Crysknife

This article refers to elements from Original Dune Pages for this subject as it appears in other canons: Expanded Dune · The Dune Encyclopedia

Crysknife
Production Information
Manufacturer	Fremen
Type	Weapon
Creators	Fremen
Owners	Ghadhean al-Fali Alia Atreides Ghanima Atreides Jessica Atreides Leto Atreides II Paul Atreides Duncan Idaho Jamis Chani Kynes Mapes Muriz Namri Nayla Stilgar Assan Tariq Topri (replica) Zia
Locations	Arrakis/Rakis
Physical and Technical Specifications
Structure	Sandworm Tooth Blade
Shape	Curved
Length	20 centimeters

A crysknife was a knife made from a tooth of the sandworms of Arrakis and served as the primary weapon of choice for the native Fremen.

Description

Curved and double-edged like the kindjal, the blade was some 20 centimeters long, milky white and iridescent, and fixed to a black handle with deep finger ridges below a slim ring in place of a typical shearing-guard. The tip of a crysknife was commonly poisoned, with an unnamed toxin residing in the tooth's former nerve channel. This poison is potent and fast-acting as shown by the slaying of Laza tigers by Leto II and Ghanima.

Crysknives came in two forms:

• Unfixed: Blades that gradually disintegrated unless near a living electrical field.
• Fixed: Treated so they could be placed in storage without disintegrating.

Sacred to the Fremen, much tradition surrounded the crysknife. When drawn, it could not be sheathed until it drew blood. Moreover, it was forbidden for any outsider to lay eyes on an unsheathed blade and leave Arrakis alive without being "cleansed" in an elaborate ritual.

The sharpness of a crysknife was unparalleled and its blade typically glowed with its own faint light and reflected ambient light in multiple directions.

Blades were considered a necessity on Arrakis due to the unreliability of firearms in desert conditions.

Gallery

Shadout Mapes offers Lady Jessica Atreides her Crysknife (Analog magazine, December 1963)

Shadout Mapes with a crysknife (art by John Schoenherr)

Duel between Paul Atreides and Jamis

Paul Administers the Oath of the Fedaykin (The Illustrated Dune, art by John Schoenherr)

Paul defeats Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen (The Illustrated Dune, art by John Schoenherr)

Fremen with Crysknife - art by Sam Weber

Crysknife - Dune Chapterhead illustration by Sam Weber

Apocrypha

Crysknife (Dune board game by Avalon Hill)

Crysknife: Blade Weapon - Dune: Eye of the Storm card artwork by Randy Asplund-Faith)

Korba: Fremen Warrior - Dune: Eye of the Storm card artwork by Mark Zug

Jamis: Fremen Warrior - Dune: Eye of the Storm card artwork by Mark Zug

Jamis - Dune: The Graphic Novel, Book 2: Muad’Dib Artwork by Raúl Allén and Patricia Martín

Unfixed Crysknife - Dune Awakening

Adaptions

Crysknife concept art (Dune, 1984)

Crysknife prop (Dune, 1984)

Crysknife prop (Frank Herbert's Children of Dune miniseries, 2003)

Crysknife concept art, first design variation (Dune, 2021, concept art by Keith Christensen)

Crysknife concept art, second design variation) (Dune, 2021, concept art by Keith Christensen)

Crysknife concept art, third design variation (Dune, 2021, concept art by Keith Christensen)

A sheathed crysknife (Dune, 2021)

Crysknife props (Dune, 2021) at the LA Dune Exhibition (2021) - Note different blade shapes

Fremen wearing a crysknife in a sheath on a belt across the chest of the stillsuit (Dune, 2021)

Paul Atreides with unsheathed crysknife (Dune, 2021)

Behind the scenes: Crysknife film props at the 2021 LA Dune Exhibition

Behind the scenes: Crysknife film props for individual characters at the 2021 LA Dune Exhibition

Trivia

• The crys prefix may reference the crystallin structure of sandworm teeth.
• Unlike the slashing blade of a jambiya or karambit, the yatagan-like shape of a crysknife is better suited for penetrating layers of protection and vital organs.
• A real-world weapon with a similar name is the asymmetrical kris dagger of Javanese origin, used mainly by Malay people in modern day Indonesia and Malaysia, and more rarely in other parts of southeast Asia. Mostly employed in the indigenous (now largely Muslim) martial art silat, the kris is not technically a combat weapon, as evident by its pistol-grip hilt. Rather, the blade was typically poisoned and used furtively as an assassination tool. In this way the crysknife toxin and the Atreides-characteristic "hidden blade" style of fighting both nod to silat, Islamic martial traditions, and the Javanese kris.
• In Dune: House Atreides, "fixing a crysknife" is explained as being "keyed to the body of the owner so it would dissolve upon his death," which contradicts Frank Herbert's established definition.
• Crysknife designs in the 1984 and 2021 films somewhat differed from their book descriptions. Shape-wise, the former resembled a trailing-point knife, while the 2021 version was more akin to a yatagan. It's worth noting that crysknives in the 2021 film do not have a uniform shape, aside from their length and curvature. No two props seem exactly alike. The 2000 and 2003 miniseries props seem closest to their book descriptions, at least in terms of length, shape and curvature.

External links

• Crysknife article at Technovelgy.com