Reasons for Belgium's existence
Belgians: Because Walloons and Flemings are both Catholic, unlike those Protestant Dutch up North.
Major Powers: To stop either France, Britain or Germany controlling a crucial geostrategic area.
Tolkien: Belgium is my ideal size and shape for a country.
He was a weird priss about disliking how Irish and Scottish languages sounded, whereas he put Welsh on a bit of a pedestal—that probably influenced his fondness for Welsh independence specifically. But if you pushed him he’d grudgingly acknowledge other Celtic traditions as well.
Wonder what he thought of Cornish, probably had far more speakers in his time. Also Yola could have still been living over in Wexford, but who knows how widely anyone would have known of it then
