A northern British word referring to boggy uplands
i know the word from my childhood; there was a boggy area toward the top of the hills off the road we lived on when i was seven or so, known locally as "The Moss'. The kids were warned to stay away because it was said that people had got stuck in the bog and starved trying to escape. Of course we kids were never put off going up, partly because it was Forbidden, partly for the adventure, partly because there was a standing stone on the other side that was said to be haunted by some ghost, will o the wisp or faery-creature, and we were curious. The worst that happened to us, however, was mud, and the risk of a thrashing for getting our clothes too dirty. it's significant that we were never bold or stupid enough to go up after drk, that much common sense we had.
The only time I was ever there even close to dark was one dusk, accompanied by a friend who claimed he'd seen lights moving around the stone, the far side of the bog. Even at age seven, i discounted his story; his parents were pretty fierce about his being out too long after dark, and he was a scaredy-cat to boot. I saw no moving lights beyond the torches we carried. I wish I could tell tales of missing children or of bones discovered sticking out of the ground, but there are none, only a girl who was said to have walked off one night, to be found days later wandering toward another village nearby, unhurt but mucky.
"Moss" is a feature of many northern English and Scottish folk songs, often linked with 'moors' and 'the heather/heath' as places to avoid. Many local histories warn people away from these areas, well-known to be haunted by local monsters, ghouls or other sprit ne'er-do-wells. As they were usually off the beaten track and away from civilisation, who could tell what was really living there? The song Long Lankin carries a warning similar to the one my mother gave me, to "beware the moss". I got away with a scolding rather than being murdered or eaten; possibly I had to suffer being sent to bed without dessert. Sixty years on, my memory is raher vague, but the punishment I imagined was far worse.
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