Perelandra: The Arrival of the King and Queen
Chapter 16 Summary & Key Quotes
Commentary
We are near the end of this amazing novel. This chapter continues with the breathtaking beauty as the sun rises and the creation of Perelandra is finally complete. Ransom witnesses the full glory of an unfallen world. But the Oyrarsas tell Ransom that he will soon see even more as a result of Perelandra’s faithfulness. Before the incredible climax, all of Perelandra’s beasts arrive and anxiously await the arrival of the King and Queen.
The procession of animals will take readers back to The Great Divorce as the lowly Sarah Smith processes through the foothills of heaven following a menagerie of animals. Others will go back to the founding of Narnia in The Magician’s Nephew as Aslan gave the gift of speech to the Narnian beasts.
Finally, Ransom understands why Maleldil forbade the Lady and the King from sleeping on the Fixed Land. In forbidding the Fixed Land, Maleldil led them to this new land, this new paradise: “their destined throne.”
As the King and Queen arrive, I am reminded of Lewis’ amazing sermon, The Weight of Glory. The King and the Queen emerged victorious and untainted by sin. They thwarted the wiles of the Un-man. Now they arrive in the resplendence in which Maleldil created them: ready to receive the full glory that Maleldil intended for them. The Oyarsas prostate their enormous bodies “before the small forms of that young King and Queen.”
“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.”
Key Quotes
“The world is born today. Today for the first time two creatures of the low worlds, two images of Maleldil that breathe and breed like the beasts, step up that step at which your parents fell, and sit in the throne of what they were meant to be. It was never seen before. Because it did not happen in your world a greater thing happened, but not this. Because the greater thing happened in Thulcandra, this and not the greater thing happens here.”
“My eyes have seen Mars and Venus. I have seen Ares and Aphrodite.”
“Our mythology is based on a solider reality than we dream: but it is also at an almost infinite distance from that base. And when they told him this, Ransom at last understood why mythology was what it was - gleams of celestial strength and beauty falling on a jungle of filth and imbecility.”
“Only Maleldil sees any creature as it really is.”
“He did not need an answer, for somehow he knew perfectly well that this island had never been forbidden them, and that one purpose in forbidding the other had been to lead them to this their destined throne.”
“Paradise itself in its two persons, Paradise walking hand in hand, its two bodies shining in the light like emeralds yet not themselves too bright to look at, came in sight in the cleft between two peaks, and stood a moment with its male right hand lifted in regal and pontifical benediction, and they walked down and stood on the far side of the water. And the gods kneeled and bowed their huge bodies before the small forms of that young King and Queen.”
Summary
The two eldila begin speaking and understand that Ransom is confused at their presence since he previously learned from the Lady that there are no eldila on Perelandra. The eldila are none other than the Oyarsas of Malacandra and Perelandra (from here they are referred to as the planets they govern). Perelandra announces "the hour" is upon them; it is morning and she knows that Maleldil will soon fully entrust the planet to her. Here the oyarsas announce the full creation of Perelandra which remains unfallen, and they will soon show the result of Perelandra remaining unfallen.
The Oyarsas prepare to meet the King and Queen and transform into human-like forms (but very tall like sorns). Malacandra is metallic, pure, hard, bracing, and like a rhythm. He is holding a spear and has a "sailor's look" of ceaseless vigilance. Perelandra glows with warm splendor as if teeming with life and like a melody. Her hands are open, and her eyes are like waves on an ocean. They lack external male and female sexual characteristics but are definitively masculine and feminine, respectively.
Ransom returns to his previous thoughts about myth and reality; wondering how the secrets of the universe have been revealed on Thulcandra even though it was closed off from the other planets following the attack of the Bent One. Ransom then engages with the Oyarsas in a long conversation about seeing and appearance. As the conversation reaches a difficult point, the Oyarsas announce they are ready to greet the King.
A long procession of animals appears on the scene ('a regular Noah's Ark') and form a sort of line as if waiting. Ransom wonders how they will all get off the Fixed Land before nightfall but then realizes he is not on the Fixed Land. He now understands Maleldil's purpose in forbidding prolonged stays on the Fixed Land: it was to lead the King, the Queen, and the animals to this new land. The new day dawns in resplendent sunlight. Finally, the King and the Queen come into view.
Themes, Motifs, & Symbols
Gender, sex
Masculine & feminine
Sunrise, morning
Reality, more substantial reality
Light
Seeing vs appearance
Mars / Ares, Venus / Aphrodite
Mythology
Preparing to meet royalty
Fixed Land, forbidding
Animals, creation anxious to greet the King and Queen