What does 'living' mean in the following text from The Hobbit by Tolkien, page 120:
"These were not like those of the goblin-cities; they were smaller, less deep underground, and filled with a cleaner air. In a great hall with pillars hewn out of the living stone sat the Elvenking on a chair of carven wood."
I found the following meaning of the word 'live':
live (of rocks, ores, etc.) - not quarried or mined; native
Could the meaning be that the pillars were not made from a stone taken from elsewhere, but instead were cut from the native rock of the underground place they were in? In other words, the rock was cut around the pillars, leaving them in place and never having been moved.