The Space Trilogy
The Space Trilogy is a series of novels by C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien's friend and fellow Inkling.
The story of the first book, Out of the Silent Planet, shares a common genesis with Tolkien's unfinished The Lost Road. The two men had a conversation about the shortcomings of Science Fiction literature and Lewis remarked that "there is too little of what we really like in stories", suggesting they try their hand at the genre "as amateurs":[1]
We... meant each to write an excursionary 'Thriller': a Space-journey and a Time-journey (mine) each discovering Myth.
—J.R.R. Tolkien[2]
Lewis' 'Space-journey' became Out of the Silent Planet and was published in 1938 by The Bodley Head. Lewis initially tried to interest Allen & Unwin in the work, but despite the positive review Tolkien gave the publishers they passed.
Tolkien noted that some of his onomatopoeia influenced names in this work, including Numinor (That Hideous Strength), Eldil (Out of the Silent Planet) and Tur and Tinidril (Perelandra).[3]
Elwin Ransom
The protagonist of the trilogy is Elwin Ransom, sharing the name with Elwin, one of the characters in Tolkien's contemporary The Lost Road. It means "Elf-friend" (Elwin is the modern form of Ælfwine).
Ransom is apparently modelled in part on Tolkien (as well as Lewis himself and Charles Williams): he was born in 1898 (like Lewis, Tolkien's junior by 6 years), fought in World War I and the Somme, he is a philologist at an Oxbridge university, and has a special interest in languages. Tolkien played down this similarity on multiple occasions, admitting it only in that both were philologists.[2][4]
References
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 294, (dated 8 February 1967)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 24, (dated 18 February 1938)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 276, (dated 12 September 1965)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 27, (dated March or April 1938)
