Encyclopedia of Arda: Lilies

"Tall grows the grass there. In the wind from the Sea
The white lilies sway..."

Legolas' song of Lebennin
from The Lord of the Ring V 9, The Last Debate

Large flowers that grow on slender stalks, that in Middle-earth were found at least in the Gondorian lands of Lebennin and Ithilien. In the modern world, lilies can grow in a variety of colours and patterns, but in Tolkien's world they're always referred to as being white: in the quote above, for example, and in the description of Éowyn in her illness as 'white as a lily' (The Lord of the Rings V 8, The Houses of Healing). Among Gandalf's amazing array of fireworks was one in the shape of a lily, which could famously hang in the air throughout an entire evening.

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