Mîm and the great 'tater' mystery?

Hahahaha!

I wish I had something less sensible and more witty to add. But, alas...

I note that (it seems) the word 'ingot' is Christopher Tolkien's - is it not? I would think it would make more sense if Mim had nuggets rather than ingots in the sack. A large nugget could ... perhaps ... be mistaken for a root vegetable. Or a piece of reconsituted chicken.

Snaga said:

In the tale there is an unanswered question about whether Mim's sacks only contained root veg, or whether there was something more valuable that he was concealing in there. At least I think its never quite answered. Androg thinks Mim has something else in there, but Mim says no. Turin calls Androg a fool for voicing his theories, but then, unless I am mistaken nothing else is ever said of it.

Or have I not read carefully enough?

Click to expand...

I just read that chapter today, and I was wondering the same thing.
(I've read the posts after yours......)

Argh! So sickeningly reliable! So easily summoned! I wouldn't make a good deity, since ignoring so many calls seems to be a prerequisite. oh well. I haven't read that The Children Of Hurin book yet, which is why I haven't jumped in here yet. I'm waiting for it.

Anyways, yes, I easily envision Mim's roots to be some superly cool and Dwarvishly magical food. Yay for Dwarvish potatoes! Way better than elfy wafers! Magic doesn't even have to be a part of them, either, I guess, since Dwarves are easily the best at whatever their chosen fields end up to be. Dwarvish gardeners would be the best. They'd have had plenty of time to breed the best potatoes, then let them loose on Middle Earth. Mim had plenty of pride in the things, since he's a Dwarf, and none of the more boring races had figured the things out.

As to the other bit of discussion going on, is there a question that needs answering? Looks as if it's pretty clear. Mim was out looking for gold, didn't have much skill at finding it, made sure to disguise the bit that he could find. His reason for leading Orcs to his place was still the same as it was for leading humans to his place. ---> They are pure evil and would have killed him if he hadn't.

I think you may already be deity for the hopeless underdogs!

Anyway... on the last point - once Mim was in the hands of the orcs, you are right they would have killed him. The thing is, he knew about the orcs, and went to make a deal with them. So it was his choice to betray Turin, Beleg and the outlaws.

Betray? Good old Mim? Nah. He's too cool. In that The Children Of Hurin book, he ran outside shouting, "Hey, Orcses! Proceed towards my voice and obtain me!" then introduced himself and offered to lead them to a good source of fresh meat? Hm. Is that how it happened in that The Silmarillion book? Why do I not remember him ever seeking Orcses out? oh well. However he came into contact with Orcs, he'd have to give them something to keep from getting killed, and he had no reason to be loyal to a bunch of humans and some sickening elf. Those dudes forced their way into his home and started eating up all of his food and being nosey about his gold. Always coming in and out, how soon would it have been before Orcs found his place and killed him, anyways? Just because he made life inconvenient for a bunch of humans and some sickening elf doesn't make him a traitor. They were just as much his enemies as the Orcs were, even if he had the odd friendly-seeming conversation with Turin elfbane.

It says that amoung the roots were some nuggets painted to look like the roots. So, there's still the question of what the root's are....

They must be potatoes.

I think those of you saying potatoes rot quickly, well that's because we get them in plastic bags nowadays & the moisture that accumulates in the bags hastens the rotting.

Left on a shelf, they'd last a lot longer I bet.

If they tasted like bread, it could have been the fruit of the breadfruit tree. But you said roots. Maybe taro...

Barley

Or some sort of Truffles

We will never know. The secret was with Mim and his two sons, who knew how to access them. But they perished, and after the death of Turin no one even knew earth-bread existed.

This is just for all you who accuse Mim of being a traitor. Now I am not especially fond of Mim and I am glad Hurin killed him, but he wasn't a traitor. He was loyal to himself only, and YayGollum is right, he was trying to survive. YayGollum gets my vote on this.