What was the name of C.S. Lewis’s fictional protagonist in the Ransom Trilogy?

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

Ransom is a philologist and university professor who becomes the central human figure in Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. The trilogy is also called the Space Trilogy or Cosmic Trilogy, but “Ransom Trilogy” emphasizes the recurring protagonist.

In Out of the Silent Planet, Ransom is kidnapped and taken to Malacandra, a fictional planet that humans associate with Mars. In Perelandra, he travels to the planet Perelandra, associated with Venus, where he confronts a new temptation story. In That Hideous Strength, the action returns to Earth and expands into a conflict involving science, power, and spiritual corruption.

Ransom’s academic background reflects Lewis’s own interest in language and medieval literature. Readers sometimes confuse him with Mark Studdock, who is the central viewpoint character of That Hideous Strength, or with Weston, an antagonist who appears earlier in the trilogy.