From Stilgar leading Jessica and Paul to the Fremen
stronghold to Lady Fenring’s plans to seduce Feyd-Rautha
Summary
Stilgar and the rest of the Fremen lead Paul and Jessica
to a Fremen stronghold. Although Jessica has successfully competed
against him, Stilgar advises her not to challenge his authority,
because the Fremen would not trust her as a leader, as she is “not
of the sand.” Stilgar reveals that the Fremen have been preparing
a load of spice to use to bribe the Guild, which has a monopoly
on space travel and banking. The Fremen hope that in return, the
Guild will not allow the Harkonnens to establish spy satellites
that could monitor the Fremen. Stilgar tells Jessica that the Fremen
hope to transform Arrakis into a lush, Edenic paradise. He knows
it will not happen for many generations but that it will happen
in the future. To her surprise, Jessica also discovers that the
Fremen travel by riding on the back of sandworms.
Stilgar realizes he must secure a place for Jessica in
the Fremen society. He notes that their own reverend mother is old
and may need a replacement. The idea of becoming a reverend mother
shocks Jessica. Stilgar mentions the legendary prophecy that the
son of a Bene Gesserit holds the key to their future, and Jessica
knows she must give some sort of sign to prove she can fulfill the
prophecy. She suddenly has an intuitive vision, and in a trance
she recites several biblical lines that excite the Fremen. Stilgar
accepts Jessica as a possible future reverend mother. Jessica does
not reveal to him that she is carrying a child. Paul has prophesied
that the child will be a girl and will be known as St. Alia.
Jamis, the Fremen who Paul battled on the rock zone, challenges Paul
to a duel to the death. Paul reluctantly agrees; he does not want to
kill anyone. Paul has a difficult time fighting Jamis in knife-to-knife
combat because he is used to fighting with body energy shields. Finally,
Paul kills Jamis, and the Fremen are impressed. They take Jamis
away to use the water in his corpse. Stilgar gives Paul a secret Sietch
Tabr name called Usul, which means the base of a pillar. Paul then
chooses a name for himself, Muad’Dib, which anyone can refer to
him as. Muad’Dib is the name of a mouse on Arrakis, an animal that
is considered wise by the Fremen.
At Jamis’s funeral, the Fremen offer his water to Paul,
and the water is later deposited in a special basin under the caverns.
Afterward, Chani, Kynes’s daughter, asks Paul to play a song on
Jamis’s baliset, a guitarlike instrument. He plays a love song,
which disturbs Jessica; she does not want Paul consorting with a
low-born Fremen woman. Paul suddenly recognizes that his mother
will be responsible for causing the jihad.
Meanwhile, on the home world of the Harkonnens, Baron Harkonnen’s
nephew Feyd-Rautha is set to fight in a gladiatorial ring. Visiting
the baron are Count Fenring and Lady Fenring. Feyd-Rautha is smitten
by Lady Fenring’s beauty. Feyd-Rautha has set up a scheme to make
the gladiatorial challenge seem more dangerous than it is; his challenger
will not be drugged, as usual, but will have a secret word, implanted
hypnotically, that will make him immobile. The scheme has been arranged
by the baron’s new Mentat, Thufir Hawat. Feyd-Rautha’s opponent
in the gladiatorial ring, he discovers, is one of the former Atreides
soldiers. Feyd-Rautha uses the secret word and kills the soldier,
though for a moment he feels threatened. Feyd-Rautha glories in
his win, while Count and Lady Fenring discuss plans for Lady Fenring
to seduce Feyd-Rautha and become pregnant with his child in order
to continue the Bene Gesserit genetic program.
Analysis
In this section, the Fremen officially welcome Paul into
their clan, and he starts to fill the role of savior of the Fremen.
Unfortunately, for Paul’s acceptance to be complete, he must kill
Jamis. The ritualistic shedding of blood is a powerful step in Paul’s
development: regardless of his newfound hyperintelligence, he is
still only sixteen years old. Paul’s win also serves to induct him
into many of the tribe’s rituals. He accepts the water that was
once part of Jamis, a Fremen, and he, in turn, becomes a Fremen
himself. Paul learns about the great water well, one of thousands,
which will eventually be used to turn Arrakis into a Garden of Eden.
The Fremen plan to save up enough water until they are able to start
a complex ecological plan to change Arrakis’s climate. Also interesting
is that Paul becomes part of the Fremen clan not because of his
supernatural powers, logical ability, or technological know-how.
Instead, Paul earns his membership in the clan when he kills another
man during an almost prehistoric show of power: the duel.
