S8E5 – Perelandra (“Chapter 4: The Island of the Green Lady”)

Ransom meets a dragon, has a shower, eats some food, and makes contact with a green lady on a floating island…

S8E5: Chapter Four – “The Island of the Green Lady” (Download)

Show Notes

Introduction

Quote-of-the-week

If a naked man and a wise dragon were indeed the sole inhabitants of this floating paradise, then this was also fitting, for at that moment he had a sensation of not following an adventure but of enacting a myth.

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

Chit-Chat

• David just returned from a wonderful vacation in Ireland and England, after enduring a terrible journey home, filled with missed flights and lost – but fortunately recovered – luggage. He’s recovering from jet lag; the kids, not so much. The sleep deprivation is real. In other news, his wife Marie’s grandmother has made the move to La Crosse, Wisconsin.
• Andrew weathered the storm(s!) in Florida, miraculously suffering little damage. He’s done with travel for the time being, and is on the hunt for a new job. Andrew also held a successful screening for “Freud’s Last Session”, and did a Q&A with a Freud scholar.
• Matt is in New York for a “faith in business” conference. He witnessed a massive mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and a Eucharistic procession through the streets of the city, put on by the Napa Institute.

Toast

• Matt has his Celsius.
• Andrew didn’t say his drink (it was probably his usual coffee though). He also shouted out Jonathan from The Catholic Woodworker for his remarkable rosaries.
• David has the largest cup of coffee he could get.

And today, we’re toasting Patreon supporters Brian and Meg Clark!

Discussion

Chapter Summary

Ransom awakes to find a docile red dragon beside him. After receiving a shower from translucent fruit in the forest he eats some delicious green berries. Despite desiring to repeat these experiences, he resists. 

The dragon then flies to a neighbouring island, where Ransom sees a green lady among a group of beasts. Initially she seems disappointed to see him, but afterwards erupts into laughter. Ransom announces that he comes in peace to which the woman replies “what is peace?”. As darkness falls, Ransom swims to her island whereupon he falls asleep.

01. “Here Be Dragons”

We’re told that Ransom awakes: “he saw reality, and thought it was a dream” . 

Q. What do you make of his surroundings?

• Ransom doesn’t understand what he sees, and it takes a while for things to click. Though he witnesses things that would appear threatening to the average Thulcandran eye, he is unable to muster tremendous wariness and fear. Malacandra, about which he spoke rhapsodic just a couple of episodes ago now compares poorly, describing it as “that cold, archaic world”.
• Andrew took note of the mythology present in the chapter. The dragon is Ladon, the ancient Grecian reptile that guarded the Garden of the Hesperides. The Hesperides were daughters of Atlas and Hesperis, and guarded a tree with golden apples, with help from Ladon.
• Ransom’s rousing is reminiscent of “Surprised by Joy”, where Lewis describes his conversion as a kind of waking up.
• The colours in this chapter are heraldic (yellow, silver, indigo, red, and gold), and are referenced throughout its entirety. This sets the tone. In “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, when Father Christmas arrives, heraldic colours appear. Similarly, the bus in “The Great Divorce” sports a bright red hue. It signifies the royalty of Christ and His kingdom, a Kingship that isn’t oppressive or colonialist, but true and regal.
• David mused if Ransom was on a knightly quest? He does meet the Queen of Perelandra, after all. And he does return to earth a noticeably changed man, similar to George MacDonald’s book “Phantastes”.
• Matt noticed a contrast between experiencing reality in Perelandra versus in “The Great Divorce”. In the latter book, reality was harsh and painful. Here, it is pleasurable. He also thought of Plato’s cave, where shadows and reflections are like earth, and Perelandra is true reality.
• Responding to Matt, Andrew gave insight into Lewis’ mind at the time of the books publication. He was writing “The Screwtape Letters” and “A Preface to Paradise Lost”; in other words, he’s thinking about the Devil and Fallen Eden. He is attempting in “Perelandra” to turn away from the dark and grit of sin, and write as “sinlessly” as possible. The purgatorial souls in “The Great Divorce” are not without sin, and are in contrast to the beauty and reality of the world around them. Eventually, Lewis abandons his quest to describe heaven in the end of “The Last Battle”.

And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write the. And so for us this is the end of all the stories, and we an most truly say that they all lived happily ever after.

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, Farewell to the Shadowlands

• Another note on the Garden of Hesperides. The root word is “Hesperos” in Greek, translated as “evening”. Hesperos, or “Vesper” in Latin, is the origin of the name Hesperus, the evening star (Venus).

