not believe any one of the races to be superior to the others; they acknowledge, rather, that no single race can do everything. Glossary Arbol — The Sun. Crah — The final section of a poem. Eldil, pl. eldila — Being of light, similar to a spirit. Field of Arbol – Solar System. Handra — Land or planet. Harandra — High earth; plateau. Handramit — Low earth; valley. Hlab — Language. Hluntheline — Long for, yearn for, desire (for the future). Hnakra, pl. hnéraki — A vicious aquatic beast hunted by the hrossa. Hnakrapunt, pl. hnakrapunti — Hnakra-slayer. Hnau — Rational creature. Honodraskrud — Ground-weed. Hressa Hlab - Language of the hrossa. Hressni — Female hrossa. Hross, pl. hrossa — One of three species of hnau on Malacandra. Malacandra — A compound noun, formed with the prefix Malac and the noun handra, referring to the fourth planet from the Sun; Mars. Maleldil — Ruler of the Oyéresu. Oyarsa, pl. Oyéresu — (Title) = Ruler of a planet, a higher-order eldil. Perelandra — A compound noun, formed with the prefix Perel and the noun handra; Venus. Pfifltrigg, pl. pfifltriggi — One of three species of hnau on Malacandra. Sorn, pl. séroni — One of three species of hnau on Malacandra. Surnibur - Language of the séroni. Thulcandra — A compound noun, formed with the prefix Thulc, meaning "silent", and handra; "Silent Planet" or Earth. Wondelone — Long for, yearn for, miss (from the past). Background Lewis wrote Out of the Silent Planet during 1937 after a conversation with J. R. R. Tolkien in which both men lamented the state of contemporary fiction. They agreed that Lewis would write a space travel story and Tolkien would write a time travel story. In fact, Tolkien never completed his story, while Lewis went on to compose two others over the war years in Britain. These three books are now referred to as the Cosmic or Space Trilogy, or occasionally as The Ransom trilogy after the main character, Elwin Ransom. Lewis was an early reader of H.G. Wells and had been given a copy of The First Men in the Moon as a Christmas present in 1908. Ransom makes dismissive references to Wells' conceptions in the course of the novel, but Lewis himself prefaced early editions of the novel with the disclaimer that "Certain slighting references to earlier stories of this type which will be