Sulva

"*Who is called Sulva? What road does she walk? Why is the womb barren on one side? Where are the cold marriages?*" - Merlinus Ambrosius

**Sulva** is the Old Solar term for **the Moon** of Thulcandra or Earth. It is said The Bent One of Earth cannot extend his powers beyond here most of the time. Its inhabitants are the great race. It is the only major body among the Low Worlds other than the planets themselves, and Arbol. It is also the only major moon of the Inner Worlds as neither Viritrilbia nor Perelandra have one, and the Malacandrian moons are much smaller.

Sulva is slowly being cleansed of organic life, and the side facing Earth is devoid of it. As a member of the National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments says in *That Hideous Strength*:
"*They are slowly spreading their hygiene over their whole globe. Disinfecting her. The savages fight against them. There are frontiers, and fierce wars, in the caves and galleries down below. But the great race press on. If you could see the other side you would see year by year the clean rock–like this side of the moon–encroaching: the organic stain, all the green and blue and mist, growing smaller. Like cleaning tarnished silver"*

## Name

Sulva, the Old Solar name, resembles the classical name for the Moon, "Selene", but with the same ending as "Luna". It also sounds similar to "silver", which is referred to in the quotation above.

## Background

The Moon was arguably the best known celestial body at the time Clive Staples Lewis wrote, but only from Earth-based observation. Most of the far side could not be seen from Earth (roughly 60% of the lunar surface can be observed from Earth). The Moon was known to be a rocky, bare surface full of craters and deep basins known as *mare* or "seas". The Moon has long days and nights, with daylight lasting for a fortnight, followed by another fortnight of darkness. The Moon has major cultural significance being the only celestial body easily visible from the Earth in any detail, and only other one that humans have set foot on.

It is also bigger than Pluto, and most of the other moons in the Field of Arbol, being the fifth biggest. Only Jupiter and Saturn have larger moons and Sulva is certainly the biggest in proportion to its planet.

Arguably the earliest work of science fiction, or at least non-mythological science fantasy, is Lucian's *Journey to the Moon*. Elwin Ransom does not travel to the Moon in the Space Trilogy although he passes it in the spaceship and is told about what has been done to it.

### Astrological symbolism

The Moon's symbolism in astrology is that of change and patterns such as the tides and women's menstrual cycles. The term "month" is also derived from it. In C.S. Lewis' work, this can be equated with the violent changes which have happened on its surface. Its waxing and waning, also represent a cycle of war between light and darkness.

Its associated metal in astrology is silver, but in The Space Trilogy, this is referred to as stars' milk reflecting a different association. Its associated day is Monday.

## Cultural references

John C. Wright's *War of the Dreaming* duology refers to The Space Trilogy, with Sulva as a name for the Moon and references to fallen 'planetary angels'

## Quotations

* "*No man would find an abiding strangeness on the moon unless he were the sort of man who could find it in his own back garden"* - *The Dark Tower*

* "*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.*"

* *Sulva is she whom mortals call the Moon. She walks in the lowest sphere. The rim of the world that was wasted goes through her. Half of her orb is turned towards us and shares our curse. Her other half looks to Deep Heaven; happy would he be who could cross that frontier and see the fields on her further side. On this side, the womb is barren and the marriages cold. There dwell an accursed people, full of pride and lust. There when a young man takes a maiden in marriage, they do not lie together, but each lies with a cunningly fashioned image of the other, made to move and to be warm by devilish arts, for real flesh will not please them, they are so dainty* (delicati) *in their dreams of lust. Their real children they fabricate by vile arts in a secret place. (That Hideous Strength 271)*

## See also

* Asteroid Belt
* Malacandrian moons
* Neruval