Ghanima Atreides

Dune character box
name = Ghanima Atreides


caption = Jessica Brooks as Ghanima Atreides in the "Children of Dune" miniseries (2003)
alias =
gender = Female
born = 10,207 AG
died =
occupation =
spouse = Farad'n Corrino
parent(s) = Paul Atreides and Chani
child(ren) =
sibling(s) = Leto Atreides II
other =
affiliation = House Atreides
Fremen
portrayer = Jessica Brooks (2003 miniseries)
debut = Dune Messiah
departure = Children of Dune

Ghanima Atreides (meaning "spoil of war" in the Fremen language, from the Arabic "الْغَنيمَة") is a fictional character from the "Dune" universe created by Frank Herbert. Born at the end of "Dune Messiah" (1969), Ghanima is a central character in "Children of Dune" (1976)

She is the daughter of Paul Atreides and his Fremen concubine Chani, and the twin sister to Leto Atreides II.

"Dune Messiah" and "Children of Dune"

Like her aunt Alia and her brother Leto, Ghanima was pre-born; her mother, Chani, consumed so much melange during her pregnancy that Leto and Ghanima awoke to full, adult consciousness before birth, receiving the genetic memories of both their male and female ancestors.

In the Bene Gesserit ritual known as the Spice agony, an acolyte ingests an "illuminating poison" called the Water of Life which, if the initiate survives the ordeal, unlocks these Other Memories. These ego-personalities reside in the background of consciousness, but may be accessed to provide unique knowledge and insight. However, the memories unleashed in this ritual are always of female ancestors; access to the male line is unique to the pre-born, and theoretically to a specially-bred male known as the Kwisatz Haderach.

The equally unique danger is that, because an unborn child has not yet developed a strong personal identity, the in utero exposure to Other Memory makes that individual highly susceptible to becoming possessed by the personality of one of their ancestors. Called Abomination by the Bene Gesserit, a child born this way is always killed whenever possible. Unlike Alia, Ghanima never succumbed to Abomination; her mind was guarded from possession by the memories of her mother, Chani.

Ghanima had a very close relationship with Leto; they worked together to create the Golden Path, a plan to avoid humanity's almost inevitable future destruction.

She supplied her fertile creativity to the details of the plan, and even ensured its success by performing a ritual to make herself believe that Leto was killed by Laza tigers, when in reality Leto was searching the desert for Jakarutu. Her memories were restored when Leto spoke to her the key words, "Secher Nbiw" i.e. "The Golden Path" translated into Chakobsa, an ancient language.

Alia tried to use Ghanima as bait for House Corrino by promising her hand in marriage to the Corrino heir, Farad'n, which Ghanima initially resisted but relented after swearing to kill him on their wedding night.

Upon Leto's ascension to the Lion Throne, he wed his sister in a purely symbolic marriage. Ghanima agreed to take Farad'n as her mate, and Leto appointed Farad'n to the post of Royal Scribe. As Leto's joining with the sandworm effectively made him sterile, Ghanima and Farad'n would thus ensure the continuation of the Atreides line. The non-canon "Dune Encyclopedia" invents an extended biography for Ghanima which states that she and Farad'n had 10 children, named Trebor, Lliwis, Regor, Tismenus, Boris, Eleanor, Helene, Elaine, Jeunne and Noree.

In "God Emperor of Dune", the Duncan Idaho ghola notes that "the Tleilaxu history said Ghanima had died after a relatively normal life."

In adaptations

In the Sci-Fi Channel's 2003 "Children of Dune" TV miniseries, Ghanima Atreides was portrayed by Jessica Brooks as a beautiful young teenager. In the novel, she and Leto are only nine years old.

Quotes related to Ghanima

Two children, Paul thought wonderingly. The vision had contained only a daughter. — "Dune Messiah" [Herbert, F. "Dune Messiah", pg. 310, Ace edition.]

