'Out of the Silent Planet' Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ransom

'Elwin Ransom' is the name given to the character, although it transpires that this is a pseudonym. Weston and Devine are the two men who kidnap Ransom and take him to the planet Malacandra. Aslan is the Lion, from Lewis's 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe' series.

Answer: The Rise

Ransom is on a walking-tour. The night before the story opens, he spent at Stoke Underwood before moving on to Much Nadderby, where he couldn't find an inn. He is on the way to the village of Sterk when events lead him to 'The Rise'... and his adventures begin.

Answer: The Moon

Ransom thinks he's looking at the Moon, and wonders why he can't see the familiar 'face'. He is shocked when Weston informs him that they are 85,000 miles above the Earth.

Answer: Malacandra

Weston tells an incredulous Ransom that they are on the way to 'Malacandra', which they should reach in about twenty eight days. Only later does Ransom find out that Malacandra is Mars.

Answer: Sorns

Ransom hears Weston and Devine talking about 'sorns'. Later, he finds out that the proper plural form of 'sorn' is 'seroni' - but the word he hears the men use is 'sorns'.

Answer: Thulcandra

Thulcandra (Earth) is 'silent' because it is under the sway of the Bent Oyarsa, an evil spirit symbolising the Satan of Christian theology. The other, 'good' Oyarsa cannot tell what is going on on Thulcandra but only hears its silence. Perelandra is the 'true' name of the planet Venus, Malacandra Mars, and Glundandra Jupiter.

Answer: Augray

Hyoi was the first creature of Malacandra that Ransom befriended after his escape from Weston and Devine. Hyahi was Hyoi's brother, and Kanakaberaka was the pfifltrigg who took Ransom the rest of the way to see Oyarsa.

Answer: Weston

Weston believes the creatures of Malacandra to be extremely primitive, and 'talks down to them'. He doesn't realise that all of them are laughing at him until Oyarsa orders him to be taken away and dunked under cold water to relieve him of his supposed 'superiority'. Ransom by this time is most proficient in the language of the Malacandrians, so knows what's going on. Devine doesn't care for anything except 'sun's blood' - gold. Harry, of course, was the man whom Ransom was going to fetch home from The Rise in the first place, at the beginning of the novel.

Answer: 90

Oyarsa advises them to get away from the ship as soon as they get home, or else they will 'unbody' with it.

Answer: CS Lewis

After the men return home, Lewis himself becomes a 'character' in his own story, supposedly having been contacted by the real 'Ransom' who told him of the preceding events!