Chapter artwork for The Lord of the Rings book 5 chapter 7: the Pyre of Denethor.
This design contains a single black ship within a stylized palantír and eye shape. The ship is split in two, representing the conflicting responses to the arrival of the black fleet. The same fleet that brings hope to the Rohirrim army also brings crushing despair to Denethor; the Rohirrim learn the truth that reinforcements have arrived on the corsair ships, however Denethor believes Gondor's annihilation is absolute with the arrival of the ships. The sail displays two symbols, which are cut in half: a skull to represent the corsairs (and the “East”) and a single star to represent Aragorn (and the “West”). Denethor peers into the palantír for knowledge, but Sauron is able to twist the mind of Denethor by showing him glimpses of truth that Denethor interrupts incorrectly.
“Then suddenly Denethor laughed. He stood up tall and proud again, and stepping swiftly back to the table he lifted from it the pillow on which his head had lain. Then coming to the doorway he drew aside the covering, and lo! he had between his hands a palantír. And as he held it up, it seemed to those that looked on that the globe began to glow with an inner flame, so that the lean face of the Lord was lit as with a red fire, and it seemed cut out of hard stone, sharp with black shadows, noble, proud, and terrible. His eyes glittered.
‘Pride and despair!’ he cried. ‘Didst thou think that the eyes of the White Tower were blind? Nay, I have seen more than thou knowest, Grey Fool. For thy hope is but ignorance. ... against the Power that now arises there is no victory. To this City only the first finger of its hand has yet been stretched. All the East is moving. And even now the wind of thy hope cheats thee and wafts up Anduin a fleet with black sails. The West has failed. It is time for all to depart who would not be slaves.’”
‘Pride and despair!’ he cried. ‘Didst thou think that the eyes of the White Tower were blind? Nay, I have seen more than thou knowest, Grey Fool. For thy hope is but ignorance. ... against the Power that now arises there is no victory. To this City only the first finger of its hand has yet been stretched. All the East is moving. And even now the wind of thy hope cheats thee and wafts up Anduin a fleet with black sails. The West has failed. It is time for all to depart who would not be slaves.’”
—Excerpt from The Lord of the Rings book 5 chapter 7