Now I have also counted every instance of the word “moss” in the Silmarillion and HoMe. Why? Because I found complete online texts of them, which allowed me to do a word search, and obviously I was going to use this to collect more moss data.
Moss is mentioned twice in the Silmarillion, both in association with Yavanna:
The spouse of Aulë is Yavanna, the Giver of Fruits. She is the lover of all things that grow in the earth, and all their countless forms she holds in her mind, from the trees like towers in forests long ago to the moss upon stones or the small and secret things in the mould.
Then the seeds that Yavanna had sown began swiftly to sprout and to burgeon, and there arose a multitude of growing things great and small, mosses and grasses and great ferns, and trees whose tops were crowned with cloud as they were living mountains, but whose feet were wrapped in a green twilight.
Both these passages are so beautiful! I love how the first quote goes from large scale to small scale, and the second quote goes from the small to large, which also has the effect of showing that small things like moss are no less important than giant trees.
But anyway, there still needs to be more moss. So we move on to HoMe. Here is what I found:
Tol Eressëa has two (2) moss mentions: there is a mossy stone in the garden of the Cottage of Lost Play, and the house of Meril-i-Turinqi has a roof overgrown with moss.
It says that after the Valar departed to Valinor, when Middle-earth lay in darkness, Yavanna went there and sang songs, and moss started to grow. This was clearly a precursor to the quotes we have in the Silmarillion. Location: Middle-earth in general.
An old poem about Tinfang Warble mentions a copse where moss grew. Location: unclear.
The area around Gondolin gets one (1) moss mention: there were mossy stones nearby when the refugees were fleeing the city.
Dorthonion gets one (1) moss mention: Barahir was buried under a cairn of mossy stones.
Doriath gets two (2) moss mentions: when Beren and Lúthien returned to Doriath from Tol-in-Gaurhoth they rested in a mossy glade, and it mentions a second time that Lúthien was sleeping on the moss.
Damn it, I want to sleep in a mossy glade! Anyway, if you’re hoping to see good moss in Beleriand, Doriath is probably your best bet. Mossy stones are better than nothing, but what you really need is thick moss to lie down and sleep on. The moss is so comfortable, in fact, that you will fall asleep on it and not notice (not immediately, that is) when your boyfriend tries to run off and face Morgoth by himself. Very restful, very soft, best moss in Beleriand, approved by Lúthien herself, 10/10!
Thank you for tuning in to the second installment of my extremely niche Ted Talk/TripAdvisor review, and thank you Yavanna for creating moss to begin with. Gotta be one of my favorite plants!
