Harkonnen Banner

Another Dune flag/banner. This one, the vertical banner of House Harkonnen.

As with the Atreides, the Harkonnen colours and symbol were misrepresented in Westwood's Dune RTS series. In these games, the Harkonnens were identified with the ram, and the colour red. My guess would be that they wanted to "simplify" the story to depict the 'good' Atreides in blue and the 'evil' Harkonnens in red. But in the books, these colours - as with the nature of the Houses they represent - are not quite so clear-cut.

In Frank Herbert's novel Heretics of Dune, a blue-and-white Harkonnen gryphon symbol is seen in a long-abandoned safe-room on Geidi Prime. This book - the fifth in the original series - was written after Dr. Willis McNelly's Dune Encyclopedia, which shows the Harkonnen coat of arms bearing a ram. While the DE is basically fan-fiction, it was definitely a reference used by Westwood when designing the symbols of the three playable Houses in the game.

In Heraldic terms, the gryphon represents strength, courage, and leadership. White/silver (the tincture argent) depicts peace and sincerity, and blue (azure) shows loyalty and truth. While these are not traits commonly attributed to the Harkonnens, it suggests that perhaps, in times past, they had some semblance of honour. Or, perhaps, they simply designed the banner themselves, based on their own lofty view of themselves!

As I finished this, I realized I had inadvertently written an 'H' in blue. Works for me!

Other Dune flags:
House Atreides
House Corrino