Delattre notes that the position of Númenor in Tolkien's Middle-earth is curious, being at once marginal and central, not least because in The Lord of the Rings, the glory of Númenor is already ancient history, evoking a sense of loss and nostalgia. This, he writes, is just one of many losses and downfalls in Tolkien's legendarium, leading finally to the last remnants of Númenor in the North, the Dúnedain, and the last Númenorean kingdom, Gondor, which keeps alive the illusion that Númenor still exists in the South.