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Elwin Ransom is the main character in the first two books of C. S. Lewis' The Space Trilogy , namely Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra . In the final book, That Hideous Strength , he is a lesser character (the main characters being Mark and Jane Studdock) in charge of a group that is resisting demons that are trying to take over Earth, and playing the role of a mentor.
Ransom is a philologist at Cambridge, and a confirmed bachelor. According to several references in Perelandra, Ransom also served in the First World War, similarly to J.R.R. Tolkien, a good friend of C. S. Lewis's. Ransom prefers to spend his holidays alone, hence his capture by the antagonists Weston and Devine. When he is captured, Ransom discovers that his purpose is to serve as a 'ransom' for the entire human race, allowing Weston and Devine to continue their explorations of the planet Malacandra (Mars). By That Hideous Strength, Ransom had been thoroughly changed by his experiences. Ransom's past role of imparting Bible-like occurrences is passed on to the Studdocks.
Many books by C. S. Lewis can be considered "Theological Science Fiction" or "Christian Science Fiction". This genre is uncommon, and depicts sci-fi stories with the basic beliefs of Christianity tied into them.
Some casual references in Perelandra reveal that he had fought in the First World War, that he had been on the Somme, and that on one occasion he had to overcome considerable trepidation before accepting - and successfully implementing - an unspecified "very dangerous job". However, it is noted that the horrors Ransom had witnessed on the battlefield did not destroy his sensitivity for suffering, even the suffering of animals.
Accordingly, Ransom's birth has to be placed in 1899 or 1900 at the latest - assuming that he had fought only in 1918 (the war's last year) and had waited to legal age before signing up; if he had already been on the Somme in 1916, he must have been born in 1897 or 1898 at the latest. This fits with the mention of his being "middle aged" during the events of Perelandra in the 1940s. Lewis might have conceived of Ransom as being his own age, i.e., born in 1898; J.R.R. Tolkien, one of Lewis's inspirations for the character, was born in 1892.
It is also mentioned that, at some later point in his life, he had "to screw up his resolution to go and see a certain man in London and make to him an excessively embarrassing confession which justice demanded"—which Ransom eventually did, and of which no further details are given.
He is a confirmed bachelor (as Lewis himself was at the time of writing), and in none of the three books is there any mention of a woman in his life. In That Hideous Strength , Jane Studdock falls in love with him, but there is no question of that love being returned; Ransom kindly but firmly pushes her back into the arms of her wayward husband, Mark. Nor does he have many male friends, either; when first introduced, he is in the habit of spending his university holidays hiking alone through the British countryside (which facilitates Weston's kidnapping him). By the end of the series, the wound sustained at Perelandra would preclude his continuing this habit. In the introductory chapters of Perelandra, however, it is revealed that Ransom regularly provides help to a large number of neighbors and acquaintances who have fallen on hard times. It is noteworthy that, although Ransom is very much a Christian believer, with a profound faith and knowledge of the Christian scriptures and theology, there is no mention of his belonging to any organized congregation.
He is a philologist by profession (like Tolkien), a linguistics professor, taking advantage of a unique aptitude for learning languages when he finds himself deserted among aliens. He speculates that this ability is the reason that he is 'chosen' for his role in the first and second books, although he notes in Perelandra that it might as well have been anyone else. A professor at Cambridge, he is highly regarded, even by his enemies, who in That Hideous Strength mention him as among the topmost in his field, noting that, but for his Christian convictions, he might have rendered very useful service to their cause.
After his sojourn on Malacandra/Mars, Ransom is mentioned as staying for a prolonged period at a cottage three miles outside "Worchester", having evidently left temporarily or permanently his Cambridge job. From there, he sets out on his voyage to Perelandra/Venus.
While on Venus, Ransom becomes in effect a prophet in the Biblical sense—i.e., a person to whom God speaks and on whom a specific Divine command is imposed (and who, like Jonah, strongly resists and makes a considerable effort to avoid, before bowing to the inevitable).
In That Hideous Strength Ransom's role is reversed. It is he, acting in effect as God's deputy, who inexorably imposes on the very reluctant Merlin the Divine mission of destroying the Satanic N.I.C.E., whose implementation would entail Merlin's own death.
The permanent wound on his heel resulted from a physical battle with the demonically possessed Professor Weston in the deep caverns of Perelandra. It causes him continuing pain that he feels it is his duty to endure, refusing to relieve it either through medicine or through Merlin's magic.
The wound may refer to Genesis 3:15, where God curses the Snake for his tempting of Eve and causing the Original Sin: "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.(NIV)" The Biblical Snake is commonly considered in Christianity to have been a manifestation of Satan; so was the possessed Professor Weston. Thus, Weston could be considered an "offspring" of the Snake, and as such he did bite the heel of Ransom and got his own head crushed.
