Elwin Ransom is the Oxford philologist who serves as protagonist of C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy.
Elwin Ransom is the central character of Lewis’s science-fiction trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. He is introduced as a Cambridge academic in the first novel, although the trilogy’s background and his professional identity reflect Lewis’s interest in philology, language, and medieval literature.
Ransom travels beyond Earth in Out of the Silent Planet, encounters the world of Perelandra in the second book, and returns to Earth for the conflict of That Hideous Strength. The trilogy combines space travel with Christian theology, planetary mythology, moral philosophy, and criticism of dehumanizing modern institutions.
Readers sometimes confuse Ransom with Mark Studdock, who is the principal viewpoint character in much of That Hideous Strength. The books are connected, but Ransom remains the trilogy’s recurring heroic and spiritual figure.