Outlander Series discussion

I was reading through another discussion on the Outlander series and recalled something that I read in the Outlandish Companion. DG mentions that she will be writing more about Raymond's story in a different series of novels post Outlander. Does anyone know more about this?

It would be fascinating to see which period she would write from - the 1960s, the 1700s, when he was born. So many to choose from.

Yes I definitely think that would be an interesting story, I haven't heard anything about it yet though.

I just pulled out the Companion. She mentions the series on pages 379 and says he is from somewhere around 4000 B.C. It will be interesting to see if she goes on to write more about him.

I agree. I could see his story as something that could totally stand on its own. I don't think I would like it as an "add on" to the Outlander series, but as something completely separate.

I am of two minds. While it could stand on its own, it would be interesting to see parts of his encounter with Claire from HIS perspective. All very interesting ideas.

I'm interested, but I'd prefer more books on William or Ian, or even LJG. Ray's ok, just not that absorbing for me.

I think it would be interesting too. Though I think I read somewhere that it was her intention all along, but then she started writing the LJG books.

Maybe she'll revisit Raymond.

Raymond is important b/c (view spoiler)[ Claire is one of his descendants. It would be interesting to see where she gets her time traveling abilities from. (hide spoiler)]

Jen how do you know?

I can't wait to know more about Master Raymond! She is definitely writing more about him. I have read an excerpt from the book she started for him...it was set when he was a young boy...it's very, very primitive. I couldn't find the excerpt (it's out there somewhere) but I did find this on Diana Gabaldon's website under Character FAQ:

Who/what is Master Raymond? What is his significance?

(view spoiler)[Well, he’s a prehistoric time traveler. I think he came from somewhere about 400 BC or perhaps a bit earlier (not technically “prehistoric,” but they certainly weren’t using written records where he started out), and the 18th century is not his first stop.

He is–or was–a shaman, born with the ability to heal through empathy. He sees auras plainly; those with his power all have the blue light he has–born warriors, on the other hand, are red (so yes, “the red man” is iconic). He has a rather strong aversion to Vikings, owing to events that happened in his own time; hence his nervousness when he sees Jamie. He’s afraid of them, but he also realizes just what a strong life-force they have–that’s why he makes Claire invoke it (using the sexual and emotional link between her and Jamie) to heal her.

His descendants–a few of whom he meets now and then in his travels–have the blue light about them, too; in large degree or small, depending on their talents. So he knows Claire, when he sees her, as one of his great-great, etc. grand-daughters. And Gillian/Geillis is another–you notice she has Claire’s sense of plants, though she tends naturally to poison, rather than medicines.

We’ll see him again–though not in Jamie and Claire’s story, I don’t think. Master Raymond should get his own series of books, eventually. So in fact, we’ll see Claire, Jamie, and Geillis again, then– but as secondary characters in Master Raymond’s story (you recall, Geillis mentions having met “one other” (time-traveler) in Voyager, but doesn’t tell Claire who it is).

Heaven knows just when we’ll get to that–in about ten years, at this rate–but we will get to it. {grin} (hide spoiler)]

It sounds like an amazing book. I really hope she does actually get around to it.

It does sound marvelous!

Diane wrote: "Jen how do you know?"

Diana Gabaldon posted it years ago on her website in the FAQs. What Leah posted is the exact post I read all those years ago. :)

I highly recommend reading the FAQs on her site. They are QUITE informative and she does mark them as spoilers for those who don't want to know...

Thanks for posting that Leah. I'd love a book of Master Raymond.

He was my least favorite character

Oh too bad Donna - I thought he was quirky.

I found him fascinating. I think he knows a lot more about time traveling and steering. I want to know the significance, or lack thereof, of the stones, bones, figures, etc. that he sent Claire while she was at Lallybroch after returning from France. They were sent to her but did not say who the package was from, but Claire believes it was Master Raymond. Does anyone have any theories??? I wonder what happened to those wee bobbles...I don't remember them mentioned again in later books.

Hmm, not sure, Leah, but I think they are among Claire's belongings. I think they are probably relics from his origins. Talismans.

