Lady Margot Fenring
Bene Gesserit wife of Count Hasimir Fenring
Lady Margot Fenring was the Bene Gesserit wife of Count Hasimir Fenring. Though she moved within the court of House Corrino, her true loyalty lay with the Sisterhood, in whose service she left a coded warning for Lady Jessica on Arrakis and was tasked with preserving the Harkonnen bloodline.
Lady Margot Fenring was the Bene Gesserit wife of Count Hasimir Fenring, friend and agent of the Emperor Shaddam IV. Though she moved within the court of House Corrino, her ultimate loyalty lay with the Sisterhood, which used her as an agent at the heart of the Imperium. (Dune)
A servant of the Sisterhood#
Lady Margot Fenring carried the Bene Gesserit training in full: the powers of observation, the control of her own body and the art of seduction that the Order taught its Sisters. Feyd-Rautha saw her as golden-haired and willowy, with a perfect figure and gray-green eyes, and found the serene Bene Gesserit repose about her subtly disturbing. (Dune)
Margot was an adept political player and the Order trusted her with secret work. Like other Sisters, she could serve the Bene Gesserit breeding program designed to produce the Kwisatz Haderach. (Dune)
Marriage to Hasimir Fenring#
The Bene Gesserit often placed their Sisters as wives or concubines of powerful men, and Margot was married to Count Hasimir Fenring, the Emperor's closest friend. The Count was one of the deadliest fighters in the Imperium. Paul, meeting him at the end of Dune, sees in him one of the Sisterhood's might-have-beens: an almost-Kwisatz Haderach, spoiled by a flaw in his genes that left him a eunuch. (Dune)
On Arrakis#
Margot was with her husband on Arrakis before the handover from House Harkonnen to House Atreides, and lived in the residence at Arrakeen. Before she left, she hid a note for her fellow Sister, Lady Jessica, warning of a plot against the Duke and his son. The note waited in the residence's conservatory. Its visible text carried the code phrase that every Bene Gesserit not bound by a School Injunction was required to give another when conditions demanded it, and Jessica's fingers found the coded dots hidden within it. (Dune)
The warning was not enough to stop the Harkonnen plot. Duke Leto Atreides was killed, and Jessica and her son Paul were forced to flee into the desert of Arrakis. (Dune)
The Harkonnen bloodline#
When the Fenrings visited Giedi Prime for Feyd-Rautha's arena fight, the Sisterhood told Margot, with her husband's knowledge, to seduce Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen and conceive his child, so that the Harkonnen bloodline would not be lost, and to plant in him controls the Order could use. At the end of Dune, as Paul and Feyd-Rautha fight, the Reverend Mother Mohiam reflects that if both die, only Feyd-Rautha's infant daughter and Alia will be left to the breeding plan. When Shaddam IV ordered Count Fenring to kill Paul, Fenring refused. (Dune)
Frequently asked questions
- Who was Lady Margot Fenring?
- Lady Margot Fenring was the Bene Gesserit wife of Count Hasimir Fenring, the Emperor's friend and agent. Although she moved in the Imperial court, her ultimate loyalty lay with the Sisterhood, and at the end of Dune it gives her a part in its breeding plans.
- Who was Margot Fenring's husband?
- Count Hasimir Fenring was the Emperor Shaddam IV's closest friend, one of the deadliest fighters in the Imperium, and a genetic might-have-been: Paul sees in him an almost-Kwisatz Haderach spoiled by a flaw in his genes. The Bene Gesserit often placed Sisters as wives of powerful men, and Margot was one of them.
- What warning did Margot Fenring leave for Lady Jessica?
- While living in the Arrakeen residence during her husband's stay on Arrakis, Margot left an encoded message for Lady Jessica before House Atreides arrived, warning her of the Harkonnen plan to kill Paul and Duke Leto. The note carried the code phrase one Bene Gesserit was required to give another when conditions demanded it, but the warning was not enough to stop the Harkonnen plot.
- What was Margot Fenring's mission regarding Feyd-Rautha?
- With her husband's knowledge, the Sisterhood told Margot to seduce Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen and conceive his child, preserving the Harkonnen bloodline, and to plant in him the deep-level controls the Order could use later.
Sources
- BookDune, Frank Herbert, Chilton Books, 1965
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
Lady Jessica: the concubine who bore a son
The Bene Gesserit ordered Jessica to bear Duke Leto a daughter. She had Paul instead, and that single disobedience broke the breeding programme.
Margot Fenring
Lady Margot Fenring was a powerful Bene Gesserit and the wife of the Mentat Count Hasimir Fenring. Outwardly tied to House Corrino, she served the Sisterhood in secret, leaving the warning that reached Lady Jessica on Arrakis.
The Bene Gesserit Breeding Program Explained: Why They Wanted a Kwisatz Haderach
For generations the Bene Gesserit bred the noble houses like livestock, aiming at one man. Here is what they wanted, which bloodlines they used, how Jessica wrecked the plan, and what became of the programme after Paul.
Alia Atreides
Alia Atreides was the preborn daughter of Duke Leto Atreides and Lady Jessica, sister to Paul. Granted full ancestral memory in the womb, she ruled the Atreides Empire as Regent before succumbing to possession by her Harkonnen grandfather and taking her own life.
Bene Gesserit
The Bene Gesserit were an ancient order of women who wielded power from the shadows of the Imperium through a millennia-long breeding program, mastery of body and mind, and the religious engineering of the Missionaria Protectiva. Their goal was the Kwisatz Haderach, and through him the guidance of humanity.
Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen: the na-Baron who died on Paul's blade
Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen was the na-Baron and heir of Vladimir Harkonnen. Charismatic, cunning, and vicious, he was groomed to inherit House Harkonnen and to win the Imperial throne, but was killed in a duel with Paul Atreides shortly after the Battle of Arrakeen.
Mentioned in3 entries
Margot Fenring
Lady Margot Fenring was a powerful Bene Gesserit and the wife of the Mentat Count Hasimir Fenring. Outwardly tied to House Corrino, she served the Sisterhood in secret, leaving the warning that reached Lady Jessica on Arrakis.
The Bene Gesserit Breeding Program Explained: Why They Wanted a Kwisatz Haderach
For generations the Bene Gesserit bred the noble houses like livestock, aiming at one man. Here is what they wanted, which bloodlines they used, how Jessica wrecked the plan, and what became of the programme after Paul.
The Great Houses of Dune: Every House Explained
Every noble House of the Dune Imperium, from the Imperial House Corrino to the Great Houses of the Landsraad and the smaller families around them. Each entry gives the House's homeworld, its rulers, what it was known for and how it ended, and says which Houses come only from the later expanded novels or the games.
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