Monday, 25 March 2024

The Molitor Victory

"'I was there for the feast celebrating the Molitor victory.'"
-Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah (London, 1975), p. 40.

See "Molitor Victory" in List of Dune terminology.

It is clear that the only source for "Molitor Victory" is this single sentence in Dune Messiah.

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows by Poul Anderson, introducing Emperor Hans Molitor and the Molitor dynasty into Anderson's Technic History, was published in 1974. Although my edition of Dune Messiah is dated 1975, the work is copyright 1969. Thus, Anderson might either consciously or unconsciously have borrowed "Molitor" from Dune Messiah.

See also Molitor on Wikipedia.

Addendum: See also the explanation of "Molitor" in the combox.

2 comments:

S.M. Stirling said...

Though "Molitor" is a German surname meaning "Miller". And Hans Molitor was from a planet settled by Germans.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Besides what Stirling wrote above, that's an interesting and unexpected example of a possible cross reference between Herbert and Anderson. And, yes, DUNE was first pub. in 1965, before Anderson's A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS in 1974.

Ad astra! Sean