Hunters of Dune - Entry #8

     The discovery on Dan (once called Caladan) of the one very famous knife is an amazing bit of threading a story line across many thousands of years, five to be exact.  Khrone brings Uxtal and their ghola of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen to Dan where a priestess explains the knife's significance to the Lost Tleilaxu Uxtal.

     "I am Ardath, formerly a Fish Speaker priestess, now servant of Sheeana.  Long ago, the evil Count Hasimir Fenring attempted to assassinate the blessed Muad'Dib with this dagger.  The weapon belonged to Emperor Shaddam IV, was given to Duke Leto Atreides as a gift, and then returned to Shaddam during his trial before the Landsraad.  Later, Emperor Shaddam offered the dagger to Feyd-Rautha for his duel with Muad'Dib."  Priestess Ardath seemed to be reciting often-rehearsed scripture.
     "Later, during Muad'Dib's jihad, an exiled Hasimir Fenring -- he himself a failed Kwisatz Haderach -- acquired the dagger.  In a vile plot, he stabbed Muad'Dib deeply in the back.  Some say he died that day from the wound, but that Heaven sent him back among the living, for his work was not yet done.  In a miracle he returned to us."

(Hunters of Dune , p. 218)

     Although Frank Herbert must have outlined this story line as the dagger plays an important role in Frank Herbert's Dune 7, only the part of the story with Feyd is in the original books.  Brian Herbert filled in the details in the prequel books and Paul of Dune.