Ransom, however, escapes from them when they are unexpectedly attacked by a shark-like marine creature called a hnakra. In his escape he encounters another intelligent race, the hrossa; and while living among them he comes to realise that Malacandra is an unfallen, utopian world whose inhabitants live together, in unselfish harmony. Oyarsa turns out to be, not a sorn, but a non-material entity 'put into Malacandra to rule it when Malacandra was made'[2], by 'Maleldil the Young', the deity of Malacandrian belief. Ransom learns that his own planet is unique among the worlds of the solar system in that it does not know such a ruler: 'It alone is outside the heaven, and no message comes from it', Oyarsa tells him when eventually they meet.[3] Earth, in fact, is the 'Silent Planet' of the book's title.