Crysknife

In the Dune series of science fiction books by Frank Herbert, a crysknife is a weapon made from the tooth of Shai-Hulud, the giant sandworms (collectively) that live below the sands of the desert planet Arrakis.

A crysknife is the formal weapon of the Fremen. It is a double-edged curved knife, the blade about 20 cm long. The crysknife comes in two forms, fixed and unfixed. Unfixed knives are raw sandworm teeth used as weapons. They need to be stored in proximity to an electrical field produced by the human body or it will disintegrate after a period of time. Fixed Crysknives are put through chemical processes to keep them permanently intact.

According to the religious beliefs of the Fremen, a crysknife must draw blood each time it is unsheathed before being sheathed again.

All young Fremen must go through a ritual, confirming their adulthood. This ritual is sealed with the gift of a crysknife to the adolescent warrior.

The first use of the weapon was by Selim Wormrider during the events of the Butlerian Jihad.

Noted uses of crysknives

• The Fremen combat style is based around the use of the crysknife, not on the use of offworlder projectile weaponry, though they have been known to use rifles to terrifying results over long range.

Since large plants and large pieces of woody materials are not common on Arrakis, the knife is not a utilitarian style like a Bowie knife or kukri. It is designed mainly with fighting in mind. It can be broken, and Jamis before his fatal duel with Paul Atreides says "May thy knife chip and shatter." The Fremen do not like to have foreigners get possession of their knives, and have been known to kill outworlders who they think will smuggle one off Arrakis. A Fremen warrior facing capture might kill himself, but before dying will shatter his knife on the nearest hard object.

It is also mentioned in Children of Dune that a Crysknife will disintegrate upon the death of it’s owner. The reason for this is that unfixed Crysknives, for some reason, need to stay in close contact with the electro-static field a human body generates.

• Before his metamorphosis Leto II used a potently poisoned crysknife to kill one of the assailing Laza tigers who were intent on killing him and his sister, Ghanima.

• Fremen knifefighters using crysknives can defeat Sardaukar swordmasters in single combat.

Other Media

• There is a metal band named Crysknife, inspired by the weapon from Dune.

• In the game NetHack, killing a long worm leaves behind a tooth that can be used as a weapon. Reading an uncursed scroll of enchant weapon while wielding a worm tooth creates an unfixed crysknife that transforms back into a worm tooth when dropped. Reading an uncursed scroll of enchant weapon while confused and wielding a crysknife transforms it into a fixed crysknife. Wielding a crysknife and reading a cursed scroll of enchant weapon transforms it back into a worm tooth.

See also

• Kris

Sources

• Herbert, Frank. Dune. 1965 (reprint). ISBN 0-441-17271-7