- "There was once a Munchkin girl in my life who was so kind and beautiful that I soon grew to love her with all my heart. She, on her part, promised to marry me as soon as I could earn enough money to build a better house for her; so I set to work harder than ever. But the girl worked for an old mean woman who was widowed and did not want her to marry anyone, for she was so lazy she wished the girl to remain with her and do all the cooking and the housework. So the old woman went to the Wicked Witch of the East, and promised her two sheep and a cow if she would prevent the marriage. Thereupon the Wicked Witch enchanted my axe..."
- ―The Tin Woodman speaking of His Lost Lover in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (book) (1900)
Note: initial content copied from Wikipedia: List of Oz characters.
Nimmie Amee is the beautiful and fair Munchkin girl whom the Tin Woodman once loved in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. She was not named until The Tin Woodman of Oz, as Nick Chopper never went to find her after the Wizard gave him a "kind" but not a "loving" heart, until that novel's protagonist, Woot the Wanderer, encouraged him to do so.
History[]
Nimmie Amee was the young and beautiful servant of an old, widowed woman when she met and fell madly in love with a wood-chopper named Nick Chopper. When the old woman found this out, she did not want to lose her servant, so she sought the help of the Wicked Witch of the East. Once the old woman paid her well, the Witch knew of Nick Chopper and sabotaged him and the romance he had for Nimmie Amee by casting an evil spell upon him, enchanting the poor woodman's axe. (The Tin Woodman of Oz)
Nimme Amee in the Marvel Comic Oz series.
The Tin Woodman later tells Dorothy and the Scarecrow that the girl was a servant for an old woman who did not wish her to marry, and so sought the aid of the Wicked Witch of the East to place a spell on him that caused him to cut himself up with his axe while carrying on his livelihood. In The Tin Woodman of Oz. (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (book))
- This was retconned, and in Nick's new telling, she was directly enslaved by the Witch herself.
Nimmie Amee was aware of the spell, which occurred gradually, and was not bothered by his condition and still wished to marry him, thinking a Tin Man very handsome; but he lost interest when he lost his heart.
- In Wizard, he lost his heart after his head; in Tin Woodman, he lost his head last and the Witch ran around with it in her arms.
Soon a soldier named Captain Fyter also wooed the girl, and the Witch dealt him the same blow, and he sought help from the same tinsmith, Ku-Klip. Fyter's head and parts of Nick and his body were incorporated into Chopfyt, a new person, through the use of magic glue found in the Witch's house. Ku-Klip was unable to find one arm, so he fashioned one out of the tin. In this way, Chopfyt reminded her of both the men she loved, and she married him, and Baum presented them as a happy couple at the end of the novel, although Princess Ozma forbade Ku-Klip from ever doing such a thing again. The two of them live in an isolated home at the foot of Mt. Munch in eastern Munchkin Country. (The Tin Woodman of Oz)
In Other Media[]
Nimmie Amee in 1986 anime series
Emerald City Confidential[]
Nimmie Amee has gotten a job working for The Frogman, who now controls Winkie Country through threats and bribes, though the Tin Man is still nominally the leader. Amee seems to also be in a romantic relationship with the Frogman, leading to Governor Chopper's depression. However, she still harbors feelings for Chopper, so she tells Petra when she visits the Frogman to give Chopper something. When she does, Chopper rejects it. Petra recounts this to Amee, who grows increasingly upset with her relationship with the Frogman, comparing him to Chopper. (Emerald City Confidential)
Namesake[]
In the webcomic Namesake, in which only the first six Oz books are canon, Nick Chopper instead reunited with Nimmie Amee after the Scarecrow suggested it, and the two end up rekindling their romance and getting married. Ozma then creates a daughter for them out of a purple flower and a piece of the Tin Woodman's heart, named Adora.
1902 stage play[]
In the 1902 Wizard of Oz stage play, a character named Cynthia Cynch, the Lady Lunatic, serves as Niccolo Chopper's love interest. She appears to be a parody of Shakespeare's Ophelia. In an early draft of the play, this character is named Beatrice Fairfax, and becomes the captain of Glinda the Good's palace guard, an element dropped from the touring version.[1]
The Woodsman[]
In the stage play The Woodsman, Nimmie Amee is the daughter of a good sorcerer that once ruled Munchkin Country before the Wicked Witch of the East took over the country and enslaved her, with the Witch's magical surveillance network of crows and other hidden spies making it dangerous for anyone to speak. When the curse on Nick Chopper finally claims his torso and heart, Nimmie breaks the speech taboo by shouting "Please" to convince the Tinkers to at least try and fix him. The power of love and grief awakens Nimmie's magical powers and allows her to breath life into the completed Tin Man, but the loss of his heart and the fear that he will now outlive her and everyone else he cares about drives the Tin Man deep into the woods into despair where he chops wood until he rusts in the rain. The experience ultimately gives Nimmie the resolve to abandon the Witch before the fatal flying house incident.
Donald Abbott's Oz books[]
Nimmie Aimee appears briefly in How the Wizard Came to Oz (1991) by Donald Abbott. As The Tin Woodman of Oz was still under copyright, the character was left unnamed.
References[]
- ↑ The Annotated Wizard of Oz (2000 edition), pgs. 96, 342.