Mîms Klage / The Complaint of Mim the Dwarf

[Findegil]

I would not split between prose and poem. Part of the poem and the prose are Mîm speaking to us "Mîm's speech", while the first paragraph of the poem (16 lines) is a kind of "introduction". That would be my split. And as a matter of fact everything the introduction is telling us must have happened before Mîm utters his speech.

But how long before we do not know. E.g. 'Long paths he had wandered, homeless and cold' had happened most likely a longer time before Mîm stood before his den.

Nonetheless some of what the introduction is telling us must have happened very recently. Or at least the German text does strongly suggest that. Line 12 'His clouded Eyes blinked, still reddened from the smoke;' is without any question describing Mîm when he steps out of his den just in the moment before he uttered his speech. Why would you tell us of a blinking eye in an event long past? If we would not have lines 13 to 15 in between I would think that the smoke that reddened his eyes would have been from his forge-fire. But the lines 13 to 15 make clear that we see Mîm coming out because 'they had,/ at last, his passages cruelly on fire set'.

Now the 'they' from line 13 finds most naturally its reference in 'the fiends' of line 9. If that is the reference, then the events described in lines 7 to 11 had as well most naturally happened recently.

Taken by itself, nothing speaks against that. But then we read Mîm recount what sounds like the same event as in line 7 to 11. This offers two issues:

- Mîm tells us: ‘They smoke me out like a rat, and in mocking mercy they made me run like a wild beast, through burning thorns and heather around my deep home. They laughed as I kicked the hot ash, and the wind snatched away my curses.’ This does not fit the introduction where just before he begins to utter his speech Mîm ‘came … out, sickened and choked.’

- What follows in Mîm’s speech after he is smoked out, is still a long story: he has dealings with his neighbours, he tries and fails to re-create some artefacts. That does as well not fit the introduction where Mîm comes out, with reddened eyes from the smoke and still sickened and choking and immediately speaks to us.

I see 3 possible ways out of this dilemma:

1) The introduction line 7 to 15 and Mîm’s speech do not refer to the same events. This would for the introduction work very well. Since it then tells us things in the right sequence: Mîm’s time of homeless wandering – the ‘fiends’ robbing him and setting his passages on fire – he comes out and speaks. But this seems unlikely since the description especially of the robbery is very similar.

2) Introduction line 7 to 11 refer to the same event as Mîm in his speech, but introduction line 12 to 15 refer to some other independent event that happened recently. In that case we still have some similarities in the two smoking outs but as well enough differences. Issues with this solution are the reference for the ‘they’ in line 13 becomes unclear and the introduction becomes unusual in the order of telling things. First the homeless wandering, then the earlier robbery of his artefacts and then the most recent burning of the passages of Mîm’s den.

3) H. J. Schütz did use a bit too much poetical liberty in the lines 12 to 16 of the introduction. That Schütz was not the most skilled translator when it comes to rhymes is attested in his translation of the two volumes of the Lost Tales: he made line by line translations of the poems in these bocks but didn’t use a single rhyme. That he struggled as well with Mîms Klage seems clear from some unusual rhyming couples and sentences ordered strangely. Some such cases concern us here: In line 10 and 11 the ordering of the sentence is very unusual. The line break between ‘und eine lange Klinge’ and ‘in einer Scheide unterm zerfetzen Mantel’ is acceptable but not very good. He needs it for the end rhyme ‘Dinge’ - ‘Klinge’. But then the ‘, vergiftet auch.’ Is a very unusual addon to the sentence. I would even call it strange. Together with the line break before, it disturbs the reading flow badly and leads to a kind of staccato with in this sentence. Schütz does use it for the rhyming couple ‘auch’ – ‘Rauch’ in lines 11 and 12.
The next couple ‘zuletzt’ – ‘gesetzt’ is as well a bit suspicious. ‘zuletzt’, ‘at last’, is superfluous. It looks like Schütz introduced it to get a rhyme with ‘in Brand gesetzt’.
And the last couple ‘Erbrechen’ – ‘sprechen’ is forced. ‘fast am Erbrechen.’ in line 15 is really bad German. Especially taking the time into account, when Schütz made this translation. Today such a construction with a substantive and the use of ‘am’ to describe what someone does (or nearly does in this case) is common in some German slangs. But I would still call it a sign of a degenerative speech, much more so 1986-7.
So what do I make out of this? Well, maybe Schütz changed the order of the lines here to get any rhyme going at all in his translation, we don’t know. But I could at least imaging that the clear impression from the German text that lines 12 and 15 must refer to recent events was not in the original English text. That would explain as well why we have in line 4 ‘One evening Mîm stood before his den’, while later in line 15 we have ‘and thus came he out’: If lines 5 to 15 all tell us some back ground about Mîm’s past, then he does in line 15 come out of his burning ‘deep home’ after the robbery of his artefacts and not out of his ‘den’ right before he uttered his speech.

