Sandworm (Dune)
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A sandworm is a fictional extraterrestrial creature that appears in the Dune novels written by Frank Herbert, first introduced in Dune (1965).
Sandworms are colossal, worm-like creatures that live on the desert planet Arrakis. Their larvae produce a drug called melange (known colloquially as "the spice"), the most essential and valuable commodity in the universe because it makes safe and accurate interstellar travel possible. Melange deposits are found in the sand seas of Arrakis, where the sandworms live and hunt, and harvesting the spice from the sand is a dangerous activity because sandworms are aggressive and territorial. Harvesting vehicles must be airlifted in and out of the sand sea in order to evade sandworm attacks. The struggle over the production and supply of melange is a central theme of the Dune saga. The sandworms are reverently called Shai-Hulud by the planet's indigenous Fremen, who worship them as agents of God whose actions are a form of divine intervention.
Conception
The sandworms in Dune were inspired by the
In the plot of Frank Herbert's novel Dune, Herbert used the sandworms (along with the spice they produce) as a plot device to provide Paul Atreides with the trials through which he ascends to a superhuman state of being. Herbert believed that a memorable myth must have something profoundly moving that could either empower the hero or overwhelm him completely. The force in question must be dangerous and terrifying, yet somehow essential. In Dune, the sandworms serve this function. To earn the spice, humans must cope with sandworm attacks on their harvesting expeditions. To earn an even greater prize (his apotheosis into the all-seeing Kwisatz Haderach), Paul undergoes even more dangerous and transformative trials in which he risks madness and death, one of which involves the ritual sacrifice of a juvenile sandworm, and another in which he must learn to ride a sandworm.[5]
The elements of any mythology must grow from something profoundly moving, something which threatens to overwhelm any consciousness which tries to confront the primal mystery. Yet, after the primal confrontation, the roots of this threat must appear as familiar and necessary as your own flesh. For this, I give you the sandworms of Dune ... the extension of human lifespan cannot be an unmitigated blessing. Every such acquisition requires a new consciousness. And a new consciousness assumes that you will confront dangerous unknowns—you will go into the deeps.
— Frank Herbert, 1977[5]
Sandworms are attracted to rhythmic vibrations in the sand, which they mistake for prey (smaller sandworms).[6] To escape the notice of the sandworms, a traveller in the desert must learn to "walk without rhythm" in a manner that simulates the natural sounds of the desert. This element comes from Frank Herbert's experiences as a hunter and fisherman. He knew how to mask his presence from prey by techniques such as approaching from downwind and treading lightly.[2] Frank Herbert's son Brian explained that "In Children of Dune, Leto II allowed sandtrout to attach themselves to his body, and this was based in part upon my father’s own experiences as a boy growing up in Washington state, when he rolled up his trousers and waded into a stream or lake, permitting leeches to attach themselves to his legs."[7]
John Schoenherr provided the earliest artwork for the Dune series, including the illustrations in the initial pulp magazine serial and the cover of the first hardcover edition. Frank Herbert was very pleased with Schoenherr's art,[8] and remarked that he was "the only man who has ever visited Dune".[9] Schoenherr gave the sandworm three triangular lobes that form the lips of its mouth. This design was referenced for the sandworm puppets that appeared in the 1984 movie adaptation of Dune.[10]
Description
Sandworms are giant creatures found only on the desert planet Arrakis. They are reverently called Shai-Hulud by the planet's indigenous Fremen, who worship them as agents of God whose actions are a form of divine intervention.[6][11] The Fremen also refer to the sandworms as Makers.
Physiology
Herbert describes sandworms as colossal terrestrial
Sandworms grow to hundreds of meters in length, with specimens observed over 400 metres (1,300 ft) long[12][13] and 40 metres (130 ft) in diameter, although Paul becomes a sandrider by summoning a worm that "appeared to be" around half a league (1.5 miles (2.4 km)) or more in length.[14] These gigantic worms burrow deep in the ground and travel swiftly; "most of the sand on Arrakis is credited to sandworm action".[12]
Sandworms are described as "incredibly tough" by
Life cycle
Herbert notes in Dune that microscopic creatures called sand plankton feed upon traces of melange scattered by sandworms on the Arrakeen sands.[16] The sand plankton are food for the giant sandworms, but also grow and burrow to become what the Fremen call Little Makers, "the half-plant-half-animal deep-sand vector of the Arrakis sandworm".[17]
Their leathery remains previously having "been ascribed to a fictional 'sandtrout' in Fremen folk stories", Imperial Planetologist
The sandtrout ... was introduced here from some other place. This was a wet planet then. They proliferated beyond the capability of existing ecosystems to deal with them. Sandtrout encysted the available free water, made this a desert planet ... and they did it to survive. In a planet sufficiently dry, they could move to their sandworm phase.[18]
The sandtrout are described as "flat and leathery" in Children of Dune, with Leto II noting that they are "roughly diamond-shaped" with "no head, no extremities, no eyes" and "coarse interlacings of extruded
Kynes' "water stealers" die "by the millions in each
While sandworms are capable of eating humans, the latter do contain a level of water beyond the preferred tolerances of the worms. They routinely devour melange-harvesting equipment—mistaking the mechanical rhythm for prey—but they seem to derive actual nutrition only from sand plankton and smaller sandworms, and have no actual interest in the spice. Sandworms will also not attack sandtrout.
