|
The Space Trilogy, Cosmic Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy is a trilogy of three science fiction novels by C. S. Lewis. A trilogy is a set of three works of art, usually literature or film, that develop a single theme over three works. ...
Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ...
C.S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis was an Northern Irish author and scholar, of mixed Northern Irish, English and Welsh ancestry. ...
The books in the trilogy are:
A philologist named Elwin Ransom is the hero of the first two novels and an important character in the third. Out of the Silent Planet is the first novel of a science fiction trilogy written by C. S. Lewis, sometimes referred to as the Space Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy. ...
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the solar system, named after the Roman god of war (the counterpart of the Greek Ares), on account of its blood red color as viewed in the night sky. ...
Perelandra (also titled Voyage to Venus in a later edition published by Pan Books) is the second book in the Space Trilogy of C. S. Lewis. ...
(*min temperature refers to cloud tops only) Atmospheric characteristics Atmospheric pressure 9. ...
That Hideous Strength is a novel by C. S. Lewis first published in 1945. ...
Earth is the third planet from the Sun. ...
Collins was a Scottish printing company founded by a Presbyterian schoolmaster, William Collins, in Glasgow in 1819, in partnership with Charles Chalmers, the younger brother of Thomas Chalmers, minister of Tron Church, Glasgow. ...
Philology is the study of ancient texts and languages. ...
Elwin Ransom is a character from C.S. Lewiss Space Trilogy. ...
Influences and approach
Lewis stated: What immediately spurred me to write was Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men and an essay in J.B.S. Haldane's Possible Worlds both of which seemed to take the idea of such [space] travel seriously and to have the desparately immoral outlook which I try to pillory in Weston. I like the whole interplanetary ideas as a mythology and simply wished to conquer for my own point of view what has always hitherto been used by the opposite side. I think H. G. Wells's First Men in the Moon the best of the sort I have read...." (From a letter to Roger Lancelyn Green). William Olaf Stapledon (1886 – 1950) was a British philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction. ...
Last and First Men is a science fiction novel (or, rather, fictional history), written in 1930 by the British author Olaf Stapledon. ...
John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (November 5, 1892 - December 1, 1964), who normally used J.B.S. as a first name, was a geneticist born in Scotland and educated at Eton and Oxford University. ...
H. G. Wells at the door of his house at Sandgate Herbert George Wells (September 21, 1866 – August 13, 1946) was a British writer best known for his science fiction novels such as The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, The Island of Doctor Moreau and The Time Machine. ...
First Men in the Moon DVD First Men In The Moon is a 1964 science fiction film directed by Nathan Juran. ...
Roger (Gilbert) Lancelyn Green (2 November 1918 – 8 October 1987) was a British biographer and childrens writer. ...
The other main literary influence was David Lindsay's A Voyage to Arcturus (1920).[1] David Lindsay (1878-1945) was a British author now most famous for the philosophical novel A Voyage to Arcturus (1920). ...
A Voyage to Arcturus is a novel by the Scottish writer David Lindsay. ...
The books are not especially concerned with scientific accuracy or technological speculation, and in many ways they read like fantasy adventures. Like most of Lewis's mature writing, they have a thoroughly Christian outlook and much discussion of contemporary rights and wrongs. Madeleine L'Engle's kairos series is quite similar in its outlook. For other meanings see Fantasy (disambiguation) Fantasy is a genre of art, literature, film, television, and music that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of either plot, theme, setting, or all three. ...
Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the life, teachings, and actions of Jesus of Nazareth, known by Christians as Jesus Christ, as recounted in the New Testament. ...
Madeleine LEngle (b. ...
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Ransom Ransom appears very similar to Lewis himself: a university professor, expert in languages and medieval literature, unmarried (Lewis did not marry until his fifties), wounded in World War I and with no living relatives except for one sibling. Lewis, however, apparently intended for Ransom to be partially patterned after his friend and fellow Oxford professor J.R.R. Tolkien, since Lewis is presented as novelizing Ransom's reminiscences in the epilogue of Out of the Silent Planet and is a character-narrator in the frame tale for Perelandra. Combatants Allies: • Serbia, • Russia, • France, • Romania, • Belgium, • British Empire and Dominions, • United States, • Italy, • ...and others Central Powers: • Germany, • Austria-Hungary, • Ottoman Empire, • Bulgaria Casualties Military dead: 5 million Civilian dead: 3 million Total: 8 million Full list Military dead: 3 million Civilian dead: 3 million Total: 6 million Full...