As nice as solution 3) is, we do not have much evidence for it. And if it is true, it would make the back translation extremely difficult.

Respectfully
Findegil

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Oh, just noticed this

I'm still hoping for a copy of the Zimmerman script treatment,

I talked about this with Bill Fliss (Marquette has it, with Tolkien's annotations), but unfortunately the copyright status is a hopeless mess. TLDR, Zimmerman's heirs hate each other and aren't speaking, so agreement on anything is not in the cards.

[Val Balmer]

Originally Posted by Findegil

I see 3 possible ways out of this dilemma:

1)

I think I start to understand what you mean, but for me the most "simple" reading is as follows:

- Poem lines 1-6: Mim is 200 years old, he leaves is cave and starts to think about the past.
- Poem lines 7-15: Past event are described vividly: Mim is driven out by fire from his tunnel (a former den)
- Poem lines 16-26: Back in the present (the sand connects the lines): he starts his complaint... he is in a haste to rebuild his treasure.

- Prose §1 [Alle Dinge, die meine....viel ubrig von ihm.]: Mim speaks about the past and the treasures he produced.
- Prose §2 [So sann ich...verwehter Jahre.]: Still in the past, Mim builds a chest for his treasures
- Prose §3 [Schlief ich...an öden Orten.]: Same event as in the poem 7-15; Mim is smoked out of his cave and left with a few tools and a poisoned blade
- Prose §4&&5 [So nahmen sie...Tranen zerspellt + Was früher ich...Zeit zum Denken!]: A link between past and present. Mim was left bitter from the robbery and he has lost the inspiration to create.

So in the poem we have [Present] + [Past] + [Present] and in the prose fragment [Past] + [Present]

In my interpretation sentences like "His clouded Eyes blinked, still reddened from the smoke" are there to trasmit the urgency of the action and not the fact poem lines 7-15 are immediately after 16-26.

On the other hand the whole discussion leads me to re-evaluate the chronology I have proposed in the pdf I shared some time ago: he was not 200 years old when driven out of his caves (Nulukkizdîn?) --> he was 200 years when he rethinks about the past in his new den (Sharbund?).

[Findegil]

You might have expected it: I disagree (in parts) with your “simple” reading.

- Poem lines 1 – 6: Agreed. It might not be very important, but the text does not state that he leaves the cave. He stands before it, so he could have arrived there coming from some other place just in that moment.

- Poem lines 7 – 15: Possible, but line 12 reads really much like referring to the present in German. The construction with the German ‘noch’ means a temporary state soon to be changed. The correct construction for past time reference would be ‘waren noch’, so some liberty must be granted here. But together with blinking eyes, that are of no significance in a broad recapturing of the past as we have it in the lines before, these cries ‘present!’ to me.
And there is a strong connection between line 15 ‘erstickt und fast am Erbrechen’ und line 16 ‘Mîm spie in den Sand’. As said in my last post, Schütz might have changed some line to get the rhyme going, and here he needed maybe ‘erbrechen’ – ‘sprechen’, but we don’t know and as it stands, there is a strong suggestion that Mîm spit into the sand, because he nearly vomited from the chocking smoke recently experienced. (I suspect that line 15 might have been internally turned for the ‘erbrechen’ – ‘sprechen’ rhyme, and that what Schütz translated ‘und so kam er heraus’ was in the original English text some thing like *thus he escaped*. Which would exchange the strong connection we have to a much weaker. A farther possibility would be, that the blinking eyes belong rather here and are a sign for the jump back into present. But then the reddened eyes from the smoke are a bit lost, and I don’t think they are an addition of Schütz – why should he add ‘Rauch’ when he did not find any better rhyme than ‘auch’ in that rather strange construction of a sentence?)

- Poem lines 16 – 26: I strongly disagree! Even so it is a correct reading that Mîm is obsessed with the work, in the description of the artefacts even in the German translation the beauty shines through that does fit to Mîm’s earlier work, not the ‘Spuk’ of his later tries. And that he was obsessed even in his earlier work is confirmed in Prose §1.

- Prose §1: Agreed.

- Prose §2: Agreed. (I will not change your numbering, but there is a paragraph break between ‘… das die Winde verwüstet hatten.’ and ‘Klapp-klipp-ratsch! …’)

- Prose §3: I agree that we have a very strong similarity between the Event described here and Poem lines 7 – 11, so that these are most likely the same event. But I still have some doubts about Poem lines 12 – 15 as discussed above, even so I see the similarities in these parts as well.

- Prose §4&§5: I agree, more or less. But the paragraph break is not between ‘… Tränen zerspellt.’ and ‘Was früher ich …’. It is between ‘… selbst wenn sie davon nichts ahnen.’ and ‘Nun aber bin ich alt und verbittert …’. This makes a lot of sense since that is were we change from the past (recounting the effect of the treasure on the robbers) to the present (Mîm in his old age).