Behavior and function
In Dune, the desert of Arrakis is the only known source of the spice melange, the most essential and valuable commodity in the universe. Used as a drug, melange lengthens life span, increases vitality, and heightens awareness. It can also unlock
Due to their size and territorial nature, sandworms can be extremely dangerous, even to Fremen. The worms are attracted to—and maddened by—the presence of
The Fremen have secretly mastered a way to ride sandworms across the desert.
Fremen also use the sharp teeth of dead sandworms to produce the sacred knives they call
Storylines
Original series
By the time of the events of Dune (1965), humans have been harvesting melange from Arrakis for several thousand years. The indigenous Fremen regard the sandworms as divine, but to everyone else, they are just deadly pests. Few people understand the sandworms' connection to the spice.[3] This is no longer the case by the time of Children of Dune (1976), and numerous groups attempt to smuggle sandworms off Arrakis and transplant them to other planets so as to break the Atreides' monopoly on spice production.
In Children of Dune, Leto II consumes massive amounts of spice and allows many sandtrout to cover his body, the concentration of spice in his blood fooling them. This layer gives Leto tremendous strength, speed, and protection from mature sandworms, which mistake his sandtrout-covered body for a lethal mass of water.
Gradually over the next 3,500 years, Leto not only survives, but also is transformed into a hybrid of human and giant sandworm. By the time of God Emperor of Dune (1981), he has exterminated all other sandworms, and his own transformation has modified his component sandtrout. When Leto allows himself to be assassinated, the sandtrout release themselves to begin the sandworm lifecycle anew; subsequent offspring are tougher and more adaptable than their predecessors, allowing them to ultimately be more easily settled on other worlds, thus ensuring the survival of the sandworm species. Each one, according to Leto, carries in it a tiny pearl of his consciousness, trapped forever in an unending prescient dream.[23]
Over the next 1500 years, Arrakis (now called Rakis) is returned to a desert by the thriving sandworm cycle.
Prequels and sequels
In the
In
In adaptations
Dune (1984)
In the 1984
Critics were generally not impressed with the film's effects.
Dune (2000) and Children of Dune (2003)
The 2000
Critics praised the visual effects in both miniseries,
Dune (2021) and Dune: Part Two (2024)
Regarding his 2021 film Dune, director Denis Villeneuve said:
I kept saying to Patrice Vermette, my production designer, "I want the worm to be like a prehistoric creature, something that has been living and evolving for 100,000 years." We needed a beast that can survive a harsh and brutal environment. We were thinking about how thick the skin should be, how the mouth should close to travel in the sand. But more important, we were talking about, how does it feed? We had the idea that it would be a bit like a whale: It would need some kind of filter system to be able to capture nutrients in the sand—this idea of the baleen ... It's an anatomic detail that's very grounded in the world and in the ecosystem. And it also allowed me to create this idea that when you look into a worm's mouth, it looks like an eye. It has this feeling of the presence of a god.[40]
VFX production supervisor Paul Lambert explained, "We spent more time working out the animation around the worm than the worm itself [with its large mouth and teeth]. You see the destruction that it creates. We spent time trying to find references of how sand can be displaced so we could copy that."[41]
Video games
Besides film and television adaptations, the Dune franchise has been adapted into a series of
Merchandising
A line of Dune action figures from toy company LJN was released to lackluster sales in 1984. Styled after David Lynch's film, the collection included a poseable sandworm.[56][57] Revell also produced a model kit of a sandworm complete with figures representing Fremen riders.[58]
Impact and analysis
The sandworms have been called "iconic" to the franchise,
William Touponce suggests that Herbert's depiction of larval sandworms (or sandtrout), which hold back water in the desert to maintain the arid conditions their sandworm vector requires to thrive, is "an analogy for a stage of consciousness [Paul's sister] Alia can feel. Some of the ancestral voices within her mind hold back dangerous forces that could destroy her."[21] Touponce also describes "the archetypal terrors of confronting Shai-Hulud, the giant sandworm guarding the treasure".[60]
Sibylle Hechtel analyzes the concept of sandworms in the essay "The Biology of the Sandworm" in The Science of Dune (2008).[61][62][63]
A hacker group responsible for several major cyberattacks in the 2010s named itself Sandworm, in reference to the fictional organism.[64][65]
In August 2023, University of Kansas paleontologist Rhiannon LaVine named a newly-discovered, 500-million-year-old marine polychaete worm Shaihuludia shurikeni after Herbert's fictional sandworms.[66][67]
See also
- Graboid
- Mongolian death worm
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External links
- Systematic Schema: Ecological Cycle(s): Sandworm-Sandtrout, Spice, Water