Fremen

The Fremen train people imagined by Frank Herbert in the Romance whole of S of Science-fiction the Cycle of Dune.

They are the people first of Dune, descendants of the nomads Zensunni, a schismatic community. The Zensunni had to sail of planet planet in the hope to find a place of dwelling. Driven back by the majority of the people, they will end up finding a planet desert which they call Dune, known under the name of Arrakis in the Empire.

Deeply marked by the condition stateless person of their fathers, and especially by the contempt of the other people, they proclaim Free men of Dune . Truths inhabitants of Dune, they will not let anybody try to dispossess them of their planet. Accustomed to the hard climate of Arrakis, they can save and recycle the water of any thing. It is indeed an invaluable food product on this planet so terribly dry. Fremen make of it even their currency of exchange and a central pivot of their culture.

Fremen consumes significant amounts of Épice. Moreover, the air of Arrakis while being saturated, they live in an almost permanent way under the influence of spice. From the properties of the mixture, the eyes of Fremen are blue on blue bottom (without white), just as any Man while absorbing in too great quantity. However, Fremens do not seem depend on the mixture, which lets suppose that their organization is adapted perfectly to the proximity of the substance.

Life

Before their alliance with Paul Atréides, that they call Muad' Dib, Fremen are disseminated in tribes travelling in the desert, making halts in dwellings arranged in rocks, the sietchs. These caves, traditional habitat, are directed by Naib: those which swore to die rather than to be captured by the enemy.

The sietchs shelter water reserves collected preciously with nets at the time of the weak dew of the morning, or by traps with wind which captures all the moisture of the air. These reserves are the base of the ecological great project of modification of the planet Arrakis, imagined by Pardot Kynes. Besides the Fremen people pay amazing spice sums to the Guilde to buy of it silence, the space organization having located since the orbit of the zones of planet where Fremen create oases to progress on the desert.

Distills

Distills is one of the elements most important of the life of Fremen: it is about an integral clothing which, once correctly put, leaves free only the eyes of the carrier, and by a set of microphone-mechanisms and physical principles elementary, the water of the body recovers emitted in perspiration, human waste or the vapor emitted by the word. A Man carrying one distills correctly adjusted is supposed capacity to survive with a die to sew water per day . Water recovered is distributed in special pockets. Flexible pipes at several places make it possible to drink.

Fremen crossing in the desert a man without distills is summoned besides to kill it and recover its water.

Culture

Fremen follow a code of rigorous honor. Thus, they index “insults mortals” whose affront can be washed only by death. Fremen can have several women, but if it charms that of another, a duel follows. These engagements are done with the Krys, weapons cut in the tooth of a worm of sands, rare and invaluable, supposed to dissolve with dead of its owner. Each Fremen must gain the right to carry a Krys (often by overlapping a worm).

Beliefs

Going down from the Zensunni, Fremen are people deeply believing, and very superstitious. Within the framework of their research great project of the Kwisatz Haderach, the Bene Gesserit established in them the hope of the arrival of a foreign prophet, the Lisan Al-Gaib i.e. the voice besides. This prophet will have to guide all Fremen.

The principal worship is that of water, symbolizing the life in this arid world. Thus when Fremen dies, it is said that it returns his water to its tribe, with the illustrated direction, but also with the clean direction, his corpse being treated in a " distill mort" who recovers all the moisture of his body to supply the cistern of the tribe.

Fremen have a deification of the worm of sands or Shai-Hulud , which explains the importance that they grant to the fact of overlapping a worm, and the value that they give to Krys that they cut in teeth of worm of sands. Despite everything, Fremen know the dangers of their god and use tactics worked out to call them. They also know the Holtzmann effect of the shields since longer than the large Houses. The Holtzmann effect attracts the worms of sands and makes them insane, condemning the carrier of shield to a death almost some.

Inspiration

Frank Herbert seems to be inspired of the Eastern world (culturally speaking) by imagining Fremen. One finds in particular allusions to the Berbères, people of North Africa. As follows:

the Berber ones give each other the name of Amazigh in Berbère - Imazighen in the plural - which means “free man”, just like free man in English;
one will note couples dénominatifs Dune/Arrakis and Amazigh /Berb era, both expressing a duality of names of the interior/external type;
the Berber ones are the first inhabitants of the North Africa, just like Fremen are it of Dune
the clothes of the Touaregs - of a blue very indicator - can make think of the Distille S carried by Fremen, but also in their eyes uniformly blue;
the spice of Dune curiously makes think of a spice which pushes in the desert, the saffron, by its color, it could also find its origin in the Cannabis, sociologiquement very popular at the time of the edition of the first shutter. There exists an analogy between spice and the Pétrole - largely resulting from the Middle East, all two being pillars of the economic system; -->

Tanzerouft, “Country of the Thirst”, and left the desert of Dune, drift of the name of part of the Sahara, Tanezrouft, in the south of the Algeria.

Frank Herbert affirmed to have had the idea of Dune after having studied a government project conceived to stop the expansion of Dune S on the coast of the Oregon.

Several expressions are borrowed or derived from the Arab ( subaq Al khuar : sabah Al to kheir , Bi-the-kaifa , etc).

See too

Baheyeldin.com - Arabic and Islamic topics in Frank Herbert' S " Dune"
Dune France - Islamic Influences? (translations of the preceding page)
Chapterhouse Files - Contains a paragraph on the Berber inspiration of Fremen

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