By the way: I (now) have read your article and find it alighting. Specially the outer chronology is use full.
But I hesitate about your calculation of Mîm’s age. The reference to him being 200 years old in line 6 comes after the time of Mîm’s homeless wandering is mentioned. And from the inner logic of what else is told in Mîms Klage that time should come after he was robbed of his treasure and smoked out of his ‘deep home’.
Your combining of Mîm being robbed and smoked out of his deep home with the building of Nargothrond by Finrod is tempting, but how could he cooperate at first if his ‘deep home’ from Mîms Klage was one of the caves of Narog? Was he willing to share it with the Elves? In addition I think Prose §5 ‘… so wie er einst glänzte am Tarn Aeluin, als ich jung war und zum ersten Mal spürte, wie geschickt meine Finger waren.’ could mean that Mîm’s ‘deep home’ in which he created his treasure was near Tarn Aeluin.

If you like, here is my very much fan-fictional take on Mîm’s life:
- As a young Petty-Dwarf he lived in a ‘deep home’ near Tarn Aeluin. I suppose with some companions, since as obsessed as he is with his work, he would need them for survival. Anyhow it would be unusual for the leader of the Petty-Dwarves (what Mîm is according to The Founding of Nargothrond from NoME) to live alone. So I assume all Petty-Dwarves lived with him at that time.
- As that area was or came under the control of Finrod, Mîm build a good relationship with him.
- In Beren and Lúthien Christopher Tolkien refers to a note of his father stating that the Nauglamír was original made by the Dwarves for Finrod. So we let Mîm be the artist to fashion it and give it him during their time of good relationship, maybe in exchange for the protection that the siege of the Elves offered for the Petty-Dwarves of eastern Dorthonion.
- Now Finrod plans to build Nargothrond. He approaches Mîm for help. Mîm agrees and helps in the planning, since he thinks the Petty-Dwarves have no longer a need for the Caves of Narog.
- Now Tarn Aeluin is in the east of Dorthonion, which might have been a contested territory, since Celegrom and Curufin hold the neighbouring Aglon Pass. And we know that they had fortresses on both sides of the Pass. We also know they despised the aboriginal inhabitants, even if they were of the same race (e.g. Eöl). So Curufin and Celegrom are the attackers that rob Mîm’s treasure and smoke him out of his ‘deep home’ near Tarn Aeluin, killing many of his companions, thus eliminating the Petty-Dwarf colony of Dorthonion and taking Mîm’s treasure as their own.
- What follows is Mîm’s homeless wandering. Now he has a grudge against Elves in general and Finrod in special: Mîm had paid Finrod for protecting him and his people, but Finrod had failed to do so. He send his people back to the Caves of Narog and goes on his failed mission to kill Finrod either somewhere in Dorthonion or in Minas Tirth. Mîm’s flight from the place of that failed assassination is still part of his homeless wandering of long paths.
- After the failed assassination of Mîm, Finrod employs the Dwarves of Ered Luin and the begins the actual building of Nargothrond. The Petty-Dwarves that they encounter in the Caves of Narog, show their hostility and are driven out by the Ered Luin Dwarves.
- Now Mîm and the Petty-Dwarves driven out of the Caves of Narog meet at Amon Rudh, which seems to be a kind of first settlement of the Petty-Dwarves in Beleriand (therefore named rather a shelter and a den, than a home). But as the population is sharply diminished by the raid on the ‘deep home’ in Dorthonion and the driving out from Nargothrond it farther dwindles (probably by dying of old age, hunger, …) until only Mîm and his two sons are left.
- After Dagor Bargolach Curufin and Celegorm join Finrod in Nargothrond. For their actions in Nargothrond against Finrod’s leadership they employ the artefacts of Mîm. Thus ‘they battered them for petty kingdoms and false friendships’. Cumulating in their betrayal of Finrod when they learn of his captivity, thus they ‘darkened the gold with blood of their kin.’
- When Celegorm and Curufin are driven forth from Nargothrond most of the treasure is left behind.
- Mîm is captured by Túrins Band and Khîm is slain by the arrow of Androg. Grudgingly Mîm allows them to live on Amon Rudh, when Túrin promises: ‘if ever I come to any wealth, I will pay you a ransom of heavy gold for your son’.
- If line 7-15 of Mîms Klage refer all to the past, then Mîm doth utter his lament sometimes early during Túrin’s stay in Amon Rudh. The friendship he builds to Túrin is most likely the result of his uttering of ‘it is not good that it is so now’.
- Beleg comes to Amon Rudh and Mîm’s hope for a friendship with Túrin is stalled.
- Mîm betrays Túrin and his band.
- Mîm tries to kill Beleg, but flies from Androg.
- Túrin comes to Nargothrond and raises to a kind of leader there. From Mîm’s perspective one could say that he had come to some wealth and he (naturally) fails to give Mîm the ransom he promised for the death of Khîm.
- Glaurung now occupies Nargothrond and the hoard in which beside the Nauglamîr are many other artefacts of Mîm battered out or left behind by Celegrom and Curufin.
- After Glaurungs departure and death by the hand of Túrin, Mîm comes to Nargothrond. He takes possession of the halls that where of Petty-Dwarf origin any how and he claims the treasure on several grounds: the Nauglamîr he claims back as Finrod failed in protecting him and his people, the other Artefacts of his treasure as stolen from him, part of the gold as ransom for Khîm having become available by the dead of Túrin how promised it, part as ransom for his peopled killed by the Ered Luin Dwarves on behalf of Finrod. Thus he can say to Húrin: ‘by many a dark spell have I bound it to myself’.
- When Húrin comes to Nargothrond Mîm is killed, but curses the hoard (farther) with his dying breath.
- Húrin’s band brings the hoard to Menegroth. When after Húrins departure they try to claim the hoard for themselves, they are killed by the Elves.
- Thingol employs the Dwarves of Nogrod and Belegost to fashion the unwrought gold and silver and to join the Nauglamír with the Silmaril.
- When the dwarves are done with that work Thingol shortens his promised payment to have enough silver for a double throne he fancied. The Dwarves leave Menegroth unpaid an embittered.
- Ibun, the second son of Mîm, brings the news of Mîm’s death to Belegost. He joins the invasion force of the Dwarves and takes over the role of Ufedhin in the conversation with Melian and in the failed double assassination of Naugladur. And then he ‘fled gasping from that place, for the long fingers of the Indrafang had well-nigh choked him … and little but a tortured heart got he from the Gold of’ his father.