Paul felt himself in the crèche then, with Alia cooing over him. Her hands soothed him. Her face loomed, a giant thing directly over him. She turned him then and he saw his crèche companion — a girl with that bony-ribbed look of strength which came from a desert heritage. She had a full head of tawny red hair. As he stared, she opened her eyes. Those eyes! Chani peered out of her eyes ... and the Lady Jessica. A multitude peered out of those eyes. — "Dune Messiah" ["Dune Messiah", pg. 317, Ace edition.]

Ghanima was more like her mother. There was Chani’s red hair, the set of Chani’s eyes, and a calculating way about her when she adjusted to difficulties. She often said that she only did what she had to do, but where Leto led she would follow. — "Children of Dune" [Herbert, F. "Children of Dune", pg. 131, Ace edition.]

But he stared at Ghanima. Her eyes, the way they danced when she spoke! The movement fascinated him. Those deep blue, steady, demanding, measuring eyes. And that way of throwing her red-gold hair off her shoulder with a twist of the head: that was Chani. It was a ghostly resurrection, an uncanny resemblance. — "Children of Dune" ["Children of Dune", pg. 132, Ace edition.]

: “Slowly, cautiously, Ghanima made her way back to Tabr, holding herself to the deepest shadows of the dunes, crouching in stillness as the search party passed to the south of her. Terrible awareness gripped her: the worm which had taken the tigers and Leto’s body, the dangers ahead. He was gone; her twin was gone. She put aside all tears and nurtured her rage. In this, she was pure Fremen.” — "Children of Dune", page 196, Ace edition

: “‘Never!’ Ghanima said. ‘I’d kill him on our wedding night.' She spoke with a barbed stubbornness which thus far had resisted all blandishments.” — "Children of Dune", page 259, Ace edition

: “Ghanima interrupted with a coarse Fremen expletive which came shockingly from the immature lips. Into the quick silence she said: ‘You think me just a mere child, that you have years in which to work on me, that eventually I’ll accept. Think again, O Heavenly Regent. You know better than anyone the years I have within me. I’ll listen to them, not to you.’” — "Children of Dune", page 261, Ace edition

: “‘You feared to be the window for a multitude,’ Ghanima accused. ‘But we’re the preborn and we know. You’ll be their window, conscious or unconscious. You cannot deny them.’ And she thought: Yes, I know you — Abomination. And perhaps I’ll go as you have gone, but for now I can only pity you and despise you.” — "Children of Dune", page 261, Ace edition

: “Irulan shuddered at this evidence that Ghanima was, after all, Fremen entire, a child no different from adult in this terrible bloodiness. After all, Fremen children were accustomed to slay the wounded on the battlefield, releasing women from this chore that they might collect the bodies and haul them away to the deathstills. And Ghanima; speaking with the voice of a Fremen child, piled horror upon horror by the studied maturity of her words, by the ancient sense of vendetta which hung like an aura around her.” — "Children of Dune", page 264, Ace edition

: “‘Because I’m his daughter,’ Ghanima said. ‘We Atreides go back to Agamemnon and we know what’s in our blood. Never forget that, childless wife of my father. We Atreides have a bloody history and we’re not through with the blood.’” — "Children of Dune", page 287, Ace edition

: “Ghanima once more took Farad’n’s hand, but her gaze looked beyond the far end of the hallway long after Leto had left it. ‘One of us had to accept the agony,’ she said, ‘and he was always the stronger.’” — "Children of Dune", page 408, Ace edition

Origin of the name

In the original novel "Dune", a young Alia refers to Paul's servant Harah as "My brother's "ghanima"." According to Fremen custom, Paul had "acquired" Harah after defeating her husband Jamis in a ritual battle to the death. The Lady Jessica notes:

In the subtleties of the Fremen tongue, the word meant 'something acquired in battle' and with the added overtone that the something no longer was used for its original purpose. An ornament, a spearhead used as a curtain weight.

In "Dune Messiah", Harah objects when Paul chooses to name his daughter Ghanima, saying that it is "an ill-omened name." Paul responds, "It saved your life ... What matter that Alia made fun of you with that name? My daughter is Ghanima, a spoil of war."

The Arabic word "Ghanīma" means "the booty of war" or "the spoil of war," making the name an Arabic legacy of the Zensunni wanderers who are the ancestors of the Fremen.

References