Chapter 21

[Freakzilla]

There is a legend that the instant the Duke Leto Atreides died a meteor streaked
across the skies above his ancestral palace on Caladan.
-the Princess Irulan: "Introduction to A Child's History of Muad'Dib"

The Baron is staring out a viewport of the grounded frigate he's using for a command post. He's watching and listening to his artillery, which he has revived as a suprise weapon, seal off the Shield Wall caves that the Atreides troopers have retreated into. Piter enters and announces that they have Duke Leto. The Baron considers replacing Piter after he has used him to oppress the population of Arrakis, then they will view his nephew Feyd-Rautha as a savior. He asks that Dr. Yueh be brought in and given his reward, which is Piter's knife in the back. While dying, Yueh claims that he's not been defeated and this worries the Baron. They bring in the Duke but he is still drugged and unresponsive. His signet ring is missing and the Baron chastizes Piter for killing Yueh too soon. The Baron eats a meal waiting for the Duke to come arround. When he does, the Baron questions him about the whereabouts of Paul and Jessica. He remembers the tooth and uses it, killing Piter and the Baron's guard captain. The Baron had his shield set low and was gettting up from the table at that moment. Piter's dying gasp alerts him to the danger and he retreats into his private room through a door behind him. A Sardaukar barges in and demands to see the Duke. The Baron worries that the emperor will learn of his near death at the hands (tooth) of Duke Leto and see it as a sign of weakness. The Baron appoints a new captain of his guard and orders him to find out the detail of how this happend and to bring him a slave boy, the one who looks like Paul.

[Freakzilla]

Revised

[Freakzilla]

Clean

[Freakzilla]

Several times in this chapter, the Baron calls Duke Leto, "cher cousin".

Why?

[Naïve mind]

It's obviously a formal style. Piter complains about the lack of it earlier in Leto's declaration of kanly.

Would you have preferred spoiler?

[Freakzilla]

It's obviously a formal style. Piter complains about the lack of it earlier in Leto's declaration of kanly.

Would you have preferred spoiler?

But Leto and Jessica weren't married, besides, the Baron didn't know Jessica was

. At least, he never indicates that he does.

Neither is the Baron related to the Emperor. It's been clearly pointed out previously:

There'll be much bloodshed soon," she said. "The Harkonnens won't rest
until they're dead or my Duke destroyed. The Baron cannot forget that Leto is a
cousin of the royal blood--no matter what the distance--while the Harkonnen
titles came out of the CHOAM pocketbook. But the poison in him, deep in his
mind, is the knowledge that an Atreides had a Harkonnen banished for cowardice
after, the Battle of Corrin."

The only thing I can think of is that the Baron is calling Leto the Emperor's cousin, not his cousin.

[Cpt. Aramsham]

Hmm, I think it's more likely that "cousin" is just a conventional form of address between members of the Imperial aristocracy, regardless of actual family ties (presumably on the principle that they are all related in one way or another, or maybe from some polite fiction that their shared status makes them like family). As Naïve Mind says, the Baron (or rather, Piter) is offended earlier on that Leto neglects to call him "Sire et Cher Cousin" (when, as far as they know, he has no claim to family ties with either the Duke or the Emperor), which of course is because Leto does not recognize the Harkonnens as true nobility. (Personally I have a hard time resolving the idea of the Harkonnens as arriviste new nobility with the detail that they trace their family line back to a certain officer at the Battle of Corrin 10,000 years earlier – even one who disgraced himself – but I guess I'll have to take that up with Frank Herbert.)

There's one problematic point with this theory, which would be a spoiler to go into, but... later on in the book there's some discussion of the implications when one character calls another cousin, and the argument seems to imply a literal reading.

Perhaps FH meant for us to distinguish "cousin" (the English word) from "cher cousin" (French, and pronounced quite differently)?

[Freakzilla]

Good point, I had forgotten about Leto's rejection letter and the later scene you're talking about. So that pretty much rules out bad editing or an error in writing.

I'll just think of it as a formal greeting for nobles.

[Naïve mind]

(Personally I have a hard time resolving the idea of the Harkonnens as arriviste new nobility with the detail that they trace their family line back to a certain officer at the Battle of Corrin 10,000 years earlier – even one who disgraced himself – but I guess I'll have to take that up with Frank Herbert.)

Whatever the effects of the Butlerian Jihad, birth records in the coming ten thousand years are likely to be substantially more complete than the records of the past ten thousand years. And perhaps the Harkonnens searched their familiy line extensively for an ancestor whose status might justify their claim to nobility. So it's a stretch, but not a big one.

Of course, the Atreides chase their lineage back to our mythology, so a Baron with 10000 years of history might conceivably be deemed a parvenu by them.

[Freakzilla]

I don't know, the Atreieds seem to make a big deal out of the Harkonnens not being royal blood.