Epic World-Building: Names and Cultures in Dune

Abstract

Names play a significant role in the development of the characters and cultures of the imaginary worlds envisioned by science fiction and fantasy authors. Rather than creating new languages, as J. R. R. Tolkien does in The Lord of the Rings, Frank Herbert accomplishes his world-building in Dune by choosing existing names that evoke a recognizable medieval, feudal setting and depict a desert planet inhabited by a quasi-Arabic and Islamic tribal people. Although names serve to juxtapose the Fremen as an exotic Other with the Western Atreides family, they also gesture towards a possible re-envisioning of this polarized relationship.