Q. From The Garden of the Hesperides on Perelandra, he now thinks of another piece of mythology, the Cyclops from Odysseus’ journey in Homer’s “Odyssey”. Who was the “Cyclops” he met and what does he wonder?

• Augrey from “Out of the Silent Planet” might have been a shepherd living in a cave, but a helpful and good person, unlike the monster from the Greek myths.
• Mythology, in typical Lewisian fashion, becomes a map for navigating his imaginative worlds. He’s encouraging his readers to trust the legends and fairytales. David mentioned “The Dark Tower”, where this tactic is used more apparently. According to “Planet Narnia”, what is true in myth becomes actual truth in the person of Christ, since Christianity is the fulfilment of truth.
• Piggybacking on this, Andrew brought up doing an analysis of Lewis’ poem “Re-adjustment”, where he mentions some mythological stories.
• Ransom realises that he’s in a vulnerable position.

Then the realisation came to him “You are in an unknown planet, naked and alone, and that may be a dangerous animal.” But he was not badly frightened. He knew that the ferocity of terrestrial animals was, by cosmic standards, an exception, and had found kindness in stranger creatures than this.

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

Q. As Ransom looks around, he sees that the sea is calm and, as a result, the island is perfectly flat. He then turns his attention back to the dragon. What does he do?

• Ransom wants to know if the reptile is rational, or a “hnau”, and addresses him in Old Solar.

“Stranger,” he said, “I have been sent to your world through the Heaven by the servants of Maleldil. Do you give me welcome?”

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

• Unfortunately, not a whole lot happens, but then the dragon uncoils itself from the tree, makes its way to the edge of the island, took a drink, returns to Ransom and starts nudging him at the knees….then turns away and starts tearing up the herbage.

02. “A Bubble Tree Shower”

Ransom sees something a little way off, sparkling like a greenhouse roof with the sun on it. As he goes to investigate, the dragon continues nosing him. He finds hanging from a hairy tube-like branch a semi-transparent sphere.

Q. What happens when he touches the sphere?

• Ransom is doused in a shower, one that is cleansing, clarifying, and nourishing. It’s restorative in a way that could only be compared to baptism. He is being washed clean of his old world before encountering the Queen of this new one.

Moved by a natural impulse he put out his hand to touch it. Immediately his head, face, and shoulders were drenched with what seemed (in that warm world) an ice-cold shower bath, and his nostrils filled with a sharp, shrill, exquisite scent that somehow brought to his mind the verse in Pope, “die of a rose in aromatic pain.” Such was the refreshment that he seemed to himself to have been, till now, but half awake. When he opened his eyes–which had closed involuntarily at the shock of moisture–all the colours about him seemed richer and the dimness of that world seemed clarified. A re-enchantment fell upon him. The golden beast at his side seemed no longer either a danger or a nuisance. If a naked man and a wise dragon were indeed the sole inhabitants of this floating paradise, then this also was fitting, for at that moment he had a sensation not of following an adventure but of enacting a myth. To be the figure that he was in this unearthly pattern appeared sufficient.

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

• David described the event as a “sacrament of illumination”, which is how the early Church described baptism. It gives one the ability to understand the rest of the sacraments, like Chrismation and the Eucharist.
• David quoted “The Magician’s Nephew” to explain the effect the bubble tree has on Ransom:

What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.

C. S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew

• Not only is this a shower, it is a scented shower. There is not a sense that is not being engaged. The sensual can become an invitation. Andrew recalled Susan in “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, when she first heard the name of Aslan.

Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her.

C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Q. Lewis says this…

If a naked man and a wise dragon were indeed the sole inhabitants of this floating paradise, then this also was fitting, for at that moment he had a sensation not of following an adventure but of enacting a myth. To be the figure that he was in this unearthly pattern appeared sufficient.

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

What does he mean here? What does it mean to enact a myth? Does he have a particular myth in mind?

• Ransom is realising that his actions have mythical consequence, and that myth is fused with logic and truth. Much like Frodo and Sam in “The Lord of the Rings”.

“I wonder if we shall ever be put into songs or tales. We’re in one, of course; but I mean: put into words, you know, told by the fireside, or read out of a great big book with red and black letters, years and years afterwards. And people will say: ‘Let’s hear about Frodo and the Ring!’”

J. R. R. Tolkien, Samwise, The Lord of the Rings

• Just like Ransom, we are participants in the good news, and in God’s plan. Each of our days should be lived with that perspective in mind.

