The Standing Stone

[Priya]

So getting back to interpreting text from TLotR, one can reasonably infer that foolishly the hobbits had not heeded the first of Tom’s warnings:

“ ‘… Don’t you go a-meddling with old stone …’ ”.

– The Fellowship of the Ring, In the House of Tom Bombadil

Instead of totally avoiding the stone, most unfortunately they propped themselves up on the wrong side:

“… they set their backs against the east side of the stone.”

– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

Positioning themselves on the ‘trigger’ side had, I believe, unleashed a magical fog – starting the process of opening up a way for mortals to enter the Perilous Realm. As the Sun’s power waned thick fog rolled in much like that encountered by the Irish hero Conn at Tara. Irish legend has it that when touched (by Conn the rightful king of Ireland), the stone of Tara:

“… screamed all over the land. This was followed by a thick fog, out of which rode a fairy prince, …”.

– Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by Celtic Heathendom, The Zeus of the Insular Celts – pg. 205, J. Rhys, 1888

I have already remarked in other posts, how Tolkien might well have assigned multiple real world identities to Tom, one of which is likely to have been the Celtic god Lugh. But although I’ve speculated Tolkien linked the “fairy prince” (Lugh) to Tom - what’s remarkable is that after the appearance of the fog, swiftly followed was a teleportation to Lugh’s house, suggesting a magical link between Tara and the deity’s residence.

Again, what I’m proposing is that Tolkien used our world’s myth and embedded some of it into TLotR. The creation of such links gave an air of authenticity to his tale. At least that’s what I think he felt. Then one might, without too much difficulty, conclude that Bombadil was intended as the real source of the legends about Lugh!

In any case, it is the rapid teleportation phenomenon I want to explore a little further, because there is a hint of a method in Bombadil’s words:

“… Tom can’t be always near to open doors …”.
– The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-downs

What and where were these doors?

Why the plurality?

Was one of these doors that created magically by the widdershins locomotion around our shapeless standing stone?

Time to use your imagination: Fog over a shallow hill, a mushroom formation, hobbits circling a standing stone and a gateway!

Then what and where was the other door?

Can anyone tell me? Because I’ve never come across an explanation in any scholarly article, or in any discussion forum.