How can Ian understand Mithron?

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Any reasonable person will wonder how Ian William Dyrnedon, born in Yorkshire, can possibly understand the language spoken in a parallel world.

Well, Njothila does suggest a rachthor's bite.  Rachthors are nasty critters in Mídhris whose bite, if one survives it, conveys the ability to understand even the languages of animals.  It is a gene-altering event that carries down bloodlines.  Ian, at that point, had never encountered one.  But one must have crossed from Mídhris to England because Ian's great-grandmother, Elizabeth Carver, was bitten by one.  So was an unknown ancestor of Ian's sister Annabelle's future husband.

Additionally, most Mithron words have cognates in the sundry languages of Europe and the Near East, suggesting a lot of ancient crossing between the worlds, back when languages were still fluid and developing.  Hard to tell what may lie in the collective unconscious.

--GMD