The Complaint of Mîm the Dwarf

"Still, he works: 'Tink-tink, grün und gelb, tink-tink, blau und weiß' ('Tink-tink, green and yellow, tink-tink, blue and white')"

—Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide Revised and Enlarged Edition (2017)

The Complaint of Mîm the Dwarf is a short narrative text by J.R.R. Tolkien consisting of a short poem and an extensive prose poetry text about the petty-dwarf Mîm. The poem contains twenty-six lines while the accompanying prose text consists of seven paragraphs. The story revolves around the aging Mîm, who is bitter, struggleing with being unable to forgive.

Poem excerpt

Under a mountain in a wild land
out of a cavern paved with sand
a stream flowed from a deep spring
One evening Mîm stood by its door:
his back was bent and his beard was hoar;
long ways he had wandered homeless and cold,
the little dwarf Mîm, two hundred years old.

Prose synopsis

Mîm reflected on the wonderful things he had made throughout his life, especially when he was younger. He concluded that he poured himself into his craft, and that without any tangible works left, there was not much Mîm left. He then resolved to build a great chest to hide and protect future works.

Mîm subsequently built an intricate chest with many features, including dragon guards in its ornate structure. After completing his chest, Mîm slept. Upon waking, he discovered that he had once again been found and that his newest dwelling had been ransacked and burned. Mîm was only able to recover a tattered cloak, his poisoned blade, and a small sack of tools.

Mîm then brooded, frequently sharpening his knife. He complained that his work was always taken and used for various pursuits he despised. Mîm finally resolved to start his work anew, hoping to recapture something of his former skill. However, he recognized that his skill had diminished with age and that he could not forgive others.

Background

Tolkien wrote an early version of the first and second stanzas on a draft of The Mewlips in either 1961 or 1962. It was suggested by Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond that Tolkien may possibly have written the poem based on the connection between Mîm's mention in the "Preface" and The Hoard.

Sometime after finishing a first draft of the poem and prose text, Tolkien decided to revise it and made comments on changes to be made. His son, Christopher Tolkien made a typescript, revising the poem and prose text to include Tolkien's intended revisions, before providing it to Klett-Cotta to be translated.

In 1987, the original text was translated into German by Hans J. Schütz and first published as Mîms Klage on pages 302-5 of Klett-Cotta: Das erste Jahrzehnt 1977–1987: Ein Almanach, the anniversary volume of the publishing firm Klett-Cotta. Hammond and Scull included a mention of the text, summarizing it in a paragraph within the second edition of The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide.

Hammond and Scull likely did not know the dating and the location of the manuscripts of the text until at least after 2017. Before then, it was believed to have been written in or after the 1950s because Tarn Aeluin first appeared as a term in The Grey Annals and The Lay of Leithian Recommenced.

In 2024, it was hinted that the original poem would be included in The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien. The poem's inclusion was eventually confirmed to be the case when Hammond and Scull leaked a PDF of their book’s table of contents.

External links

• Mîms Klage / The Complaint of Mim the Dwarf, an intricate discussion on barrowdowns.com