J. R. R. Tolkien in 1916. ...
The Narrator is the entity within a story that tells the story to the reader. ...
A frame story (also frame tale, frame narrative, etc) is a narrative technique whereby a main story is composed, at least in part, for the purpose of organizing a set of shorter stories, each of which is a story within a story. ...
In "Out of the Silent Planet" it is suggested that "Ransom" is not the character's real name but merely an alias for a respectable professor whose reputation might suffer from his telling a fantastic story of having been to the planet Mars.
In the following books, however, this is unaccountably dropped and it is made clear that Ransom is the character's true name. As befits a philologist, he provides an etymology: the name does not derive from the word "ransom" but rather is an contraction of the Old English for "Ranulf's Son". This may be another allusion to Tolkien, a professor of Old English. Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ...
Cosmology Ransom gets much information on cosmology from the Oyarsa (presiding angel) of Malacandra. Maleldil, the son of the Old One, ruled the Field of Arbol directly. But then the Bent One (the Oyarsa of Earth) rebelled against Maleldil and all the eldila of Deep Heaven. In response to this act, the Bent One suffered confinement on Earth where he first inflicted great evil. Thus he made Earth a silent planet, cut off from the Oyéresu of other planets, whence the name 'Thulcandra', the Silent Planet. Maleldil tried to reach out to Thulcandra and became a man to save the human race. According to the Green Lady, Tinidril (Mother of Perelandra, or Venus), Thulcandra is favored among all the worlds. Oyarsa is a fictional character in C. S. Lewiss Space Trilogy, which includesOut of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. ...
Oyarsa is a fictional character in C. S. Lewiss Space Trilogy, which includesOut of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. ...
In the Field of Arbol, the outer planets are older, while the inner planets are newer.
Earth will remain a silent planet until the end of the great Siege of Deep Heaven against the Oyarsa of Earth. The siege starts to end (with the Oyéresu of other worlds descending to Earth) at the finale of the Trilogy, That Hideous Strength. But there is still much to happen until the fulfillment of what is predicted in the Book of Revelation when the Oyéresu put an end to the rule of Satan (the Bent Eldil) and on the way smash the Moon to fragments. This, in turn, would not be "The End of the World" but merely "The Very Beginning" of what is still to come. Oyarsa is a fictional character in C. S. Lewiss Space Trilogy, which includesOut of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. ...
That Hideous Strength is a novel by C. S. Lewis first published in 1945. ...
Visions of John the Evangelist, as depicted in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. ...
Eldila The eldila (singular eldil) are a species of intelligent extraterrestrial. The human characters in the trilogy encounter them on various planets, but the eldila themselves are native to interplanetary and interstellar space ("Deep Heaven"). In standard science-fiction terms, they are "multi-dimensional energy beings." They are barely visible as faint, shifting light. Extraterrestrial, as an adjective, refers to something that originates, occurs, or is located outside Earth or its atmosphere. ...
Certain very powerful eldila, the Oyéresu (singular Oyarsa), control the course of nature on each of the planets of the Solar System. They (and maybe all the eldila) can manifest in forms other than faint light. Oyarsa is a fictional character in C. S. Lewiss Space Trilogy, which includesOut of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. ...
The eldila are science-fictionalized depictions of angels, immortal and holy, with the Oyéresu perhaps being angels of a higher order (possibly in the traditional Hierarchy of angels). The eldila resident on (actually, imprisoned in) Earth are "dark eldila", fallen angels or demons. The Oyarsa of Earth is Satan. Ransom later meets the Oyéresu of both Mars and Venus, who are described as being masculine (but not actually male) and feminine (but not actually female), respectively. The Annunciation - the Angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will bear Jesus (El Greco, 1575) An angel is ethereal being found in many religions, whose duties are to assist and serve God. ...
According to medieval Christian theologians, the Angels are organized into several orders, or Angelic Choirs. ...
For other uses of the term fallen angel, see fallen angel (disambiguation). ...
St. ...
Oyarsa is a fictional character in C. S. Lewiss Space Trilogy, which includesOut of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. ...
