ATREIDES, PAUL
I
INTRODUCTION
The
figure known to us as "Paul Atreides" is perhaps a more fitting subject
for the romancer or the folklorist than for the historians Many of the attributes
claimed for him (i.e., that he was prescient, that he survived the explosion
of an atomic warhead) are clearly fantastic; others (i.e., that he was a great
warrior) are common to virtually all mythic heroes. Yet the legends about him
are persistent and far-flung, and some of them have been recorded by ancient
historians and biographers whose work in other areas is known to be absolutely
accurate. The following report is an attempt not to de-mythologize the figure
widely assumed to have been the Messiah; it is an attempt, rather, to account
for him, to identify him.
II
LEGENDARY HISTORY OF PAUL
The
mythological or legendary history of Paul Atreides runs, in brief, according
to the following line. He was born on Caladan in the year 10175, the natural
son of Blessed Leto Atreides 1 (10140-10191), the "Red Duke" whose
remains are traditionally assumed interred in the long-sought Skull Tomb or
Skull Place on Arrakis. His mother was the Lady Jessica Harkonnen (10154-10256),
the bastard daughter of Siridar-Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (10110-10193) and herself
a Reverend Mother of the Bene Gesserit. He had one full sister, Alia Atreides-Idaho
(10191-10219), and was father of Leto Atreides II, the Summa-Emperor, the Immortal
(see genealogy chart).
In his youth on Caladan, Paul was well instructed in all of the martial arts,
in voice, in political theory, music, and history. His primary instructors were
the family retainers Duncan Idaho1, Gurney Halleck, and Thufir Hawat, a mentat.
Others of his teachers included his mother, already a Bene Gesserit herself
but not yet a Reverend Mother, and the legendary Bene Gesserit Great Mother
Gaius Helen Mohiam, who may have been his maternal grandmother. It was the Great
Mother who, when he was fifteen years of age, personally subjected him to the
test of the gom jabbar and declared him, following the test, to be Kwisatz Haderach
(Fulcrum of History).
The Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV (see genealogy chart) named Leto I planetary
governor of Arrakis, replacing the duke's concubine's father, in 10190. The
following year Paul and his mother came to live on the planet with which his
story has become so closely identified. In that same year the deposed Siridar-Baron
Harkonnen, acting with the tacit approval of the Emperor2, staged a coup d'etat,
assassinated the Red Duke, and forced Paul and his now pregnant mother into
hiding among the Fremen of Sietch Tabr.
Little is known of Paul's activities during the two years he spent among Fremen
in the Great Desert.3 However, in 10193 he emerged from the desert as Usul,
at once the leader and symbol of the Arrakis Revolt. He commanded both Fremen
and what was left of the Atreides family forces in one of history's few truly
masterful military campaigns. In the Battle of Arrakeen he overwhelmingly defeated
the combined forces of the Padishah Emperor and the Baron Harkonnen, driving
Shaddam IV into exile on Salusa Secundus and effectively assuming control of
both Landsraad and CHOAM.
Following the Battle of Arrakeen Paul was pronounced Muad'Dib, or Messiah, by
the Fremen who in his name carried the Second Jihad across the worlds. He married
Irulan Corrino, daughter of the exiled Emperor, but the marriage was a politically
inspired formality. In 10209, the thirteenth and final year of his reign, he
sired the twins Leto and Ghanima out of his formal concubine, the Fremen woman
Chani Liet-Kynes of Sietch-Tabr, who died in childbed.
The combination of his personal magnetism, capacity for leadership, vision of
a green Arrakis, and reputed prescience turned Paul into an object of veneration,
a virtual deity.4 It was in his name that the Second Jihad (10196-10208) was
carried across the heavens and the ultimately unsuccessful transformation of
Arrakis from desert into oasis was begun.
An assassination attempt in 10205 was the result of a conspiracy among several
increasingly insecure political factions including the Spacing Guild, the House
Corrino, and the Bene Gesserit. The attack itself was unsuccessful in that Paul
miraculously survived a stoneburner explosion. He was blinded by it, however;
and, apparently following the ancient Fremen custom that the blind he abandoned
in the desert, Paul disappeared voluntarily from Arrakeen shortly after the
births of his twin children. It is believed by many that he will one day return
in triumph from the desert, and by others that he has from time to time and
irregularly over the centuries re-appeared as a portent, a nameless prophet
of doom.
This, then, is the legendary history of Paul Atreides. It is of no little significance,
however, that no conclusive archaeological evidence has been discovered either
on Caladan or on Arrakis5 that would prove or disprove either his lineage or,
indeed, his very existence. However, such circumstantial evidence as reason,
folklore, and "historical" documents made available to the historical
anthropological invites some interesting and useful suggestions. This evidence
may answer at least some of the more pertinent questions about Paul Atreides,
the Kwisatz Haderach, Muad'Dib.
