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Originally Posted by Findegil
Thinks become much easier when we assume that we have 2 diffrent robberies: One done in the past by Men that stole his chest. This is recounted only by Mīm in his speech. And a second that just has happend done by 'fiends' out of which he comes right at the biginning of the text.
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Hmm. Okay. I think you're right, because in the second-to-last paragraph, Mim describes the fate of the Men who stole his treasures in the dragon-chest:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by The Complaint
They traded them for petty kingdoms and false friendships; they lusted for them; they killed for them and blackened the gold with the blood of their kin.
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The German is definitely in the past tense, so this doesn't seem to be a prophecy or curse: it's Mim's description of the fates of those who took his dragon-chest. If his eyes are still red with smoke, they
cannot be the ones who just robbed him.
So yes, we have two robberies: one by Men in his youth, up by Tarn Aeluin; one by fiends (Orcs?) in his old age. Mim's journey is that at first he was hopeful and enjoyed beauty; then he became bitter and dangerous; and now, after that path has ended the same way as the first, he has chosen to try and reclaim some of his original hope and memory.
It is so,
so tempting to make the second robbery the fall of the House of Random. But then where is Mim's refuge, where he starts his great re-forging? It can't be Nargothrond, that's still intact! So we have to imagine yet
another hidden cave, in which Mim holes up only to randomly leave it and go haunt Narog instead.
hS