Raymond was the one who healed Claire at L'Hopital des Anges, correct? I never did figure out exactly WHAT he did. Claire described it as a "warmth".

He is a neat little character... I would like to more about him.

Yes, he healed her and no, specifically what he did wasn't explained. I'm thinking that Raymond and Claire and everyone like them (I'm of the mind that Raymond travels time, too) have these powers that Claire knows nothing about yet. Even before she went back, she could feel bones and tell how someone died. I might be just reading into stuff, but I wonder if that's eventually where it'll go.

Heather in FL wrote: "Yes, he healed her and no, specifically what he did wasn't explained. I'm thinking that Raymond and Claire and everyone like them (I'm of the mind that Raymond travels time, too) have these powers ..."

Raymond knows something about auras, which isn't an 18th century Scotland area of knowledge, as far as I know. He used to call Claire "Madonna" and I remember he told her why in Outlander...

Leads me to believe he knows more than he's letting on. Maybe he will visit again in my re-readings.

There's more about Raymond in "The Space Between"... and it made me want to read Raymond's books that much more. So much to whet the appetite in that little gem of a story. It really sucks that it's not available right now in the U.S.

I got antsy and ordered the book A Trail of Fire from an Italian bookstore on the AbeBooks web site that a fellow Outlander member pointed me to.

Lori McD wrote: "There's more about Raymond in "The Space Between"... and it made me want to read Raymond's books that much more. So much to whet the appetite in that little gem of a story. It really sucks that it'..."

Lori, Also love Raymond and hope DG will someday write him a series (and also Young Ian!) Have to have patience and hope soon The Space Between and A Trail of Fire will be out for e-books in U.S.!

Master Raymond is one of my favorite characters, I so hope there will be more from in the upcoming book. I also will be reading "The Space Between"

I would love for Claire to meet Raymond back in her own time, and it would be great if he could help Brianna at some future point also.

I would venture to guess it depends on whether she outlives him.

That's what I think too, if he dies before her, she'll probably go back (view spoiler)[to be with her daughter, etc. (hide spoiler)]

there is a point where Jamie has a vision of Claire, older, back in her own time, because he says something about understanding what an electric light is like.
I think he will eventually die and that Claire will return to her own time, and live out her days as a happy Granny to Bree's and Roger's children, with memories of true love.

We don't know if Claire was older. She asks Jamie of he remembered what color her hair was...so they could answer that very question but he was unsure.

Well, he mentions that her hair was as it was then, when he was telling her about it. Which tells me that it was more of the brown silver mixture it was in the later books. I think if Claire had looked young that would have stood out to him. I see pictures of my husband from when he was young and I immediately go 'wow, he looks so young'.

But, it definitely isn't stated clearly.

We were married at 19 also and I look at those pics and say "wow those kids were too young to get married"! Now we just celebrated our 28th last March and we (especially me) look soooooo old comparatively.

I'm rereading Breath of Snow and Ashes and had read that part of Jamie's dream just yesterday. Claire asked how old she was in the dream and Jamie said he hadn't noticed, he wasn't sure. But the description of his dream sure sounds like the Scot who was standing outside her and Frank's B&B in book 1, doesn't it?

Oh, I hadn't read the disagreements. Perhaps I'll go check out that FAQ at DG's website to see if there's any clues there :)

lmao, I'm one of the ones that disagreed, lol.

Here is the scene. The last paragraph is where he states he didn't notice how old she was. Its in A Breath of Snow and Ashes.


“But ye do tell me that man proposes and God disposes, and should He see fit to dispose of me—ye’ll go back.”

“Why would I?” I said, nettled—and unsettled. The memories of his sending me back through the stones on the eve of Culloden were not ones I ever wished to recall, and here he was, prying open the door to that tightly sealed chamber of my mind. “I’d stay with Bree and Roger, wouldn’t I? Jem, Marsali and Fergus, Germain and Henri-Christian and the girls—everyone’s here. What is there to go back to, after all?”

He took the stone from its cloth, turning it over between his fingers, and looked thoughtfully at me, as though making up his mind whether to tell me something. Small hairs began to prickle on the back of my neck.

