The Outlandish Companion

by Diana Gabaldon

  BOOKSTORES AND MAIL-ORDER RESOURCES

  For the person who wants to study on their own—I’ve (MLF) had luck finding rare stuff at these two bookstores:

  Sandy Publications/An Crann Corp. P.O. Box 179 Mabou, NS Canada BOE 1X0

  For $6, plus shipping, they’ll send you a lovely and extensive catalog of Gairm publications and other stuff that’s near impossible to get in the States. Verb wheels, pronoun flash cards, you name it.

  Thistle and Shamrock Books P.O. Box 42 Alexandria, VA 22313

  This is my personal favorite place to get my oddball Gaidhlig supplies, because Rory Mor, the proprietor, really does aim to please. He has fantastic contacts in Scotland and can get anything you want rare or used, if you give him some time to come up with it.

  And then there’s:

  GAIRM

  29 Sràid Bhatairliù Glaschu, G2 6BZ Alba

  (or “Glasgow, Scotland,” just in case the Scottish postal system isn’t up on its Gaidhlig. —D.G.)

  Gairm is the premiere Gaidhlig resource publisher. —Michelle LaFrance

  Scottish Images

  This is a mail order company specializing in Scottish and Celtic artifacts, music, books, and videos. Email for free catalog, at scotimages@aol.com, or call at 1-800-700-0334.

  ASSOCIATIONS AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS

  An Comunn Gaidhealach Ameriga (The American Gaelic Learners Association) P.O. Box 5288 Takoma Park, MD 20913

  This is the largest—and I believe the oldest—Gaidhlig association in the States. They offer immersions, classes, private tutoring, and other cultural events. (MLF)

  Bay Area Scottish Gaelic Learner’s Association

  3611 Walnut Street

  Lafayette, CA 94549

  E-mail: scotgaelic@earthlink.net

  They are a great group of teachers and performers. Immersions, classes, etc. (MLF)

  Slighe Nan Gaidheal

  (The Way of the Gael, Seattle Scottish Gaidhlig Society) P.O. Box 20667 Seattle, WA 98112

  They offer weekly language classes, weekend immersions, Gaidhlig Choir, First Footing, traditional Waulking Parties, a Gaidhlig Poetry Guild, and other performances. (Michelle LaFrance, Slighe Nan Gaidheal)

  COLLEGES, SCHOOLS, AND OTHER EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS

  Canan P.O. Box 345 Isle of Skye IV44 8XA Scotland

  Immersions, tours, books, classes. Affiliated somehow with Sabhal Mor.

  Gaelic Summer School at the Gaelic College P.O. Box 9

  Baddeck, Nova Scotia BOE 1BO Canada

  They do week-long intensives in the summer (for all levels of students) that are quite reasonable. For tuition, room, and board for a week it’s $425.00 Canadian. (MLF)

  Sabhal Mor Ostaig

  Teangue, Sleat Isle of Skye Scotland, IV44 8RQ E-mail: oifis@smo.uhi.ac.uk www.smo.uhi.ac.uk

  Sabhal Mor is the Gaelic College on Sleat. They offer business, computer, and management classes all in Gaidhlig, as well as immersions, classes, and other events for the learner. I’d give my eyeteeth to study there for a quarter. Abair Sin! (Michelle LaFrance, Slighe Nan Gaidheal)

  SCOTTISH/CELTIC/GAELIC WEB SITES, LISTSERVES, AND E-MAIL ADDRESSES OF INTEREST3

  www.ceantar.org has links to various Gaelic organizations (Irish, Scottish, Manx) and the North American Assn. of Celtic Language Teachers.

  UNC at Chapel Hill: sunsite.unc.edu:80/gaelic.

  Six Celtic languages represented. Discussion of language and culture. (Sandra Parshall)

  Bay Area Scottish Gaelic Learner’s Association: E-mail: scotgaelic@earthlink.net.

  Additionally, there are two Internet lists that are pretty good for the learner. You’ll see other lists that are more high-profile, but that aren’t as accommodating for beginners.

