What is Chani?
1.
Chani is a fictional character featured in Frank Herbert's novels Dune (1965) and Dune Messiah (1969). Known mainly as the Fremen wife and legal concubine of protagonist Paul Atreides (Muad'Dib), Chani is the daughter of Imperial Planetologist Liet-Kynes and his Fremen wife Faroula, and later the mother of the twins Ghanima and Leto Atreides II. The character is resurrected as a ghola and appears in Hunters of Dune (2006) and Sandworms of Dune (2007), Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's novels which complete the original series.
Chani is portrayed by actress Sean Young in David Lynch's Dune (1984), and by Barbora Kodetová in the 2000 miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune and its 2003 sequel, Frank Herbert's Children of Dune. Paul often calls her "Sihaya," which means "desert's spring" in Fremen.
Overview and Quotes from Dune
To cement his control of the Empire after deposing Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, Paul takes Shaddam's daughter, the Princess Irulan as his wife. Chani understands the political reasons, but Paul reassures her:
"I swear to you now ... that you'll need no title. That woman over there will be my wife and you but a concubine because this is a political thing and we must weld peace out of this moment, enlist the Great Houses of the Landsraad. We must obey the forms. Yet that princess shall have no more of me than my name. No child of mine nor touch nor softness of glance, nor instant of desire."
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Jessica adds:
"Think on it, Chani: that princess will have the name, yet she'll live as less than a concubine — never to know a moment of tenderness from the man to whom she's bound. While we, Chani, we who carry the name of concubine — history will call us wives."
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