III
THE QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED
Was
Paul Atreides an historical personage?
This, obviously, is the most important question. The answer is that almost certainly
he was; and the answer is based on a number of considerations. In the first
place, Paul is the pivotal character both in noble and in Fremen folklore. This
is particular significant. These two pools of folklore material, though possibly
springing from a single pre-First Jihad source, were absolutely independent
of each other at the beginning of the Second Jihad. Different motifs, different
qualities praised in their gods and heroes, different moral orientations, different
modes of existence both before and after the Second Jihad-yet Paul Atreides
is at the center of both. The situation is unique.6 It seems much more likely
that an actual, immensely popular and culture-catalyzing hero was adopted by
the story tellers and balladeers of both groups than that two unrelated bodies
of folk material happened to posit the same fictional, mythological hero at
the same time.
Second, his legend is persistent, and many parts of it are consistent with known
history. The Second Jihad, for example, would have required a single, immensely
powerful focusing element, probably the lens of one man's visionary eye. A jihad
will always acquire its own momentum soon after its launching, becoming as it
grows an ungovernable whirlwind which must spend its fury before it will dissipate.
But a jihad always, too, requires its impetus from the spiritual force of one
man's charisma. The Second Jihad developed almost immediately after the Battle
of Arrakeen and very likely had as its center the same genius who had crushed
House Harkonnen and the Imperium together with a rag-tag band of desert nomads.7
This genius would have been of heroic proportion; indeed, it is easy to visualize
a superstitious people naming him Messiah. The name of Paul Atreides would have
suited him as well as any.8
Finally, the House Corrino quickly and deliberately attached itself to the man
it called Paul Atreides. Virtually every surviving document whose author purports
to have seen Paul in the flesh was written by a direct-line member of the House
Corrino. It is not uncommon, of course, for a ruling or aspiring family to claim
mythological descent. But none of the plethora of documents and fragments of
documents still existing that are supposed to have been written by the Princess
Irulan Corrino-Atreides claims that her family is genealogically tied to Paul's.
Rather, they seem to indicate, somewhat haughtily, that she was his virgin wife;
similarly, the writings of her nephew, Harq al-Ada, indicate no blood kinship
between House Corrino and Paul Atreides.9 This :Is a very interesting revelation.
In combination with the reasonable assumption that the Corrinos, like anyone,
would have been able to claim lineal descent from a purely fictional god-hero,
and for political purposes would have claimed it, leads to the conclusions,
first, that Paul Atreides existed; and, second, that he was powerful enough
for the Corrinos to have wished kinship ties with him.10
Granting, then, that Paul Atreides lived, what was his lineage?
The legendary lineage claimed for him (see genealogy chart) is clearly fantastic.
It absolutely cannot be accurate; it should be dismissed out of hand. Even the
Harkonnen-influenced histories11 leave no doubt that his purported grandsire,
the Siridar-Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, was impotent, could not conceivably have
fathered the woman known to us as "Lady Jessica Harkonnen," Paul's
mother. In fact, the Baron, having no direct heirs of either sex, was in the
process of dividing Arrakis's governmental responsibilities between his nephews
when the Fremen forces overran Arrakeen in 10193. Nor is there much more likelihood
that Paul was in truth connected to the Atreides family by blood, as the Red
Duke was, together with all members of his immediate family then on Arrakis,
assassinated in the 10191 coup.12 The Atreides retainers who escaped that coup
were swallowed up into the general population and in fact fought against Paul's
Fremen in the ensuing general revolt. Significantly, not until the revolt had
gained some measure of success and some hope of ultimate victory did the scattered
Atreides join it. Such a waiting is completely uncharacteristic of retainers
whose blood Lord is engaged in guerrilla fighting and in obvious need of assistance.
Finally, the idea that a fifteen-year-old off-worlder who is the scion of a
privileged class could galvanize Fremen will, direct Fremen resistance, and,
especially, lead Fremen forces in battle is considerably13 beyond the capacity
of reasonable men to believe. To believe that such a thing were possible is
to be(ray ignorance of Fremen custom, of Fremen law, of Fremen mythology, and
of Fremen reason.
Paul was in all likelihood Fremen-born, probably native to Sietch Tabr. He may
have been the son of Stilgar, then Sietch Naib, but there is no firm evidence
to support this contention.14 He must have distinguished him- self early in
the areas of military planning and tactics, of political theory, and of both
on- and off-world history. Under the name of Usul and still in his teens, he
had by the time of the Harkonnen coup in 10191 amassed a large contingency of
Fremen warriors under his immediate command. When, in 10193, the Atreides retainers
collected around him and proclaimed him their Duke, he immediately saw value
in being so proclaimed; for without Great House support of some kind the Fremen
revolt must assuredly have been doomed. He consolidated Fremen and Atreides
supporters and attacked, gaining at Arrakeen one of history's few truly decisive
victories. After the Battle of Arrakeen he was named Muad'Dib by the Fremen,
Kwisatz Haderach by the Bene Gesserit, and Emperor by the nobility. At this
point a suitable, that is to say fabulous, genealogy was constructed for him.
