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I double-checked this, and the book is quite clear that the Arkenstone was *fashioned* by the dwarves. i.e. is a product of craft – it's only on this thread that people seem to have decided they found it basically "as is". Nonetheless the description does leave it open that its glowing is an inherent property of the stone itself (i.e. rather than the result of dwarven magic). However, I don’t see why that can't be a freak of nature– after all Middle-earth possesses a metal, mithril, with special properties.
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Yes! And as I may have added before in this thread, I think it's notable that the gem still shone with its inner light when it was the gift of Girion to the Dwarves (in payment for the arming of his sons), with no information as to how Girion got the gem in the first place:
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'It was a great white gem, that shone of its own light within, and yet cut and fashioned by the Dwarves to whom Girion had given it, it caught and splintered...'
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This is actual 'new' evidence, or at least something not known until the relatively recent
The History of The Hobbit was released, and to my mind it illustrates that Tolkien had no great problem giving this property to a gem used to 'pay' for the arming of Girion's sons.
Of course some will, or might, say the Gem of Girion only 'evolved' into a Silmaril in any case, as it evolved in the making of the tale.
Not me but some