Well, wouldn’t that be a tale worth the telling?

Respectfully
Findegil

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Mim's Klage

They traded [Mim's treasures] for petty kingdoms and false friendships; they lusted for them; they killed for them and blackened the gold with the blood of their kin.

They who? Straight away, I don't think they can be Orcs - they would certainly kill each other for gold (and "blackened with blood" would work well), but in the days of Morgoth's reign I can't imagine Orcs would be allowed to rule kingdoms. (The German here is "Königreiche", definitely "kingdoms" rather than "domains" or something.)

But Findegil, above, has suggested that they could be Celegorm and Curufin. I think this might fit really well, if we allow Mim a little metaphor, and if we suppose that the takeover of Nargothrond was obtained in part by paying off the Nargothrondrim with Mim's gold. Cel'n'Cur traded the gold for Nargothrond (built by Mim's people, so literally a petty kingdom ), and for the fickle friendship of the locals. In their turn, the locals lusted after the gold, to the point that they sent their king out to die. They may not have killed him themselves, but his blood was on their hands and treasures, just as the blood of the Kinslayings was on the Silmarils.

hS

[Val Balmer]

Originally Posted by Findegil

You might have expected it: I disagree (in parts) with your “simple” reading.

Indeed I was expecting it, but what a dull discussion would be if we all agree?

Originally Posted by Findegil

- Poem lines 16 – 26: I strongly disagree! Even so it is a correct reading that Mîm is obsessed with the work, in the description of the artefacts even in the German translation the beauty shines through that does fit to Mîm’s earlier work, not the ‘Spuk’ of his later tries. And that he was obsessed even in his earlier work is confirmed in Prose §1.

One possible interpretation here might be: he has just found is new home, he thinks about the past leaving the cave, he spits on the ground and sings about what he intend to make. Later, in the prose, he realises he is not able to do so.

It is also possible that this part is still in the past, but we loose the connection with the "Sand" of the first line (an important word as linked with rime). On the other hand, in my interpretation at least, the piece would become: Poem: [Present] + [Past] | Prose: [Past] + [Present]...kind of simmetrical...

Originally Posted by Findegil

By the way: I (now) have read your article and find it alighting. Specially the outer chronology is use full.
But I hesitate about your calculation of Mîm’s age. The reference to him being 200 years old in line 6 comes after the time of Mîm’s homeless wandering is mentioned. And from the inner logic of what else is told in Mîms Klage that time should come after he was robbed of his treasure and smoked out of his ‘deep home’.

I agree, that's what I meant in my previous post: I should redo my calculations -200 years at least.

One possibility I discarded when I checked that was that the people of Beor had chased the petty dwarves from Tarn Aeluin. I need to check again the chronology to see if, with the new hypotheses, that could be a fit...

Originally Posted by Findegil

If you like, here is my very much fan-fictional take on Mîm’s life:

I like this story! I am sure a great fan fiction might come of it...