Q. Once again we’ve had Ransom’s experience described to us and afterwards had it explained to us. What are these bubble trees doing?

• The trees are drawing up water from below the floating islands. The bubbles grow until they pop, and regrow again, with the water being enriched as it is sucked up the tree roots.

Q. Ransom thinks about  how easy it would be to plunge oneself through a whole host of bubble trees to feel “that magical refreshment multiplied tenfold”. Why doesn’t he?

• Like the fruit from the previous chapter, Ransom seems to think that overindulgence tarnishes or cheapens pleasurable experiences.

Looking at a fine cluster of the bubbles which hung above his head he thought how easy it would be to get up and plunge oneself through the whole lot of them and to feel, all at once, that magical refreshment multiplied tenfold. But he was restrained by the same sort of feeling which had restrained him over-night from tasting a second gourd. He had always disliked the people who encored a favourite air in an opera–“That just spoils it” had been his comment. But this now appeared to him as a principle of far wider application and deeper moment. This itch to have things over again, as if life were a film that could be unrolled twice or even made to work backwards . . . was it possibly the root of all evil? No: of course the love of money was called that. But money itself–perhaps one valued it chiefly as a defence against chance, a security for being able to have things over again, a means of arresting the unrolling of the film.

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

• Before converting to deism, Lewis’ religion was Solipsism, or being very concerned with oneself. His sexual temptations and draw to magic were part of this desire to control, and money can give one the ability to have power and control.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

1 Timothy 6:10

Ransom looks down to see that the dragon had lain down its head across his knees. “Do you know, that you are a considerable nuisance?” he asks! He then pets the dragon, eventually finding out where he likes to be tickled, with the dragon rolling onto its back exposing its belly like a pet dog.

He was startled from his meditation by the physical discomfort of some weight on his knees. The dragon had lain down and deposited its long, heavy head across them. “Do you know,” he said to it in English, “that you are a considerable nuisance?” It never moved. He decided that he had better try and make friends with it. He stroked the hard dry head, but the creature took no notice. Then his hand passed lower down and found softer surface, or even a chink in the mail. Ah . . . that was where it liked being tickled. It grunted and shot out a long cylindrical slate-coloured tongue to lick him. It rolled round on its back revealing an almost white belly, which Ransom kneaded with his toes. His acquaintance with the dragon prospered exceedingly. In the end it went to sleep.

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

03. “Food and Drink”

With the dragon now asleep, Ransom goes to get a second shower from the bubble tree, suggesting that a repeated pleasure is licit, at least to some degree. As Ransom goes in search of the yellow gourds to consume, he notices that the waters are no longer so calm, meaning that the island is once again undulating over waves. 

Q. What food does he find instead of the yellow gourds and what does he do?

• He finds bushes which carried a rich crop of oval green berries, about three times the size of almonds. He describes it as the specific pleasure of plain food, the satisfaction of being nourished.

He made his way gingerly towards the coast, but before he reached it he passed some bushes which carried a rich crop of oval green berries, about three times the size of almonds. He picked one and broke it in two. The flesh was dryish and bread-like, something of the same kind as a banana. It turned out to be good to eat. It did not give the orgiastic and almost alarming pleasure of the gourds, but rather the specific pleasure of plain food–the delight of munching and being nourished, a “Sober certainty of waking bliss.” A man, or at least a man like Ransom, felt he ought to say grace over it; and so he presently did. The gourds would have required rather an oratorio or a mystical meditation.

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

• Ransom quotes John Milton’s “Comus”, describing it as “Sober certainty of waking bliss.”
• Every once in a while he came across delectable savoury ones with a “redheart” in the middle, and fights the urge to only seek those ones out, again, practicing the virtue of temperance.

Every now and then one struck a berry which had a bright red centre: and these were so savoury, so memorable among a thousand tastes, that he would have begun to look for them and to feed on them only, but that he was once more forbidden by that same inner adviser which had already spoken to him twice since he came to Perelandra. “Now on earth,” thought Ransom, “they’d soon discover how to breed these redhearts, and they’d cost a great deal more than the others.” Money, in fact, would provide the means of saying encore in a voice that could not be disobeyed.

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

• In saying Grace over his food, Ransom acknowledges God’s provision for him, and His authority.

 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Philippians 4:6

• Andrew quoted scripture again (and George MacDonald), saying that all forms of sustenance are a means of receiving grace, though not as high a grace as the Eucharist itself.

But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:19

• Matt plugged Andrew Abela’s book and app “Super Habits”, to understand, track, organise, and train our habits to develop a better life.

