Out of the Silent Planet

by C. S. Lewis

An unnamed man is taking a walking tour through the English countryside. He is later identified as Dr Elwin Ransom, a philologist. He and stumbles upon a cottage where a woman is waiting for her son Harry to return. Ransom agrees to help her and goes to The Rise, the "big house" where the woman's son works. Ransom hears shouting and struggling inside, and then sees two men, Weston and Devine. trying to force Harry to enter a structure against his will. Ransom intervenes, and Devine sees him as a better prospect than Harry for what he and Weston have in mind. Devine offers Ransom a drink and a bed for the night. After enjoying what he thinks is a glass of whiskey and water, Ransom realises that he has been drugged and passes out.

When he regains consciousness he finds himself in a spherical metallic spacecraft en route to a planet called Malacandra. Wonder and excitement relieve his anguish at being kidnapped, but he is put on his guard when he overhears Weston and Devine deliberating whether they will again drug him or keep him conscious when they turn him over to the inhabitants of Malacandra, the sorns, as a sacrifice. Ransom appropriates a knife and plans to escape when he gets the chance.

Soon after the three land on the planet Ransom runs off just after he first sees the sorns, tall aliens who terrify him. He wanders around, finding that all the lakes, streams, and rivers are warm, that gravity is significantly lower than on Earth, and that the plants and mountains are all extremely tall and thin. He meets a civilised native, a hross named Hyoi, and becomes a guest for several weeks in Hyoi's village, where he uses his philological skills to learn the language of the hrossa. He discovers that gold, known to the hrossa as "sun's blood", is plentiful on Malacandra, and thus discerns Devine's motive for making the voyage. Weston's motives are later shown to be more complex: he is bent on expanding humanity through the universe, abandoning each planet and star system as it becomes uninhabitable.

The hrossa honour Ransom by asking him to join them in a hunt for a hnakra (plural hnéraki), a fierce water-creature that seems to be the only dangerous predator on the planet, resembling both a shark and a crocodile. While they are hunting Ransom and his hrossa companions are told by an eldil, an almost invisible creature, that Ransom must go to meet Oyarsa, the eldil who is ruler of the planet, and indeed should already have done so. After killing the hnakra with Ransom's help, Hyoi is shot dead by Devine and Weston, who are seeking Ransom in order hand him over to the "sorns" (the Malacandrian plural is séroni'). Another hross, Hwin, tells Ransom that he must now cross the mountains to escape Weston and Devine and fulfil his orders.

On his journey Ransom meets a sorn, but finds that the séroni are peaceful and kindly. The sorn, Augray, explains the nature of Oyarsa and the other eldila'.' The next day, carrying Ransom on his shoulder, Augray takes him to Oyarsa.

After a stop at the dwelling place of a sorn scientist, where Ransom is questioned thoroughly about Earth, he reaches Meldilorn, the island home of Oyarsa. There Ransom meets a pfifltrigg who tells him about the beautiful houses and works of art that his people make in their native forests. Ransom is then led to Oyarsa, who explained that there is an Oyarsa for each of the planets in our solar system. The Oyarsa of Earth, which is known to the eldila as Thulcandra, "the silent planet", has become "bent", or evil, and has been restricted to Thulcandra after "a great war" on the authority of Maleldil, the ruler of the universe. Ransom is ashamed at how little he can tell the Oyarsa of Malacandra about Earth, and how foolish he and other humans seem to Oyarsa. While the two are talking Devine and Weston are brought in, guarded by hrossa because they have killed three members of that species. Weston does not believe that Oyarsa exists and tries to terrify, then pacify the Malachandrians with decorative beads. Oyarsa sends him away to have his head dipped in cold water. Oyarsa then directs a pfifltrigg to "scatter the movements that were" the bodies of Hyoi and the two other hrossa using a small crystalline instrument that makes the bodies vanish. Weston is brought back and makes a long speech justifying his proposed invasion of Malacandra on "progressive" and evolutionary grounds, which Ransom attempts to translate into Malacandrian, thus laying bare the brutality and crudity of Weston's ambitions. Oyarsa acknowledges that Weston is acting out of a sense of duty to his species and not mere greed, but he points out that Weston's loyalty is only to "the seed" of Man, which he seeks to propagate. Weston responds that if Oyarsa does not understand Man's basic loyalty to Man, then he, Weston, cannot possibly instruct him.

Oyarsa tells Weston and Devine that he cannot tolerate their presence, and lets them leave the planet immediately, under very unfavourable orbital conditions. Oyarsa offers Ransom the option of staying on Malacandra, but Ransom decides he does not belong there either. Oyarsa gives the men ninety days' worth of air and other supplies. On the voyage back Ransom becomes conscious of eldila as benevolent presences within the spaceship, After it lands on Earth the spaceship is "unbodied".

Lewis, appearing as a character in his own novel, happens to write to Ransom asking whether he has come across the medieval Latin word Oyarses. This prompts Ransom to let Lewis in on his secret. Ransom then dedicates himself to the mission that the Oyarsa of Malacandra gave him: stopping Weston from doing further evil. .