He thinks Lewis and the doctor look sickly. Ransom rises out of them, naked and bearded, but now looking about twenty and in peak physical condition, except for a wound on the heel of one foot. They open it and at first think all is a bloody ruin, but the red turns out to be a mass of flowers. He and the doctor meet at Ransom's house and are there in the back yard when a white coffin glides down out of the sky. Lewis is filled with dread, but there is nothing left to do but close up the house and go home.Ī little over a year later, he gets a summons, presumable from an eldil. After he undresses, Lewis reluctantly packs him into the coffin. Lewis suggests bringing a doctor in on the secret, in case Ransom comes back injured, and Ransom agrees. He has called in Lewis because Lewis already knows about eldila and such, and he wants someone there to receive him when (or if) he comes back. The language he learned from the hrossa on Mars is the lingua franca of the whole Solar System, Hlab Eribol ef Cordi.

He was probably selected for the mission because he speaks the language already. Ransom admits to being terrified of the prospect, but willing to obey, and even eager to see what Venus is like. He, Ransom, has been ordered on a mission: Oyarsa is to take him to Venus, in that white coffin, in a state of suspended animation. The eldil Lewis glimpsed is Oyarsa, ruler of Mars. The fears he felt on approaching the house were a psychic attack by the dark eldila of our own world (i.e. The eldil is no longer visible and things gradually become more normal. Second, it seemed vertical even though it was not at right angles to the floor it made the floor and house around it seem tilted.Īfter a few moments of paralyzing fear, Ransom enters and speaks, not to Lewis, but to the eldil, in Malacandrian. Reflecting afterward, Lewis notes two odd things about the pillar of light: First, it was of no color he can name or remember. He realizes it is an eldil and freezes in fear. Then he hears a voice call 'Ransom.' But the voice is not human and the only thing he can see in the dark is a pillar of light.

Examination by matchlight shows a milky white box or coffin, made of some slick material. He enters and trips over something in the dark. Lewis reaches Ransom's door in a near panic, only to find the house empty and a note on the door, from Ransom, bidding him go in and wait. The more he considers eldila as something he might really encounter, the more frightened of them he becomes. He finds himself increasingly reluctant, then uneasy, and finally frightened about the journey, because he strongly suspects Ransom has asked him down because of business with the eldila. He is walking down a country road from a train station in Cambridge to Ransom's cottage, there to meet Ransom. The novel starts with Lewis narrating in first person.

Perelandra - summary Summary of Perelandra

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