Q. Ransom then goes to get a drink from the water and as he sits on the edge of the island, his thoughts return to why he was sent to Venus. Was he sent here to be the first inhabitant? The “Adam” of Perelandra? He becomes aware of his solitude, but it doesn’t seem to trouble him as much as when he first arrived on Malacandra. Why?

• He’s not lonely because he knows he’s part of a plan, as opposed to being sent by chance.

It was strange that the utter loneliness through all these hours had not troubled him so much as one night of it on Malacandra. He thought the difference lay in this, that mere chance, or what he took for chance, had turned him adrift in Mars, but here he knew that he was part of a plan. He was no longer unattached, no longer on the outside.

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

04. “Islands in the Sea”

As the waves pick up, Ransom gets to see more Islands, big mats or carpets of land tossing all around him like yachts in harbour on a rough day. The little dragon flies off to an island half a mile away. Two long lines of tweeting swan-sized birds are also approaching the same island from the left and right.

Q. He then hears a whirring sound overhead like a plane. He also notices a creamily foamed disturbance in the water. What’s happening?

• The “creaminess” of the water suggests a rich milk, something maternal.
• Dolphin-esque fish are swimming in two lines, and he starts to make out a human appearance standing on the leader. The figure steps onto the island and bows to the fish in gratitude.
• Ransom is beginning to feel lonely in this chapter, so much so that upon the thought of another human arriving, nearly all the beauty of Perelandra disappears to him. Like in the Genesis account, we were not meant to be alone.

For a second or so the human figure was undiscoverable. A stab of something like despair pierced him. Then he picked it out again–a tiny darkish shape moving slowly between him and a patch of blue vegetation. He waved and gesticulated and shouted till his throat was hoarse, but it took no notice of him. Every now and then he lost sight of it. Even when he found it again, he sometimes doubted whether it were not an optical illusion–some chance figuration of foliage which his intense desire had assimilated to the shape of a man. But always, just before he had despaired, it would become unmistakable again.

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

• Andrew talked about “positive comparison”. So often, comparison is detrimental, as Lewis describes in “Mere Christianity”, in the chapter on Pride:

Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, The Great Sin

• However, these comparisons are preparing Ransom for what he is about to find.
• David expanded on Ransom’s solitude. Ransom wasn’t lonely until he was aware that there was someone he was separated from.
• The arrival of this figure brings to mind Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus”.

• Ransom tries to make contact with this person by waving and shouting, but keeps failing. He began to wonder if this was an optical illusion.

Then his eyes began to grow tired and he knew that the longer he looked the less he would see. But he went on looking none the less.

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

05. “Making Contact”

Having failed to make contact, Ransom sits down, exhausted.

Q. How has the appearance of this person on the other island changed his experience of solitude?

• We are social creatures, made for community. Losing the prospect of social interaction is terrifying to most people.

The solitude, which up till now had been scarcely painful, had become a horror. Any return to it was a possibility he dared not face. The drugging and entrancing beauty had vanished from his surroundings; take that one human form away and all the rest of this world was now pure nightmare, a horrible cell or trap in which he was imprisoned. The suspicion that he was beginning to suffer from hallucinations crossed his mind. He had a picture of living for ever and ever on this hideous island, always really alone but always haunted by the phantoms of human beings, who would come up to him with smiles and outstretched hands, and then fade away as he approached them. 

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

• This part reminded David of the time in “Out of the Silent Planet” when Ransom misses Weston and Divine on Malacandra.
• Ransom attempts to master himself again:

Bowing his head on his knees, he set his teeth and endeavoured to restore some order in his mind. At first he found he was merely listening to his own breathing and counting the beats of his heart; but he tried again and presently succeeded.

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

Q. While his island is cresting, Ransom waves at the figure. What happens?

• The figure waves back!
• It then easily moves to the side of the island closest to Ransom:

It detached itself from a confusing background of greenish vegetation and began running towards him–that is, towards the nearer coast of its own island–across an orange-coloured field. It ran easily: the heaving surface of the field did not seem to trouble it.

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

• He sees the person as a green man. They try calling to each other, but can’t be heard over the roar of the waves.

Q. Finally, the two islands come close to each other. What does Ransom see?

• That’s not a man, man! As the figure is standing there, Ransom finally sees that it is a woman. She looks at him with anticipation, followed by disappointment.

For one second the alien eyes looked at his full of love and welcome. Then the whole face changed: a shock as of disappointment and astonishment passed over it. Ransom realised, not without a disappointment of his own, that he had been mistaken for someone else. The running, the waving, the shouts, had not been intended for him. And the green man was not a man at all, but a woman.

