Opera Stories from Wagner
By Florence Akin
Siegfried
THE MISSING MIMI
The cunning Mimi secretly longed to steal out into the world and find that magic ring.
One night when all the other little Nibelungs were asleep, he slipped stealthily to his forge.
He gathered up his best tools.
Making sure that all were soundly sleeping, he stole quietly out.
What surprise and excitement there must have been the next morning when the little black Nibelungs found that Mimi had run away and had taken all of his best tools with him!
How they must have rushed about, each anxious to tell another the news of the missing Mimi!
Of course, Alberich guessed very quickly for what purpose his brother had gone.
And how Alberich must have raged when he thought of what a sad day it would be for him should Mimi become owner of that ring!
Mimi was strangely clever.
He said to himself: “That ring is hidden somewhere in the forest. I will go there and search until I know who has it. Then I will find some way of getting it.”
On he went, until he came to the darkest place in the woods.
The boughs overlapped each other, so much that almost no sunshine could get through.
Mimi liked this place. It was soothing to his eyes, so used to the darkness of the Nibelungs’ cavern.
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