This wound is also a possible reference to the unhealing wound of the Fisher King, the ailing Grail King of Arthurian legend, which was a major theme in some of Charles Williams's works, a significant influence to The Space Trilogy: In the third book, Ransom has actually taken the name of "Fisher-King".
At some time between the second and third book, Ransom's life was further transformed radically by becoming the secret Pendragon, the latest in an unbroken chain of secret inheritors of King Arthur, who, it turns out, had been watching over Britain and helping their country in various crisis points in its history—a role that is crucially important to his relationship with the reawakened wizard Merlin. He establishes a kind of secret community at a big house in St. Anne's, which he heads, and which is the polar opposite and center of opposition to the literally Satanic institute of N.I.C.E., which in turn is threatening to take over the world. There, he is in regular contact with the descending planetary "gods" of the Graeco-Roman Pantheon (who are, in fact, not gods at all, but angels and faithful servants of the true, one and only God).
The third book, unlike the earlier two, is not told through Ransom's own eyes. He has become too much of an august and hieratic personage, seen mainly through the eyes of the book's female protagonist Jane Studdok, who falls in love with him [1] — hopelessly, as she realizes from the start, especially since he is an unwavering upholder of the sanctity of marriage and clearly wants her to be reconciled with her estranged husband. In the final scene, Ransom kisses Jane for the first and last time, even while firmly commanding her to go to the bed of her waiting husband and to "Have no more dreams; have children instead" — which she does, while still feeling his kiss on her lips.
In the end, Ransom's role as a saint or prophet is enhanced by his being taken alive into Heaven (actually, back to Venus/Perelandra), an honour reserved only to a very small handful of particularly deserving Biblical and mythical characters.
As is true with most of Lewis's writing, The Space Trilogy has religious symbolism in which Ransom takes on the role of a prophet preparing for the end times by resisting demonic forces on Earth and Perelandra. Even his last name is meant to be reminiscent of the sacrifice of Jesus.
Elwin Ransom may be based on C. S. Lewis's friend J. R. R. Tolkien ("Elwin" means "Elf friend" in Anglo-Saxon), though he seems to have autobiographical elements. In That Hideous Strength , Ransom, with his royal charisma and matter-of-fact breezy acceptance of the supernatural, appears less like Tolkien than like Charles Williams (or some of the heroes in Williams's books). [2]
In the final chapter of the first book, the author flatly states that "Elwin Ransom" is a pseudonym; however, in the second book, great significance is attached to his surname (with a divine voice saying "It is not for nothing that you are named Ransom"), indicating that this is in fact the character's real name. The inconsistency was never explained.
Clive Staples Lewis was a British writer, literary scholar, and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalene College, Cambridge (1954–1963). He is best known as the author of The Chronicles of Narnia, but he is also noted for his other works of fiction, such as The Screwtape Letters and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, including Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.
The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel by the English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book The Hobbit, but eventually developed into a much larger work. Written in stages between 1937 and 1949, The Lord of the Rings is one of the best-selling books ever written, with over 150 million copies sold.
Gandalf is a protagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He is a wizard, one of the Istari order, and the leader of the Fellowship of the Ring. Tolkien took the name "Gandalf" from the Old Norse "Catalogue of Dwarves" (Dvergatal) in the Völuspá.
Boromir is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. He appears in the first two volumes of The Lord of the Rings, and is mentioned in the last volume, The Return of the King. He was the heir of Denethor II and the elder brother of Faramir. In the course of the story Boromir joined the Fellowship of the Ring.
That Hideous Strength: A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups is a 1945 novel by C. S. Lewis, the final book in Lewis's theological science fiction Space Trilogy. The events of this novel follow those of Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra and once again feature the philologist Elwin Ransom. Yet unlike the principal events of those two novels, the story takes place on Earth rather than elsewhere in the Solar System. The story involves an ostensibly scientific institute, the N.I.C.E., which is a front for sinister supernatural forces.
Tuor Eladar and Idril Celebrindal are fictional characters from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. They are the parents of Eärendil the Mariner and grandparents of Elrond Half-elven: through their progeny, they become the ancestors of the Númenóreans and of the King of the Reunited Kingdom Aragorn Elessar. Both characters play a pivotal role in The Fall of Gondolin, one of Tolkien's earliest stories; it formed the basis for a section in his later work, The Silmarillion, and was expanded as a standalone publication in 2018.
Out of the Silent Planet is a science fiction novel by the British author C. S. Lewis, first published in 1938 by John Lane, The Bodley Head. Two sequels were published in 1943 and 1945, completing the Space Trilogy.
