It is where Dimble speaks in Old Solar:
"What shall I say in the Great Tongue?"
"Say that you come in the name of God and all angels and in the power of the planets from one who sits today in the seat of the Pendragron and command him to come with you. Say it now."
And Dimble, who had been sitting with his face drawn, and rather white, between the white faces of the two women, and his eyes on the table, raised his head, and great syllables of words that sounded like castles came out of his mouth. Jane felt her hear leap and quiver at them. Everything else in the room seemed to have been intensely quiet; even the bird, and the bear, and the cat, were still, staring at the speaker. The voice did not sound like Dimble's own: it was as if the words spoke themselves through him from some strong place at a distance--or as if they were not words at all but present operations of God, the planets, and the Pendragon. For this was the language spoken before the Fall and beyond the Moon and the meanings were not given to the syllables by chance, or skill, or long tradition, but truly inherent in them as the shape of the great Sun is inherent in the little waterdrop. This was Language herself, as she first sprang at Maleldil's bidding out of the molten quicksilver of the first star called Mercury on Earth, but Viritrilbia in Deep Heaven.
Cheers!
Thanks. Curious that such a phrase bumps out. I suppose it’s the artist’s talent to express what you’ve been wishing for.
Suddenly her world was unmade
Lewis had a way with words that is a gift not often given.
I often read the first page of Out of the Silent Planet as it is the finest introduction to a story I've ever read. The Pedestrian... describes Dr. Elwin Ransom completely in its simplicity and drew me into the story like no other book.
Perelandra bored me when I was 10, but fascinates me still today. The back-and-forth dialogue and the finality of Ransom's decision leading to the battle still amazes.
50 years ago we lost a humble giant.