Synopsis : Ransom joins Venus and Mars, bowing before the young King and Queen of Perelandra. And for good reason - the King looks like Christ himself, but without His wounds. Their names are Tor and Tinidril. Tor, the King tells of his travels and discoveries while Ransom was busy fighting the Un-Man. All five beings join in the "Great Dance", first with words and then with glorious light. Ransom awakens in the morning, but it's another morning, a full Perelandran year later! Tor and Tinidril prepare Ransom for lift off in his cosmic coffin. The story ends as Ransom looses conciousness as Malacandra lifts the odd space capsule off of Perelandra.
So now we know why Perelandra's King stayed out of sight untill the final chapter. He resembles our own New Adam. C.S. Lewis is carefull to explain Ransom's reaction to Tor's appearance rather than give any details. Personally I had an image of Jesus with a green skintone, however, I think Lewis wants to create a more impressive vision. He did say, "It was that face which no man can say he does not know". The face of Christ should be in all our minds, even though we are not aware of it. There must be more to Tor's demenor than simply his green facial features to cause such reverance from Ransom.
Next Tor gives us his point of view. We learn that while Tinidril searched for him and Ransom confronted the posessed Weston, Tor was stuck in a sort of marsh called Lur, drawing figures on the muddy surface of a floating island under Maleldil's direction. Sort of anti-climatic when you think about it. I am almost surprised that Ransom didn't complain about having to fight a demon literally tooth and nail while the lost king has a geometry lesson. Of course Tor learns something of terrible importence while in the swampy wilderness - the meaning of Evil. Tor is quite fortunate to learn it intellectually rather than first hand as Adam did. Ransom uses the old solar word for evil without knowing where he picked it up.
The parable of the shy singing beast comes up again as Perelandra gracefully hands over the reigns of power to Tor and Tinidril. They thoughfully ask her to remain with them at least untill they know what they are doing. Venus/ Perelandra also addresses the King and Queen by several names beside Tor and Tinidril. The names Baru and Baru'ah sound as if they are of indonesian origin. But I could find no meanings for them. Ask and Embla are certainly of Nordic origin. The names are a referance to the first man and woman created by Odin and his two brothers out of wood. Ask means ash (as in the ash tree) and Embla refers to the Elm tree.
Eventualy the two gods and three hnau proclaim "The Great Dance" or "Great Game" which in truth has been going on for all eternity. Even without music it souds like a song to me. A polyphonic song know as a madrigal, which was very popular in England during the 16th and 17th Centuries. The five partisipants take turns, ending their proclamations with "Blessed be He" in praise of Maleldil.
There are 20 sequences which include :
1 - God does not wait for us to be perfect to join in The Great Dance. It has been going on for all eternity and is in fact the centre of time.
2 - God's creations are always original, no encores. Instead of perfecting one sort of creation, God goes on to create different types of things: from planets to beasts, beasts to spirits.
3 - God's justice, "All is righteousness and there is no equality". Beings are likened to stones supporting an arch, each with his own special place rather than lined up side by side for comparison.
4 - God's size is of no importance: All of Him is "within the seed of the smallest flower". And yet all of Deep Heaven is within Him.
5 - Geometry from the book "Flatland" is used to illustrate the Holy Trinity comparing a circle to a sphere.
6 - The "Flatland" allegory continues with the idea that spheres being composed of a multitude of circles.
7 - This one sounds like it comes from the Oyarsa of Malacandra. It proclaims that the ancient sinless peoples of the "Low Worlds" (planets) are at the centre of creation.
8 - This one must have been proclaimed by Ransom. Saying that Maleldil came into our fallen world to make it glorious. And so it too is at the centre.
9 - Perelandra has her turn as she proclaims that "The tree was planted on Thulcandra but ripened on Perelandra".
10 - Even the worlds uninhabited by organic beings (the outer planets) are at the centre of creation for God's own purposes.
11 - Even the mere dust scattered throughout the Heavens are at the centre of creation.
12 - (All Together Now!) A summery of all of the above things and beings being at the centre of creation.
13 - All of God is within each and every thing throughout the whole universe. The only place out of God's prescence is through the will of the Bent One (Satan) into Nowhere.
14 - Each individual thing was made for God. God did not come to Earth to save humanity as a massive group, but to save each and every individual as if he or she were the only being in creation.
15 - All plans withing the Great Dance matter.
16 - We are All necessary in God's plan.
17 - God Himself has no needs.
18 - All things are by God and for God.
19 - To the darkened mind there is no apparent plan to the Universe. That is because there are So Many of God's Plans that they can not be simplifed.
20 - We should not think of the Abyss to Nowhere from which there is not return.
At this point the Great Dance goes into visual mode with lines of light symbolising all of the above. It sound like very good "eye candy" for a movie. But Lewis did not reach me with his description of dancing light.
Ransom awakens to what he thinks is the same morning the celebration began, only to be told that Perelandra has completed a complete orbit of Arbol (the Sun). This reminds me of one explanation of Einstien's theory of reletivity; One minute on top of a hot stove feels like an hour while an hour spent with your significant other feels like a minute. The idea of subjectivity making an enjoyable activity appear shorter than it really is. Just how Ransom sustained himself is not explained, so it is possible that he was in some sort of spiritual mode.
Finally all is ready for the return trip to Earth, or Thulcandra as we are known in Deep Heaven. Now we see why Lewis included Ransom's return in the second chapter. It would have been anti-climactical to show Ransom's homecomming after all he went through on Perelandra. And so we are left with the more profound image from inside the cosmic coffin of Tor and Tinidril closing the lid for Ransom.
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Some people have everything, and other people don't.
But everything don't mean a thing if it ain't the thing you want.
from "Express Yourself" by Charles Wright