  GAIDHLIG-B

  To register, send an e-mail

  to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.HEA.IE with “SUBSCRIBE GAIDHLIG-B [full-name]” as the subject header (do not include quotes in header).

  GAIDHLIG 4U

  Send an e-mail to: Majordomo@lists.sonic.net with “subscribe gaidhlig 4U [e-mail address]” as the subject (do not include quotes). (Michelle LaFrance)

  1 ’I’m told that Gaidhlig cursing depends much more on colorful expression and imaginative relationships than on “bad language”—i.e., swear words—as such.

  2 NB: for the sake of clarity, I’ve divided Michelle’s very extensive list among the various classifications of the appendix. Her contributions are initialed.

  3 Please note that Web sites do change, add links, or disappear now and then; I can’t guarantee that these sites will be in existence, or in the form described, by the time this book is published.

  APPENDIX III

  POEMS AND

  QUOTATIONS

  One of the aspects of eighteenth-century literature and letters that I particularly enjoy is the frequent and easy use of quotes and classical allusion. In the eighteenth century, an educated man (or woman; there were not a few) would have been familiar with the best-known of the classical writers, and it was common to employ both specific references and less direct allusion, both as a means of establishing one’s social credentials, and—I suspect—for fun.

  One of the small advantages of writing historical fiction from a well-documented period is the ability to use elements of the style of that period in the narration of the book. When it’s well done, this gives the story a pervasive atmosphere that adds to the overall impression of authenticity. (When it’s not well done, the less said, the better. This is one of those stylistic tricks that can backfire, if the writer doesn’t have a firm grip on it.)

  This particular technique is most obvious in books set during the Civil War. I’ve seldom seen a popular book of this kind that didn’t employ some form of the courtly, formal, Bible-cadenced language seen in nineteenth-century documents (My husband calls it the “PBS Voice-over Effect”). In fact, the audience for Civil War material is so used to this style that it would be difficult to produce a popular mainstream book set in this period that did not use such language, and have it be well accepted.

  Since the Outlander books are told primarily from the point of view of Claire Beauchamp Randall, the prevailing idiom is not eighteenth-century Scots, but World War II—vintage British English—articulate, educated, but slangy and humorous, spiced with casual profanity. However, those sections of the later books that are told, for example, from the point of view of Jamie Fraser or Lord John Grey, tend to use the circumlocutions and elegant structures of the eighteenth century.

  For both the university-educated person of the 1930s and the 1940s,1 and the mid-eighteenth century, though, wide reading and an easy habit of quotation were natural attributes. It’s therefore a natural notion for Jamie to have inscribed in Claire’s ring a brief phrase from Catullus—while it’s likewise natural for Claire to quote Housman and Coleridge.

  Being neither British nor a classics scholar myself, I asked and browsed, in order to come up with appropriate poetry, expressions, etc. Some poems and quotations were sent to me by friends online who knew what I was doing and came across something they thought might suit now and then; some I found in the course of the research for the novels—and some came ready to hand, given that while not a literary scholar, I do read a lot.

  I also used frequent Biblical quotation and allusion, because of the common usage of such allusion in the eighteenth-century style, because it was suited to the metaphysical and spiritual concerns of the books—and because it’s beautiful.2

  Now, I’m not sure whether I should feel slighted or not, but I don’t get a lot of mail from prisons. You’d think long books would be appealing in that venue, but maybe not.

  So far, I believe I’ve only received three letters from incarcerated persons (not that I’m complaining, mind you). One of these, though, was from a gentleman who requested the entire text of the Catullus poem that Jamie refers to in Outlander. He said that the concept struck him as most romantic, and he would like to letter the poem in calligraphy as a present f
or his wife—adding that she had been through a lot, and he would like to make it up to her.

  I couldn’t refuse a request like that, so I sent the poem. I’ve since had many requests for the text of the poem—and some others quoted in the Outlander novels—and so have decided to list the sources for poetry and quotations used in the novels,3 for the benefit of the curious.

  In some cases, where copyright (and the author’s energy) permits, I’ve included the whole text of short poems. Where a poem was unavailable or too long to type out in its entirety, only the portion quoted is given.

