What is the name of the protagonist in C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy?

Elwin Ransom is the protagonist of C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy.

Ransom is the central character of Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. In the first two novels he travels beyond Earth and becomes involved in conflicts involving humanity, planetary civilizations, and spiritual powers. His surname also carries symbolic significance: he is a scholar drawn into dangerous missions that demand moral courage.

Ransom is a philologist, reflecting Lewis’s own academic background in language and literature. The trilogy combines science fiction with Christian theology, medieval cosmology, and criticism of modern technological ambition.

The third novel shifts much of its attention to characters on Earth, especially Mark and Jane Studdock, so readers sometimes identify Mark as the trilogy’s overall protagonist. Ransom nevertheless remains its principal recurring hero and the character who anchors the first two books.