“I dinna ken,” he said at last, shaking his head. “But I’ve seen ye there.”

The prickling ran straight down the back of my neck and down both arms.

“Seen me where?”

“There.” He waved a hand in a vague gesture. “I dreamt of ye there. I dinna ken where it was; I only know it was there—in your proper time.”

“How do you know that?” I demanded, my flesh creeping briskly. “What was I doing?”

His brow furrowed in the effort of recollection.

“I dinna recall, exactly,” he said slowly. “But I knew it was then, by the light.” His brow cleared suddenly. “That’s it. Ye were sitting at a desk, with something in your hand, maybe writing. And there was light all round ye, shining on your face, on your hair. But it wasna candlelight, nor yet firelight or sunlight. And I recall thinking to myself as I saw ye, Oh, so that’s what electric light is like.”

I stared at him, open-mouthed.

“How can you recognize something in a dream that you’ve never seen in real life?”

He seemed to find that funny.

“I dream of things I’ve not seen all the time, Sassenach—don’t you?”

“Well,” I said uncertainly. “Yes. Sometimes. Monsters, odd plants, I suppose. Peculiar landscapes. And certainly people that I don’t know. But surely that’s different? To see something you know about, but haven’t seen?”

“Well, what I saw may not be what electric light does look like,” he admitted, “but that’s what I said to myself when I saw it. And I was quite sure that ye were in your own time.

“And after all,” he added logically, “I dream of the past; why would I not dream of the future?”

There was no good answer to a thoroughly Celtic remark of that nature.

“Well, you would, I suppose,” I said. I rubbed dubiously at my lower lip. “How old was I, in this dream of yours?”

He looked surprised, then uncertain, and peered closely at my face, as though trying to compare it with some mental vision.

“Well . . . I dinna ken,” he said, sounding for the first time unsure. “I didna think anything about it—I didna notice that ye had white hair, or anything of the sort—it was just . . . you.” He shrugged, baffled, then looked down at the stone in my hand.

I think the reason it gets dismissed that this could be the ghost scene from book one is because DG said it wasn't. Someone posted a comment from her saying that.

It also just occurred to me.... In book one when Claire is brushing her hair....isn't the power out? I'm going to have to look that one up now lol.

OK never mind. The power does go out but that's after she finishes brushing her hair....

Lisa wrote: "I'm rereading Breath of Snow and Ashes and had read that part of Jamie's dream just yesterday. Claire asked how old she was in the dream and Jamie said he hadn't noticed, he wasn't sure. But the de..."

I've always thought that there has to be a connection with that Scot Claire saw before she "time traveled". I just re-read that part of "Breath of Snow & Ashes" and agree that it's too much of a coincidence. There has to be a connection between Jaime's dream & the Scot in modern time.

That FAQ on DG's website was fun reading :D But found only the question asking if the "ghost" in Outlander is Jamie or not. She said it's Jamie and said that the mystery surrounding it will be solved in the final book. Geez...

But DG has dismissed this scene as taking place when Jamie/ghost stood outside the B&B, huh? How strange. I'm so tempted to ask her when I see her in July at a bookstore in Seattle (can't wait!). But I would like to think of a question that she's not asked so often. Oh well. Another more pressing question may come to mind when I do my reread of Echo next.

@Wendy - why do you think this scene isn't the ghost scene?

I also thought of the power outage but couldn't remember exactly when it happened - before or after Claire brushed her hair.

I agree with you Bonnie about there being a connection of some kind between that Scot Ghost and Claire and that's why when I first read Outlander, by the end of the book, I knew it had to be Jamie. Well, DG confirmed it in her FAQ page on her website :)

A few reasons, first yes the light went out after she finished brushing her hair, but Jamie doesn't describe Claire brushing her hair. He says she was at a desk, and something was in her hand, that maybe she was writing. This does not sound at all what Frank says the ghost is watching as he looks up into the window. Frank says that the ghost is watching Claire brush her hair with a smile on his face as she curses the frizz and static. If she was brushing her hair Jamie would have known that and just said it. She also wasn't sitting at a desk. It was night time and she was in her night gown near the window. If she was sitting it was at, more likely, a vanity, though I'm pretty sure Claire was standing as she was brushing her hair.

