Out of the Silent Planet

After eating, Ransom and Hyoi board Hyoi’s boat and paddle out onto a large lake. The lake widens into a marshland surrounded by green mountains, which are “the serrated bastion of immeasurable tablelands, higher in many places than themselves” (62). They seem to be travelling through a long, straight gorge in the tablelands. Hyoi explains that the high ground that surrounds them is called the “harandra,” and the gorge through which they are traveling is the “handramit.” The boat catches a fast current, making Ransom seasick. When the current eases, they are in a shallow. Hyoi easily picks up the boat and carries it, with Ransom in tow, deeper into the handramit. Ransom comes to understand that the handramit is not a valley at all, but a crack in the harandra, which he suspects is the “true surface” of Malacandra. Hyoi explains that all “hrossa” live in the handramit, while the “séroni” (the plural form of sorn) occupy the harandra. Ransom grows tired as the handramit darkens. Soon, he and Hyoi reach a village of hrossa, where, in a dreamlike state, Ransom eats at a campfire with the creatures before going to sleep.