[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