  LATIN POETRY

  A working knowledge of Latin and Greek and an appreciation for the major works of the ancient philosophers were hallmarks of a “man of worth”—a gentleman—in the eighteenth century. Jamie, grandson of a noble (even if illegitimate), and nephew of a clan chieftain, has certainly been well educated, and thus well versed in ancient languages and writings. Small wonder that he turns to these both as expressions of his love for Claire, and as tutoring for his beloved nephew Ian.

  The Catullus poem referred to in Outlander is titled “Lesbia,” and was translated in the seventeenth century by Richard Crashaw;4 both the original Latin and the English translation (with original spelling) are shown here.

  Both versions were sent to me originally by Janet McConnaughey, an online friend from the CompuServe Literary Forum, whose knowledge of poetry and lyrics is simply staggering. Having read the scene in which Jamie gives Claire the silver ring, Janet suggested that perhaps da mi basia mille would be appropriate as an inscription.

  I liked the notion, but wanted to use somewhat more of the poem than would fit inside the average ring. I therefore used small quotations from the poem in the course of the dialogue in Outlander, referring to the inscription only later, in Dragonfly in Amber.

  LESBIA

  Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus,

  rumoresque senum severiorum

  omnes unius aestimemus assis.

  soles occidere et redire possunt:

  nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux,

  nox est perpetua una dormienda.

  da mi basia mille, deinde centum,

  dein mille altera, dein secunda centum,

  deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum,

  dein, cum mia multa fecerimus,

  conturbabimus illa, ne sciamus,

  aut nequis malus invidere possit,

  cum tantum sciat esse basiorum.

  —Catullus (84?—54 B.C.)

  Come and let us live my Deare, Let us love and never feare, What the sowrest Fathers say: Brightest Sol that dyes to day Lives againe as blith to morrow, But if we darke sons of sorrow Set; o then, how long a Night Shuts the eye of our short light! Then let amorous kisses dwell On our lips, begin and tell A Thousand, and a Hundred, score An Hundred, and a Thousand more, Till another Thousand smother That, and that wipe of another. Thus at last when we have numbred Many a Thousand, many a Hundred; Wee’l confound the reckoning quite, And lose our selves in wild delight: While our joyes so multiply, As shall mocke the envious eye.

  —translation by Richard Crashaw (1612?—1649)

  When Jamie is faced with the grave responsibility of training his nephew Ian to be a “man of worth” himself, he turns from the sensual delights of Catullus to the sterner “Venue” of Plautus:

  VERTUE

  Virtus praemium est optimum; virtus omnibus rebus anteit profecto: libertas salus vita res et parentes, patria et prognati tutantur, servantur: virtus omnia in sese habet, omnia adsunt bona quem penest virtus.

  —from Amphitryon, Plautus (254?-184 B.C.)

  Verily Vertue dothe all thinges excelle. For if librtie, helthe, lyvyng and substance, Our country, our parentes and children do well It hapneth by vertue; she doth all aduance. Vertue hath all thinges under gouernaunce, And in whom of vertue is founden great plentie,

  Any thinge that is good may neuer be deintie.

  —translation by Sir Thomas Elyot (1531)

  And later still, as stimulus and mental refreshment amid bodily labors, Jamie recites from the “Meditations” of Marcus Aurelius Antonius: (A.D. 121–180)

  “’Body, soul, and mind,’” Jamie said, translating as he bent to seize the end of another trimmed log. “‘The body for sensation, the soul for the springs of action, the mind for principles. Yet the capacity for sensation belongs also to the stalled ox; there is no wild beast or degenerate but obeys the twitchings of impulse; and even men who deny the gods, or betray their country, or’—careful, man!”

  Ian, thus warned, stepped neatly backward over the ax handle, and turned to the left, steering his end of the burden carefully round the corner of the half-built log wall.

