The green gemstones seen in Series 7 were shaped differently from those seen in Knightmare's other series, and were called arkenstones. Grimaldine needed arkenstones to help restore his energy. Team 1 of Series 7 gave him an arkenstone in Level 3, and it was the second they had found during their quest.

The Lexicon entry on ARKEN may struggle to pinpoint the word's origin, but the answer is surely that it is from the Old English word earcen (alternatively spelt eorcen or eorcnan), meaning precious, which in turn forms part of earcen-stán - precious stone. Tim Child has described himself as 'a bit of a Tolkien and Hobbit freak', and so it is worth mentioning that in J. R. R. Tolkien's book The Hobbit, the Arkenstone is a large gem briefly owned by Bilbo Baggins, who eventually handed it over to the descendant of the dwarf who had originally found the Arkenstone.

[Previous version: 2008-01-16 00:52:36]

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