Midas
There was once a dwarven king in the Grey Mountains whose name was Midas. He was a proud dwarf, his beard long and thick. Midas was a king in nature, but not a king in name. He was the son of two poor miners, and he too was a miner with an unfairly low pay.
Midas only became a king when great fortune shone upon him. If you know tales of Middle-Earth, you probably have heard of the lucky burglar Bilbo Baggins. The luck Midas had that day was of a similar nature as Bilbo's.
The Grey Mountains, or Ered Mithrin in Sindarin, was at unrest. Their king had just been slain by a dragon that came from the north. But just when the dragon was about to destroy the city within Ered Mithrin, also named Mithrin, the White council, a collection of wise and powerful wizards (who were Maiar from Valinor, and they included Gandalf the Grey, Saruman the White, and Radagast the Brown), defeated the dragon. Gandalf the Grey played a key role in the slaying of this dragon (he landed the killing blow and was one of the main strategists), and was from then on called Apollo by the dwarves of the Grey Mountains. Apollo meant sun, and Gandalf was like a sun to the dwarves, shining light and hope upon then in the darkest hour, providing the energy needed for life.
The dwarves asked the wizards how to elect a new king. After much debate, Saruman finally declared that the first dwarf to walk into the center of Mithrin the next day was to be king. Saruman had this all planned, and seeing Midas, a very greedy dwarf whom Saruman knew could easily be manipulated, he blocked the tunnel where Midas was supposed to travel, and forced him to take the long cut, through the city center. And therefore Midas became king.
One day, King Midas was sitting on his throne of stone when suddenly a poorly dressed old man leading a pony came into his chamber.
"Who are you to enter my palace with filthy rags?" asked Midas, enraged by the look of this man.
"I am Silenus, servant of the mighty Bacchus," said the man.
Bacchus was whom the dwarves of Ered Mithrin called the wizard Saruman. Bacchus meant wine in their language, and Saruman's men delivered many good wines to the dwarven kingdom. During the dragon crisis, Saruman provided the dwarves with plenty of ale.
Midas could not leave a servant of Saruman in rags like those. Saruman was one of their saviours, and he, being the king of Ered Mithrin, had to help Silenus.
Bacchus' servant lived in the dwarven city for many a day, but one morning he spoke to Midas and said that he had to return to his master.
King Midas agreed at once, and went to Saruman's tower of Isengard himself. Isengard was a lonely place, and people all around were dressed in a dull fashion. Saruman stood out with his white robes and staff, and he rode upon a chariot driven by two Wargs, which are savage wolves of the wild.
Midas did not dare to go near Saruman, not until he was assured that the Wargs were tame. Then, he spoke.
"O great and mighty Bacchus, I return to you your servant, Silenus."
Saruman had this planned. He needed to teach the dwarf a lesson before using him, for if he was overly greedy, he would be of no use. He may even become a problem.
"Thank you, King Midas," said Saruman, "As a reward, you will immediately be granted one, and only one, wish."
Midas, without even thinking for a minute, cried, "I want everything I touch to become gold!"
"Very well," said Saruman, "Your wish, or rather, curse, has been granted."
Midas left Isengard. He saw a branch on the ground, and decided to see if his wish really had been granted. When he touched the branch, it at once became gold. Midas was extremely delighted. He touched many trees and objects, turning them into gold. He even turned his own pony into gold, but he did not mind. He walked home, and changed many objects along the way.
When he finally reached his kingdom, he turned more objects to gold. As soon as Midas entered his chamber, he asked for a bowl of water to wash his hands in. However, when his hands touched the water, it turned to gold. But Midas was a fool, and that only made him happier.
He only realised his mistake when he tried to eat. For everything he touched turned into gold, including food!
Midas, helplessly grasping for a chance to rid himself of the curse he brought upon himself, then climbed onto the top of his mountain and cried at the top of his lungs, "Bacchus! Take back my wish!"
Saruman, seeing that the dwarven king had learned his lesson, replied from the bottom of Ered Mithrin, "Wash your face in the Great River of Wilderland, and your gift shall be removed."
And so Midas travelled to the Great River, and there he washed his face, and his power was gone. He was overcome with joy, and forgot his hunger for a while. But soon, he had to eat, and he hunted a few rabbits.
Midas, now stuffed with roasted coney, was very satisfied. He turned back and began walking to Ered Mithrin, but Midas' mood did not increase his intelligence. He was lost somewhere between the forest of Mirkwood and the Great River, and he wandered for days before finally coming upon a sentient being.