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

Q. What’s Ransom’s response to seeing the lady?

• He feels doubts; was he sent to meet her?

And now that she was out of sight he found his brain on fire with doubts. Was this what he had been sent to meet? He had been expecting wonders, had been prepared for wonders, but not prepared for a goddess carved apparently out of green stone, yet alive.

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

• The Green Lady is surrounded by animals.

And then it flashed across his mind–he had not noticed it while the scene was before him–that she had been strangely accompanied. She had stood up amidst a throng of beasts and birds as a tall sapling stands among bushes–big pigeon-coloured birds and flame-coloured birds, and dragons, and beaver-like creatures about the size of rats, and heraldic-looking fish in the sea at her feet.

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

• Ransom begins to question his senses. Or is this the emergence of another myth?

 Or had he imagined that? Was this the beginning of the hallucinations he had feared? Or another myth coming out into the world of fact–perhaps a more terrible myth, of Circe or Alcina? And the expression on her face … what had she expected to find that made the finding of him such a disappointment?

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

• Circe was a sorceress in Greek mythology who lived on an island and had the habit of turning visitors into animals. Alcina is also a sorceress very similar to Circe, this time in a 16th Century play called Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto.
• Highlighting the sentence about the woman appearing to be made of stone, yet still alive, Andrew pointed out that this Green Lady was the inverse of Medusa, and also of Jadis from the “Narnia” Chronicles. Those women turn people into stone, while this one is stone herself.

06. “What’s So Funny?”

When Ransom sees her again, the ordered collection of animals has continued to grow. He calls out, “I am from another world”

Q. How does she respond?

• The Green Lady bursts out laughing! How would it look in our lives if we responded to disappointment in this way?

She raised her arm and pointed at him: not as in menace, but as though inviting the other creatures to behold him. At the same moment her face changed again, and for a second he thought she was going to cry. Instead she burst into laughter–peal upon peal of laughter till her whole body shook with it, till she bent almost double, with her hands resting on her knees, still laughing and repeatedly pointing at him. The animals, like our own dogs in similar circumstances, dimly understood that there was merriment afoot; all manner of gambolling, wing-clapping, snorting, and standing upon hind legs began to be displayed. And still the Green Lady laughed till yet again the wave divided them and she was out of sight.

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

Q. How does Ransom respond to this?

• As any guy would if a woman pointed and laughed at his naked form! Up until now they’ve been naked and unashamed. Now, he wonders if she’s an idiot, evil, or he’s hallucinating.

Ransom was thunderstruck. Had the eldila sent him to meet an idiot? Or an evil spirit that mocked men? Or was it after all a hallucination?–for this was just how a hallucination might be expected to behave.

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

• He then wonders if he just looks silly:

It might not be she who was mad but he who was ridiculous. He glanced down at himself. Certainly his legs presented an odd spectacle, for one was brownish-red (like the flanks of a Titian satyr) and the other was white–by comparison, almost a leprous white. As far as self-inspection could go, he had the same parti-coloured appearance all over–no unnatural result of his one-sided exposure to the sun during the voyage. Had this been the joke?

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

• The “Titian” he refers to is an artist.
• He then settles himself:

He felt a momentary impatience with the creature who could mar the meeting of two worlds with laughter at such a triviality. Then he smiled in spite of himself at the very undistinguished career he was having on Perelandra. For dangers he had been prepared; but to be first a disappointment and then an absurdity…

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

• Ransom had met animals on Malacandra, where he learned they were rational like himself.

Under an alien exterior he had discovered a heart like his own. Was he now to have the reverse experience?

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

07. “Can I Come Over?”

Seeing the night coming on quickly, Ransom calls out saying, “I am a stranger. I come in peace. Is it your will that I swim over to your land?”

Q. She responds by saying “What is ‘peace’?”. What might we conclude from this?

• The Green Lady has never experienced anything other than peace – the same reason a fish might be confused by the word “water”.

Q. What does Ransom then decide to do?

• Loosing his tempter, Ransom jumps into the water and begins to swim to her.

Wrap-Up

Concluding Thoughts

• This event reminded David of a Taylor Swift music video, so he inserted it in the show notes for Matt’s amusement.

• Andrew closed by noticing that Lewis saves his characters from grave danger, and that points to grace.

He pulled harder still on his aching arms. Finally he found himself, safe and panting, on the dry, sweet-scented, undulating surface of an island.

C. S. Lewis, Perelandra, Chapter Four

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