Perelandra is the second book in the Space Trilogy of C. S. Lewis, set on the planet of Perelandra, or Venus. It was first published in 1943.
The Notion Club Papers is an abandoned novel by J. R. R. Tolkien, written in 1945 and published posthumously in Sauron Defeated, the 9th volume of The History of Middle-earth. It is a time travel story, written while The Lord of the Rings was being developed. The Notion Club is a fictionalization of Tolkien's own such club, the Inklings. Tolkien's mechanism for the exploration of time is through lucid dreams. These allow club members to experience events as far back as the destruction of the Atlantis-like island of Númenor, as narrated in The Silmarillion.
The Fisher King is a figure in Arthurian legend, the last in a long line of British kings tasked with guarding the Holy Grail. The Fisher King is both the protector and physical embodiment of his lands, but a wound renders him impotent and his kingdom barren. Unable to walk or ride a horse, he is sometimes depicted as spending his time fishing while he awaits a "chosen one" who can heal him. Versions of the story vary widely, but the Fisher King is typically depicted as being wounded in the groin, legs, or thigh. The healing of these wounds always depends upon the completion of a hero-knight's task.
The Dark Tower is an incomplete manuscript written by C. S. Lewis that appears to be an unfinished sequel to the science fiction novel Out of the Silent Planet, though allegations have been raised about its authenticity. Perelandra instead became the second book of Lewis' Space Trilogy, concluded by That Hideous Strength. Walter Hooper, Lewis' literary executor, titled the fragment and published it in the 1977 collection The Dark Tower and Other Stories. The Lewis scholar Kathryn Lindskoog challenged the authenticity of the work.
The Space Trilogy is a series of science fiction novels by C. S. Lewis. The trilogy consists of Out of the Silent Planet (1938), Perelandra (1943), and That Hideous Strength (1945). A philologist named Elwin Ransom is the protagonist of the first two novels and an important character in the third.
Professor Weston is a Satanic character in C. S. Lewis's The Space Trilogy. He is introduced in the trilogy's first book, Out of the Silent Planet (1938), as an eminent physicist who has invented space travel. He is defeated by the novel's protagonist Elwin Ransom on Mars. Weston returns in the second book, in an attempt to wreak havoc on Venus (Perelandra), the "new Eden."
The Princess and the Goblin is a children's fantasy novel by George MacDonald. It was published in 1872 by Strahan & Co., with black-and-white illustrations by Arthur Hughes. Strahan had published the story and illustrations as a serial in the monthly magazine Good Words for the Young, beginning November 1870.
Stories involving the mythical wizard Merlin have been popular since the Renaissance, especially with the renewed interest in the legend of King Arthur in modern times. As noted by Arthurian scholar Alan Lupack, "numerous novels, poems and plays center around Merlin. In American literature and popular culture, Merlin is perhaps the most frequently portrayed Arthurian character."
Faramir is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. He is introduced as the younger brother of Boromir of the Fellowship of the Ring and second son of Denethor, the Steward of Gondor. Faramir enters the narrative in The Two Towers, where, upon meeting Frodo Baggins, he is presented with a temptation to take possession of the One Ring. In The Return of the King, he leads the forces of Gondor in the War of the Ring, coming near to death, succeeds his father as Steward, and wins the love of Éowyn, lady of the royal house of Rohan.
Frodo Baggins is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, and one of the protagonists in The Lord of the Rings. Frodo is a hobbit of the Shire who inherits the One Ring from his cousin Bilbo Baggins, described familiarly as "uncle", and undertakes the quest to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom in Mordor. He is mentioned in Tolkien's posthumously published works, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales.
The roles of women in The Lord of the Rings have often been assessed as insignificant, or important only in relation to male characters in a story about men for boys. Meanwhile, other commentators have noted the empowerment of the three major women characters, Galadriel, Éowyn, and Arwen, and provided in-depth analysis of their roles within the narrative of The Lord of the Rings.
Commentators have compared Peter Jackson's 2001–2003 The Lord of the Rings film trilogy with the book on which it was based, J. R. R. Tolkien's 1954–1955 The Lord of the Rings, remarking that while both have been extremely successful commercially, the film version does not necessarily capture the intended meaning of the book. They have admired Jackson's ability to film the long and complex work at all; the beauty of the cinematography, sets, and costumes; the quality of the music; and the epic scale of his version of Tolkien's story. They have, however, found the characters and the story greatly weakened by Jackson's emphasis on action and violence at the expense of psychological depth; the loss of Tolkien's emphasis on free will and individual responsibility; and the replacement of Frodo's inner journey by an American monomyth with Aragorn as the hero.