If he was Fremen born, why did the Atreides retainers gather around Paul?
There are several ways that Paul's Atreides support may be accounted for. Obviously,
he was the only likely candidate for their support on Arrakis, the royal family
itself having been exterminated. If one understands anything, of the completeness
and depth of the enmity existing between Houses Harkonnen and Atreides,15 and
then reflects on the fact that at the beginning of the Fremen revolt the Atreides
retainers were fighting as though to prove fealty to the Harkonnens, he must
conclude that the leaderless Atreides were in complete disarray, their spirit
crushed. They must have seen Paul not only as a rallying point but also as something
of a savior.16 The Atreides surely would have realized that by switching allegiance
to the Fremen they stood a better chance of defeating the Harkonnens than they
would have had standing alone; and in any case they would hold the balance of
power.17
Too, with the arrival of Imperial Sardaukar to fight with the Harkonnens on
Arrakis the Atreides must have seen their hoped-for value to the Siridar-Baron
evaporate. Their choice at that point would seem to have been to ally themselves
with the Fremen or be annihilated.
Finally, it is assumed that the gift of Paul's fourteen-year-old sister Alia
to the Atreides leader, the reputed ghola Duncan Idaho, had something to do
with the insurance of Atreides recognition of Paul's legitimacy as well.18
What was Paul's role in the Second Jihad?
The Second Jihad was carried out in the name of Paul Atreides, and with his
voiced approval. Now, Paul's military and political genius has already been
pointed out; and one of the lessons history has to offer any revolutionary leader
who would he immortalized is that he must not attempt to control his own people
in their victory.19 If one is the leader of a revolution, one is leader only
so long as there is revolution. Paul did not himself physically lead any contingent
of warring parties in the Jihad. He seems, rather, to have contented himself
to remain on Arrakis and consolidate his power, astutely allowing his followers-Fremen
and off-worlders alike-to conquer in his name. At the same time he was cultivating
his own charisma, building himself a legend, fostering belief that he was prescient
and Messianic, and prophesying.20 His role in the Jihad was essentially that
of a figurehead; but, unlike most figureheads, he did not allow himself to be
manipulated by his hordes. Instead, he manipulated them as he consolidated,
centralized, and practically immortalized his reign.
What of Paul's history after the Second Jihad?
Substantially better circumstantial evidence remains concerning the answer to
this question than answering any of the others posed here. For one thing, the
historians recording the events21 were witnesses to them, independent of rumor
and legend. There is no reason to believe that at least in regard to the demonstrable22
they had reason either to lie or themselves to be misled. For another, after
the jihad the history of Paul begins to coincide with the history of Leto II;
and the latter has, of course, been well and often recorded.
An assassination attempt by a conspiracy of Spacing Guild, House Corrino, and
Bene Gesserit confederates was staged in 10205.23 Paul survived the attack,
but was blinded in it; and, as well he knew, to be a blind Fremen was to be
condemned to the desert. Paul, as Emperor, could not be banished into the desert
to perish; but he must have sensed that his blindness must inevitably lead to
a weakening of his position both in the eyes of his Fremen, to whom blindness
is anathema, and in those of his off-world disciples, to whom his blindness
must have appeared as proof of his vulnerability. Therefore, shortly after the
birth of his twin children, Leto II and Ghanima, Paul voluntarily vanished into
the desert where he undoubtedly perished. This disappearance was arguably the
masterstroke of Paul Atreides' genius. It precluded the possibility of a witnessed
death, and so kept alive the rumor of his immortality and assured the accession
of his son.24
IV
CONCLUSIONS
Paul
Atreides in fact lived. He was charismatic and a military and political genius;
whether he might be termed a "Kwisatz Haderach" or a "Muad'Dib"
depends on what those terms are assumed to mean.25 He was not a deity. He was
Fremen, born of desert parents whose identities are now unrecoverable. He saw
political advantage in assuming a House Atreides identity, and so he assumed
one. After his victory in the Battle of Arrakeen he astutely allowed his Fremen
followers to spend their centuries of pent fury on the universe in the Second
Jihad, leaving him on Arrakis to rule in relative quiet. An attempt on his life
in 10205 resulted in his blindness; he died shortly thereafter, having, voluntarily
exiled himself into the desert.26 For a century or more after Paul's disappearance
it was not uncommon for sun-crazed blind Fremen, banished from one sietch or
another, to stumble into the city claiming to be the returned Muad'Dib. Some
of these "blind seers" even attracted cult followers and had much
made of themselves. Such occurrences have grown increasingly rare over the centuries;
still, the quickest way for any pitiful desert prophet to gain an appreciative
audience even today is to pronounce himself Paul Atreides resurrected.
D.M.