[Nogrod]

The basic myth of our forefathers (NB, not mothers!) living longer than ourselves is probably one of the most enduring stories we people have told to ourselves. So it's a kind of "paradise lost" -myth.

But why the southern brand of the Númenorians waned so much earlier? I think we come to Tolkien's "northern conservatism" here again (and how far is it from nazism and the stuff like it? I'm really concerned and interested in this one?).

People of the north had to endure hard climate and were morally purer than their southern counterparts. That's all nonsense of course (if we think of RL parallels), but probably was pretty serious stuff for J.R.R. himself. But it is no wonder that it would have been just this way. Think about the opposite and see for yourselves... Mordor in the west, the "land of the spirits" in the east, the villains as white people, the heroes as black, women taking charge...