To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
Parallels with other works The cosmology of all three books—in which the Oyéresu of Mars and Venus somewhat resemble the corresponding gods from classical mythology—derives from Lewis's interest in medieval beliefs. Central concerns of his book The Discarded Image are the way medieval authors borrowed concepts from pre-Christian religion and science and attempted to reconcile them with Christianity, and the lack of a clear distinction between natural and supernatural phenomena (or between what are now called science fiction and fantasy) in medieval thought. The Space Trilogy also expands on Lewis's essay "Religion and Rocketry", which argues that as long as humanity remains flawed and sinful, our exploration of other planets will tend to do them more harm than good. Mars was the Roman god of war, the son of Juno and a magical flower (or Jupiter). ...
Statue of Venus in the British Museum. ...
It has been suggested that Greco-Roman be merged into this article or section. ...
The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. ...
Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the life, teachings, and actions of Jesus of Nazareth, known by Christians as Jesus Christ, as recounted in the New Testament. ...
Another trilogy written partly at the same time, Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, has several possible parallels with the Space Trilogy. Both Perelandra and The Return of the King include a decisive final struggle in a subterranean chamber, with the adversary falling into volcanic fire, and the attitude of the scientists in That Hideous Strength toward the natural world is similar to that of Tolkien's character Saruman. The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy saga by the British author J. R. R. Tolkien, his most popular work and a sequel to his popular fantasy novel The Hobbit. ...
ROTK redirects here, for the Three Kingdoms game series see Sangokushi The Return of the King is the third and final volume of J. R. R. Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings, following The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. ...
Glossopoiea/Language According to the Space Trilogy's cosmology, the speech of all the inhabitants of the Field of Arbol is the Old Solar or Hlab-Eribol-ef-Cordi. Only Earth lost the language due to the Bent One's influence. Old Solar can be likened to the Elvish languages invented by Lewis's friend, Tolkien. Elvish languages are constructed languages used typically by elves in a fantasy setting. ...
Glossary Some terminology in the "Old Solar" language is used throughout the trilogy. (Words used in only one volume of the trilogy are defined in the article about that volume.) - Field of Arbol — the Solar System
- handra — a planet or land
- Malacandra — Mars
- Perelandra — Venus
- Thulcandra — Earth, literally "The Silent Planet"
- Glund or Glundandra — Jupiter
- Viritrilbia — Mercury
- Lurga — Saturn
- Sulva — The Moon
- hnau or 'nau — a rational being, capable of speech, intellect, and personhood, and containing a soul.
Some of this terminology can be linked up with Christian concepts: Presentation of the solar system (not to scale) The solar system comprises the Earths Sun and the retinue of celestial objects gravitationally bound to it. ...
Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the life, teachings, and actions of Jesus of Nazareth, known by Christians as Jesus Christ, as recounted in the New Testament. ...
- The Old One — God the Father
- Maleldil the Younger — God the Son, or specifically Jesus (sometimes from the point of view of extraterrestrials who haven't heard that he was incarnated as a human being)
- The Third One — God the Holy Ghost
- Eldil, pl. Eldila — an Angel
- Oyarsa, pl. Oyéresu — (Title) Ruler of a planet, a higher-order angel, perhaps an arch-angel.
Jesus is the current Good Article Collaboration of the week! Please help take it from Good to Featured article status. ...
The Holy Spirit, from the Christian viewpoint, while related to Gods will, is not Gods will personified. ...
Oyarsa is a fictional character in C. S. Lewiss Space Trilogy, which includesOut of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. ...
The Dark Tower An unfinished manuscript, The Dark Tower — featuring Ransom and time travel — was published posthumously in 1977. (Some doubt the authenticity of the manuscript; see The Dark Tower entry.) The Dark Tower is a fragment of a novel attributed to C. S. Lewis and published posthumously by his personal secretary, Walter Hooper, in 1977. ...
The Dark Tower is a fragment of a novel attributed to C. S. Lewis and published posthumously by his personal secretary, Walter Hooper, in 1977. ...
Sulva/The Moon There is no book in the series set on the Moon. But at several places in "That Hideous Strength", various characters give very clear descriptions of that world, which are not really necessary for the plotline of the book and could have been deleted without altering it significantly. The descriptions show that Lewis had worked out a detailed concept of the Moon. That Hideous Strength is a novel by C. S. Lewis first published in 1945. ...
