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Well I always thought it was a hint regarding the Balrog. Then we have the cave troll and Gollum. Trolls may or may not be older than Orcs and Gollum certainly isn't but he is a being that sought the shelter of the mountains when the darkness touched him.
It is part of the suspense building as the story gets literally and metaphorically darker and both reprises the perillous journey through the mountans in the hobbit and foreshadows the encounter with Shelob in Cirith Ungol. They are beginning to face opponents that they may not be able to deal with. Aragorn and Glorfindel can drive off black riderrs aided by fire and water, Bombadil banishes the barrow wight but escaping from Wargs and the Watcher leaves them trapped in Moria.
It also draws on folk mythology - we are taught from childhood tales that "monsters" lurk in dark places ... (there is a wonderful children's book called "The monster bed" about a little monster who can't sleep because he is scared there is a human under the bed!). Even Bilbo knows this and for him there are monsters in the caves he visits ... goblins, Smaug.
It is a fear or a belief that goes deep. Still many people quite seriously search for the Loch Ness Monster in the UK's deepest body of water....
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“But Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar.”
Christopher Tolkien, Requiescat in pace
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