Dr. Bret Devereaux

And so, you know, very much it seems like he's setting up the same kind of network.

And as we move forward,

We certainly get the sense that there's a string of small Numenorean settlements up and down the coast, which will eventually become kind of the embryo of the kingdoms in exile.

It is where they're going to emerge from is because this network exists.

So there is a place for the exiles to go after the destruction of Numenor.

I do also just, like, The Mariner's Wife is also just such a fun story because it's, like, it's exactly the kind of weird just-so story that would absolutely survive in, like, a medieval, like, this is, like, I'm reading this and it's, like, this is a really long story with a lot of personal details, the upshot of which, right, like, the just-so at the end is, like, this is why there are Numenorean ports on the coast of Middle Earth.

And this is why women can inherit the throne of Numenor.

Two facts that sort of kind of matter for subsequent stories.

That's kind of all we're doing here, but we have all of this texture along the way because it's interesting.

And I'm just like, yes, I can absolutely imagine this being a long discursus in historical, you know, some sort of Gesta Numenoria Norum.

There we go.

Um, cause you get like the, the, the, uh, guest of Dane Ornum, the deeds of the Danes.

Um, and I was like having to work out, I'm like, okay, I need to put Numenorean in the genitive plural.

Can you tell I've been teaching Latin lately?

A lot of trees.

A lot of trees?

Yeah, a lot of trees.

So this is, you know, I can imagine Tolkien thinking here with two sort of examples that are probably in his head.

The first is a classical one, and the second is going to be an early modern one.

The classical example here is going to be Athens.