathertop, Merry remarks on a path they've found, that it looks 'barrow-wightish' and asks Aragorn if there was a barrow on Weathertop.

Getting old, like me, Aragorn answers the question with a story. It ends like this:

"...But long ago, in the first days of the North Kingdom, they built a great watch-tower on Weathertop. Amon Sul they called it. It was burned and broken, and nothing remains of it now but a tumbled ring, like a rough crown on the old hill's head. Yet once it was tall and fair. It is told that Elendil stood there watching for the coming of Gil-galad out of the West, in the days of the Last Alliance."

From Appendix B, in the Second Age:

3431 Gil-galad and Elendil march east to Imladris.

Now, when I first read this passage, and even on subsequent re-readings, I always envisioned this guy (whom I learned more about later), as just standing at the parapet of this high tower, looking westward over the ramparts, watching for an army coming down the road.

But it only occurred to me the other day (how embarrassing) - that Elendil probably wasn't doing that.

He had a palantir on Amon Sul!

So - whether he stood, as Aragorn said, or actually sat, I suppose he watched for Gil-galad's army through his special "looking glass" rather than with the bare eye.

If it matters to anyone.

But it does show me how we can get an image in our minds when we read something, and still cling to that initial image even as we gather more information.