Also, like I said, if Claire had looked 26ish in his vision he would have immediately noticed. We're all used to looking out our loved ones in present day so I could see why he wouldn't have noticed her age if it was close to what he was used to seeing. But if 65ish year old Jamie were looking at 26 year old Claire that would have stood out to him.

I think that he was seeing future Claire, back home in the modern world after he had passed on. And I think the ghost ties to that because it's his spirit looking for her, wanting to be reunited.

OR, another possibility is he was seeing Claire as she was sitting down to write the goodbye letter to Bree just before she went back to look for Jamie.

Oh Wendy, that's excellent deduction skills! I'm convinced now that the dream scene isn't the ghost scene. But your first theory is too sad to contemplate and I'll go with your second theory when Claire is writing a letter to Bree. I've only reread the books up to BOSA twice and miss a lot of details. Especially when I speed read. Or listen to them on audio because I tend to space out.

I apologize for getting us off topic. Just realized that this thread is devoted to Raymond. Who I really like because he's just a fascinating character. I can't imagine a whole series about him though. Possibly some novellas.

Since I am in BOSA, Ray was mentioned as the leader of the group of volunteer travelers in '68. One of them being the loopy Wendigo Donner. I'm surprised that Raymond allowed pretty much anybody to time travel and possibly wreck havoc, if Donner is any example of the type of travelers.

It's never been clearly said to be the same Raymond (I believe it is, lol), it's just Claire speculating. She never had proof that Raymond was actually a traveler.

I'm with you, I like Raymond but I'm not sure I'd be interested in a whole story about him.

I just googled it and someone posted this... seems to make sense, based on their date of births in Outlandish Companion...

Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser October 20, 1918 2:09
pm London
James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser May 1, 1721 6:30 pm (approx)
near Inverness

Outlander starts out in 1946 and Claire was 28. When she goes through
stones, it's then 1743 (so her adjusted date of birth would be:
1743-28=1715) and Jamie is 22. There's a six year age difference with
Claire being the older of the two of course. So, in ABOSAA, it ends in 1776
where Claire is 61 and Jamie is 55.

Which makes sense because I remember DG saying that in Echo Claire was in her upper 60's, which is why I estimated about 65.

I thought that too, (except that I'm pretty sure he was actually 22) but the birth dates are taken right from the companion, which is the only reason I thought that the math made sense.

If her birthday 1918 and it starts in 1946 then that is definitely 28 years old. Oh, I just found the passage:

"How old are ye?" he asked curiously. "I never thought to ask."
The question seemed so preposterous that it took me a minute to think.
"I'm twenty-seven... or maybe twenty-eight," I added. That rattled him for a moment. At twenty-eight, women in this time were usually on the verge of middle-age.
"Oh," he said. He took a deep breath. "I thought ye were about my age-or younger."
He didn't move for a second. But then he looked down and smiled faintly at me. "Happy Birthday, Sassenach," he said.
It took me completely by surprise and I just stared stupidly at him for a moment. "What?" I managed at last.
"I said, 'Happy Birthday.' It's the twentieth of October today."

This happened right after she hysterically finally told him that she was born in 'the year of our lord, 1918', lol.

So, her math seems correct and by the end of Ashes that would put Claire at 61.

Claire's birthday was pretty far along in Outlander. I remember the first time I read it thinking she was my age, 27.
I love to see how passionate they still are even in middle age. I hope my husband and I are still that way when we get old.

By saying she was 65ish I wasn't implying she was old or decrepit, lmao. I know SOOOO many people that age who are more youthful and energetic than I am. I was only saying that a woman in her 60's looks very different from a woman who is in her 20's and that Jamie would have noticed it if she'd been that much younger.

gertt wrote: "Vanessa Eden wrote: "Claire's birthday was pretty far along in Outlander. I remember the first time I read it thinking she was my age, 27.
I love to see how passionate they still are even in midd..."


Well, excuse me. By the way I did say middle age. But anyway, I love their passion and I hope when I am their age my husband and I still feel that way.
What they have is pure magic, at 25 or 75.

No offense was intended.