Like his Mars in "Out of the Silent Planet", Lewis' concept of The Moon (Sulva in its Old Solar name) is both influenced by and critical of H.G. Wells, in this case of The First Men in the Moon which in the previouly quoted letter Lewis considered "the best of the sort [science fiction] I have read". His Moon, like that of Wells, is a hollow world where life is mainly to be found in deep underground caverns under the near-dead surface. And as with Wells, these caverns are the home of an ancient culture whose development is indicative of the way Earth society is heading. For the Roman god, see Mars (mythology). ...
Out of the Silent Planet is the first novel of a science fiction trilogy written by C. S. Lewis, sometimes referred to as the Space Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy. ...
For other moons in the solar system see natural satellite. ...
H. G. Wells at the door of his house at Sandgate Herbert George Wells (September 21, 1866 - August 13, 1946) was an English writer best known for his science fiction novels such as The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine. ...
The First Men in The Moon is a 1901 science fiction novel by the British author H. G. Wells. ...
Lewis' Sulva is a two-headed world. Its side facing Thulcandra/Earth shares Earth's "curse" of domination by the "Bent Oyarsa" (Satan). It is controlled by a highly-advanced technological race, whose rulers achieved near-immortality, and whose members are breeding artificially, while having sex only with "cunningly made images". Oyarsa is a fictional character in C. S. Lewiss Space Trilogy, which includesOut of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. ...
To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
They have deliberately destroyed all plant and animal life on their surface, out of a Satanically-induced hatred of life. All this is considered a good example to emulate on Earth by the evil N.I.C.E. scientist Filostrato, who is extremely well-informed about Lunar affairs.
The far side of the Moon - unseen by any human being in Lewis' time - faces Deep Heaven. There still persist air, plants and animals - wondrous "fields which would make the beholder happy" - as well as Unfallen members of the Sulvan race, still faithful to God/Maleldil. All of these are, however, the target of a war of extermination waged by the Satan-dominated faction, with fierce battles going on along the frontiers in the deep caverns and on the Far Side surface.
The Bad Guys seem fated to win eventually, with the patches of air and vegetation on the Sulvan surface growing smaller by the year - perhaps because the baddies' Satanic patron is so much nearer, or because the prohibition on the Oyeresu of other worlds to interfere applies to Sulva/Moon as well as to Thulcandra/Earth.
The eventual intervention would apparently come too late to save the good Sulvans. As revealed to Ransom at the end of Perelandra, the future events which are known on Earth as Armageddon, though actually they will be "the very beginning" of what is still to come, would involve the arrival of the Oyeresu, reinforced by the Unfallen humans of Venus/Perelandra. Their first act would be to shatter Sulva/Moon into fragments which will rain down on Earth. (As this is explicitly predicted in the Book of Revelation, Lewis could do nothing to change it). Perelandra (also titled Voyage to Venus in a later edition published by Pan Books) is the second book in the Space Trilogy of C. S. Lewis. ...
Look up Armageddon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Visions of John the Evangelist, as depicted in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. ...
All of this bears some resemblance to the Beleriand cycle of stories written by Lewis' friend Tolkien, whose final version appears in the Silmarillion - where elves and humans fight a heroic but foredoomed struggle with the demonic Melkor, and are being engulfed and destroyed one by one. In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Beleriand was the region of northwestern Middle-earth during the First Age. ...
J. R. R. Tolkien in 1916, wearing his British Army uniform in a photograph from the middle years of WW1. ...
The Silmarillion is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkiens works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher, with the assistance of fantasy fiction writer Guy Gavriel Kay. ...
Morgoth Bauglir (Morgoth means The Dark Enemy, Bauglir is The Constrainer), originally named Melkor (He Who Arises in Might), is a fictional character of Middle-earth, created by J. R. R. Tolkien. ...
The Valar - like the Oyeresu, powerful beings resembling the gods of Pagan pantheons but in fact serving and totally loyal to the real monotheistic God - intervene too late to save any but a small remnant, and they find it necessary to destroy Beleriand in order to save it (Beleriand sinks beneath the waves, as Sulva is doomed to be shattered). In J. R. R. Tolkiens fantasy universe, Middle-earth, the Valar are the Powers of Arda who live on the Western continent of Aman. ...
Ransom in "That Hideous Strength" is clearly well-informed about Sulva, as he was not in the preceding two books. But whether the knowledge comes from having been there personally or just from talking to the Oyeresu cannot be determined. That Hideous Strength is a novel by C. S. Lewis first published in 1945. ...
External links - Malacandra.co.uk, a Wiki for C.S. Lewis fans.]
|
Feeds |
Contact