In C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy, what is the fictional name of Mars?

In C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy, Mars is called Malacandra.

Malacandra is the setting of Out of the Silent Planet, the first novel in the trilogy. The story follows Elwin Ransom after he is abducted and taken to the planet by the scientist Weston and his accomplice Devine. Lewis’s imagined Mars is not merely a renamed version of Earth’s neighboring planet; it has its own inhabitants, languages, cultures, and moral order.

The novel presents Malacandra as a world inhabited by several intelligent species, including the hrossa, séroni, and pfifltriggi. Its spiritual ruler is an Oyarsa, and the planet’s inhabitants regard Earth as “the silent planet” because its Oyarsa has become separated from the wider harmony of the solar system.

The other two trilogy novels move to different worlds. Perelandra takes place on Venus, while That Hideous Strength returns to Earth, which is called Thulcandra. These names are therefore easy to mix up, especially because Malacandra and Perelandra sound similar.