Arbol

> *Inherent in them as the shape of the great Sun is inherent in the little waterdrop* - *That Hideous Strength*
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**Arbol** is the Old Solar name for the Sun. The Solar System is known as the Field of Arbol. The nearest planet to Arbol is Viritrilbia, and the furthest away is Neruval.

## Trivia

* The Malacandrians know gold by the name Sun's blood. Silver is known as Stars' milk.
* A day on Earth is 24 hours, and 23 hours on Perelandra, although the Sun is not visible from Perelandra's surface due to cloud cover.
* To Eldila all matter is gaseous and barely exists for them, including liquids and solids, so the planets and moons of the Field of Arbol are like clouds to them. To them, light itself is the water through which they swim, and Arbol or the Sun is their wellspring. Because they are not subject to gravity as humans and other hnau are, they perceived the Sun as practically fixed, but the planets themselves as travelling as enormous speeds. In fact they have to fly in order to keep pace with the planets. "Visiting" a planet means moving into one of these moving clouds and then keeping pace with its orbit to maintain the appearance of standing still, while using some sort of projection to interact with wispy, ephemeral creatures they cannot fully see (i.e. hnau).
* The planets, moons and Asteroid Belt take place in a Great Dance with the Sun, and the Sun itself does so with the rest of the galaxy.
* The poem, *The Monarche* by David Lindsay, from which *That Hideous Strength* takes its name includes the lines "*That when the sun is at the hicht,/ At noon, when it doth shine maist bricht,/ The shadow of that hideous strength/ Sax mile and mair it is of length*". ("That when the sun is at the height, at noon when it doth shine most bright, the shadow of that hiddeous strength, six mile and more it is of length.") This refers to the Tower of Babel.
* In non-C.S. Lewis sources, the name "Arbol" has been interpreted as "primary".

## Non-canon

Non-canon work, i.e. not by Clive Staples Lewis, suggests it may have some entities living on it:

> *There are djinn-like creatures all over the universe, perhaps parallel evolutions to the ones in our ionosphere. These include much larger communities in the Solar System. The two biggest are in the Jupiter system and the Solar atmosphere, the one living in the Jovian ionosphere and radiation belts, and the other in the Solar corona, with a large sub-community on Mercury. These creatures have no known connection to Earthly djinn and would strike a human as like slightly more human eldila.*
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## Background

As with all the other main bodies of the Solar System, the Sun has great significance in both astronomy and astrology. It is easily seen in many parts of the world, but not easily observed unlike the Moon. While Jupiter is seen as the "king" of the planets, the Sun "rules" the Solar System, and is the brightest object in the sky. In many cultures, the sun is worshipped.

In *A Voyage to Arcturus*, which Lewis greatly admired and which influenced the Space Trilogy, the characters travel between the stars by means of a pseudoscientific idea called "Back Rays".

The metal of the Sun is gold, associated with warmth, wealth and luxury. Its associated day is Sunday, which is the day of worship for most Christians.

## Quotations

* > "*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.*" Cecil Dimble - *That Hideous Strength*
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* > "*We shall fall upon your moon, wherein there is a secret evil, and which is as the shield of the Dark Lord of Thulcandra–scarred with many a blow. We shall break her. Her light shall be put out. Her fragments shall fall into your world and the seas and the smoke shall arise so that the dwellers in Thulcandra will no longer see the light of Arbol. And as Maleldil Himself draws near, the evil things in your world shall show themselves stripped of disguise so that plagues and horrors shall cover your lands and seas. But in the end all shall be cleansed, and even the memory of your Black Oyarsa blotted out, and your world shall be fair and sweet and reunited to the field of Arbol and its true name shall be heard again.*" (*That Hideous Strength*)
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## References

1. ↑ http://windoffthehilltop.com/ink-Lewis\_Retcon.html
2. ↑ http://www.windoffthehilltop.com/ink-ArbolRaces.html