At first, what Midas saw was a great bear prowling in the distance. But when he came closer, saw the bear become a man. Of course, this was Beorn, who had once hosted Thorin and Company, and was great friends with Gandalf and Bilbo. Midas, though, knew nothing of Beorn, and simply thought of him as a strange, half-man half-bear monster.
Beorn began to smoke from a strange wooden pipe, and creating smoke-rings. Midas realised that this was no monster.
As Midas observed Beorn, an old man in grey robes and a pointed had approached them from far away, although from what direction Midas was not sure. Little did Midas know was that this was none other than Apollo.
Apollo, or Gandalf the Grey, as we call him, took out his own pipe, and made smoke-rings of all sorts of colours and shapes. There were grey ones, silver ones, blue ones, green ones, blue-green ones, small ones, big ones, small ones going in and out of big ones, and so on.
After many an hour, Gandalf finally exclaimed, "Beorn! I have proved my rings to be far better than yours!"
Beorn, upset, walked away. Midas jumped out of his hiding spot and landed right before Gandalf.
"Beorn's rings are far better than yours!" objected Midas.
"How dare you argue with me, Apollo, your saviour?" cried Gandalf.
Midas finally realised that this was Apollo. But he did not back down and continued complaining.
"But Beorn's are bet-"
Midas was cut off, and the last thing he heard for a while was Gandalf yelling, "Your beard shall be no more!"
When Midas first woke up, he thought he was dreaming. But to his horror, when he reached up to his beard, there was nothing. Midas' beard had disappeared!
The first good thought that came to Midas was that no one (but Gandalf) had seen him without a beard. He thought of how to cover this so it looked like he had a beard, and soon he had an idea.
Midas removed his cloak and skilfully cut it with his knife until he had some sort of face covering. He then covered his chin, but realised that the covering would fall off. To amend this, he created straps that hooked on his ears, only to find that the cloth was not enough to shield where his beard would have been. He then made a mask that covered his chin, mouth, and hair, and satisfied with it, he returned to his kingdom after a great deal of aimless wandering.
The people of Mithrin were surprised to see their king in this garment, and asked him why he wore it. He continuously conjured excuses to hide his lack of a beard, but after a year his imagination ran out of plausible and implausible reasons as to why he would be wearing that cloth. Luckily, his people were used to him wearing this mask by then, and asked no more questions.
At this point, Midas realised that he needed a haircut. However, he could not do so. And after many nights of pondering, he finally decided to let his barber in on this secret. But dwarves were an honest folk, and his barber was a very good dwarf. He was not the kind to keep a secret like this, one that concerned his king. He couldn't bear the secret, yet he did not dare to tell anyone.
So he told it to a rock.
But Gandalf's magic was strong, and anyone who passed the rock heard the words: "King Midas, be it known to you, has no beard!" whispered to them.
As time passed, rumours of Midas having no beard soon spread, and so did rumours of the rock. Midas ordered the rock demolished. But when anyone who wanted to destroy the rock neared it, they would hear a voice yelling, "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" and they would be pushed away from the rock and have their head hit on a nearby wall. No serious damage came to those dwarves, but they soon learned not to try to destroy that rock.
Meanwhile, protesters demanded that Midas take off that mask of his. One day, Midas' guards had enough of the peoples' threats and taunts, and took off Midas' mask, but not without a struggle. Midas was a skilled warrior, yet his skill with an axe was no match for those of his royal guards. His mask was removed, and his people saw that their king really didn't have a beard.
Midas could not live like this. He ran to the top of the mountain, and jumped off. Near the spot where Midas jumped from stood Gandalf, who had this all planned. His match with Beorn was naught but skilled acting, and Beorn really did have better smoke-rings. The rock was enchanted by Gandalf, and Gandalf himself was the one who started the protests on removing Midas' mask.
Gandalf had indeed wanted Midas dead, just like how he wanted the dragon Smaug dead. He knew that the necromancer Sauron had returned, and that Sauron could easily bribe a greedy king like Midas, whose dwarves can be used to devastating effect.
Gandalf, thinking of Smaug and being so close to the Lonely Mountain, remembered his adventure with Bilbo Baggins. He suddenly thought of visiting his old friend again, and began his journey to the Shire. And so began another story, one that would determine the fate of Middle-Earth, and one that would have come to a horrible end if Midas had not died…