Elwin Ransom is the protagonist of C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy.
Ransom first appears in Out of the Silent Planet, published in 1938. He is a Cambridge philologist who is kidnapped and taken to Mars, called Malacandra in the novel. His scholarly knowledge, moral judgment, and concern for language distinguish him from the more exploitative figures around him.
The trilogy continues with Perelandra, published in 1943, and That Hideous Strength, published in 1945. Ransom’s adventures move from planetary travel to theological and philosophical conflicts, blending speculative fiction with Lewis’s interest in Christian ideas and medieval cosmology.
A common mistake is to identify Mark Studdock as the trilogy’s central character. Mark is important in the third novel, but Ransom is the continuing protagonist across the series. Lewis originally used the surname Ransom partly as an homage to his friend Charles Williams, whose surname suggested a similar literary association.