  “’—or perpetrate all manner of villainy behind locked doors, have minds to guide them to the clear path of duty,’ “Jamie resumed Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. “‘Seeing then’—step up. Aye, good, that’s got it—’seeing then that all else is in common heritage of such types, the good man’s only singularity lies in his approving welcome to every experience the looms of fate may weave for him, his refusal to soil the divinity seated in his breast or perturb it with disorderly impressions…’ All right, now, one, and two, and… ergh!”

  —Drums of Autumn, Chapter 20, page 371

  By contrast, Claire’s Latin is less formal: “All I remember is Anna virumque cano.” I glanced at Ian and translated, grinning. “My arm got bit off by a dog.”5

  GREEK QUOTES

  While an educated eighteenth-century gentleman might have been as familiar with the Greek poets and philosophers as with the Romans, I’m not. There’s also the minor consideration that original Greek quotations are written in… ah… Greek. This is a major pain in the neck for typesetters and copy editors.

  Therefore, most of the classical allusions in the novels are Latin. For the sake of accurate representation, though, I did include one brief exchange in Greek, between Jamie and Lord John Grey, during the Incident of the Snake in the Privy (Drums, chapter 25, “Enter a Serpent”).

  The references used here [pp. 481–482] are not literal, but only allusive; Epicharmus did say philosophical things about the oracle at Delphi, but the quote attributed to him is only a rough approximation.

  CELTIC INVOCATIONS

  While Greek and Latin were the languages of an educated eighteenth-century man, Gaidhlig (Gaelic) was the language of the Scottish Highlander. A rich and beautiful language, this Celtic tongue gives voice to prayer and poetry.

  During the late part of the nineteenth century, an exciseman and scholar named Alexander Carmichael performed a great service to future generations by collecting a massive amount of traditional Gaelic oral lore: poems, prayers, songs, incantations, charms, and hymns, which were published early in the twentieth century as the Carmina Gadelica. This collection has been reprinted in various volumes and forms over the years; the particular volume I used as a source for the Outlander books is a small portion of the work, published separately as Celtic Invocations (the complete bibliographic citation will be found in the Annotated bibliography).

  I used small bits of several of the invocations and prayers from this huge collection, as seemed appropriate to the occasion. While only parts of the prayers are actually quoted in the novels, I’ve included the entire text of each prayer as follows.6

  THE BATTLE TO COME VOLUME 1, PAGE 113

  Jesus, Thou Son of Mary, I call on Thy name, And on the name of John the apostle beloved, And on the names of all the saints in the red domain,

  To shield me in the battle to come, To shield me in the battle to come.

  When the mouth shall be closed, When the eye shall be shut, When the breath shall cease to rattle, When the heart shall cease to throb, When the heart shall cease to throb.

  When the Judge shall take the throne, And when the cause is fully pleaded, O Jesu, Son of Mary, shield Thou my soul, O Michael fair, acknowledge my departure.

  O Jesu, Son of Mary, shield Thou my soul!

&nb
sp; O Michael fair, receive my departure!

  Claire begins this prayer, as her blessing to Jamie when they prepare to part on the morning of the Battle of Culloden, but is interrupted by the arrival of English soldiers. [Outlander]

  SOUL PEACE VOLUME 1, P. 121

  Since Thou Christ it was who didst buy the soul—

  At the time of yielding the life,

  At the time of pouring the sweat,

  At the time of offering the clay,

  At the time of shedding the blood,

  At the time of balancing the beam,

  At the time of severing the breath,

  At the time of delivering the judement,

  Be its peace upon Thine own ingathering.

  Jesus Christ Son of gentle Mary,

  Be its peace upon Thine own ingathering

  O Jesus! Upon Thine own ingathering.

  And may Michael white kindly,

  High king of the holy angels,

  Take possession of the beloved soul,

  And shield it home to the Three of surpassing love,

  Oh! To the Three of surpassing love.

  (This is the prayer that Jamie recommends to Young Ian, for use when one has been compelled to kill in battle or in self-defense. Or, if time is too short to allow for this, he recommends the shorter version, “Soul Leading.” [Dragonfly]

  THE SOUL LEADING VOLUME 1, PAGE 117

  By this soul on Thine arm, O Christ, Thou King of the City of Heaven. Amen.