Out of the Silent Planet

Although briefly seized by the impulse to surrender to Weston and Devine to prevent further violence, Ransom decides to finish the journey to Meldilorn. He is nervous because the trip will involve crossing the harandra, the supposed home of the sorns. After a few hours of walking along the path outlined by Whin, he comes across the way to Augray’s tower, less a road than a steep trench cut upward into the mountains. The climb is strenuous even under the Malacandra’s reduced gravity, and the temperature drops steadily as Ransom makes his way upwards into the harandra. As he surveys the handramit from above, he begins to feel that Malacandra is “a waste place in the universe” (88) and loses his sense of connection to “hobgoblins” like the hrossa and the eldila. He even longs for the presence of Weston and Devine. Still, his vow to reach Meldilorn pushes him onwards. The sky above him grows extremely dark, and the air thins. Ransom realizes that the harandra is clad in only a thin layer of atmosphere—he is once again very close to outer space. Just as breathing begins to become an ordeal, the road straightens out again, and a flickering light appears in the distance. It’s firelight, illuminating the mouth of a cave. Stumbling into the cave’s interior, Ransom sees a sorn, Augray, crouched on the ground.

Upon seeing Ransom, Augray immediately knows that he is from Earth. He offers Ransom an oxygen mask, explaining that the low-dwelling hrossa also need oxygen when ascending into the harandra. In the firelight, Ransom finds the sorn’s humanoid appearance “more grotesque than horrible” (93). He asks if the séroni rule over the hrossa. Augray replies that all are ruled by Oyarsa, who has looked after the hnau of Malacandra since the planet’s creation.

Ransom asks why he cannot see the eldila, and Augray explains that their bodies are made of movement, not matter. Light is the fastest thing that a hnau can see, so, to a hnau, an eldil’s body is made of light. Ransom is reminded of earthly sightings of “bright, elusive” creatures like albs and devas. He tells Augray that earth has no Oyarsa, which Augray takes as further proof that earth truly is “the silent planet” (95). The oyarses of other planets all communicate with one another, and only Earth is left out of this exchange. Ransom is exhausted by Augray’s confusing explanations. He wants to go to bed, but Augray has something to show him first. He leads Ransom up a staircase at the back of the cave into a small chamber with a telescope-like window. Through it, Ransom sees Earth as a half-crown-sized sphere floating in the darkness. Realizing that he has left his entire life on that small circle, he experiences “the bleakest moment in all his travels” (96).