How a Coin Toss Led to C.S. Lewis’ Ransom Trilogy
The story behind Lewis and Tolkien’s science-fiction deal
Looking around at the science-fiction writing of their day, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were frustrated. That frustration and a coin flip changed their literary futures.
Bad writing filled much of the sci-fi in their day. The stories that rose above artistically were often nihilistic propaganda for a religious devotion to science divorced from ethical considerations.
“Tollers,” Lewis said to Tolkien one day, “there is too little of what we really like in stories. I am afraid we shall have to try and write some ourselves.”1
Lewis suggested they write about space travel and time travel, so they tossed a coin to determine who would write on which topic.2 Tolkien was assigned time travel and Lewis space.
Lewis’ space-travel story
Lewis turned his space travel story into a three-part series: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. He saw space stories in his day being used to advocate for a materialistic perspective that centered the advancement of the human race as the primary goal in life and science.
Roger Lancelyn Green eventually became a close friend and literary encouragement to Lewis. Early in their relationship, he wrote to thank Lewis for writing Out of the Silent Planet. They discussed literary inspirations for the story. Lewis explained he was “spurred to write” because of several works that had a “desperately immoral outlook.”3
He told Green, “I like the whole interplanetary idea as a mythology and simply wished to conquer for my own (Christian) point of view what has always hitherto been used by the opposite side.”4
As he continued pondering his story idea, Lewis saw firsthand that the atheistic materialism inherent in the sci-fi stories of his day was not limited to the page. Students of his began advocating for humans to travel to and conquer other planets, destroying any and all lifeforms as we hope across the universe.
“What set me about writing the book was the discovery that a pupil of mine took all that dream of interplanetary colonization quite seriously,” he wrote in a later letter, “and the realization that thousands of people, in one form or another, depend on some hope of perpetuating and improving the human species for the whole meaning of the universe that a ‘scientific” hope of defeating death is a real rival to Christianity.”5
In many ways, the trilogy is the fictional outworking of Lewis’ theological contemplation about humanity’s place in the cosmos. It was with this series that he discovered the way fiction could be used to subtly communicate theology.
Out of 60 reviews for Out of the Silent Planet, only two noticed what Lewis was doing by having Earth ensnared by the “Bent One.” He saw this as an opportunity.
But if only there were someone with a richer talent and more leisure, I believe this great ignorance might be a help to the evangelization of England: any amount of theology can now be smuggled into people’s minds under the cover of romance [his word for fantasy literature] without their knowing it.6
Lewis didn’t realize he would be that someone with “richer talent,” even if he never found “more leisure.” The Chronicles of Narnia were the direct fruit of his literary mission to sneak past “watchful dragons” and deliver theology to unaware readers.
Tolkien’s time-travel story
Tolkien’s half of the science-fiction deal ended like much of his writing, another unfinished piece of the Middle-earth legendarium.7 “The Lost Road” was published posthumously as part of The Lost Road and Other Writings, a collection of essays and drafts.
But Tolkien’s influence lasted long after that fateful coin toss. The hero of Lewis’ space trilogy begins the trilogy as a philologist and professor on a walking tour.8 Also like Tolkien, he’s a World War I veteran.
Additionally, the hero’s name, Elwin Ransom, bears some connection to Tolkien’s faith and writing.
In English, “Ransom” is obviously connected with the idea of a sacrificial substitute. It comes from Anglo-Norman for the Latin redemptio and is linked to English Catholicism, particularly in Oxford. “A painting of Our Lady of Ransom was (and still is) venerated in a special chapel in Tolkien’s parish church.”
Even more to the point, Elwin is Old English for “elf friend,” an homage to Tolkien’s literary masterpiece. Even if Tolkien never finished his half of their deal, he will forever be a part of Lewis’ half.
One coin toss and a desire to craft quality stories for the good of others changed everything.
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Letter 294 to Charlotte and Denis Plimmer, Feb. 8, 1967 — The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Letter 257 to Christopher Bretherton, July 16, 1964 — The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
He specifically mentioned Olaf Stapledon’s Last and First Men and J.B.S. Haldane’s essay “Last Judgement” in Possible Worlds and Other Essays. Haldane later attacked Lewis’ science-fiction writing. Lewis’ response is republished as “Reply to Professor Haldane” in Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories.
Letter to Roger Lancelyn Green, Dec. 28, 1938 — The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 2: Books, Broadcasts, and the War, 1931-1949
Letter to Sister Penelope, Aug. 9, 1939 — The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 2: Books, Broadcasts, and the War, 1931-1949
Letter to Sister Penelope, Aug. 9, 1939 — The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 2: Books, Broadcasts, and the War, 1931-1949
Lewis’ own unfinished work, “The Dark Tower,” has time-travel elements and was another story featuring Ransom. It could be that he quickly realized Tolkien would not finish his half of the bargain, so he set about completing that as well. But Lewis also abandoned the idea and instead continued with his space-travel concept.
While the philologist and professor parts are directly connected to Tolkien, the walking tour part may be a bit of an inside joke with the Inklings. Lewis and some others enjoyed walking briskly and discussing things, but Tolkien was much more leisurely and frequently stopped to observe bits of nature around him.