Starting from the first novel, published in 1991, and then in each volume of the Outlander saga (eight books so far), spinoffs (the Lord John books) and novellas, plus the two Outlandish Companion volumes (Outlander's reference books) author Diana Gabaldon has here and there scattered biographical information about her male lead character, James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser aka Jamie. In book 1, Jamie meets Claire the very day of his twenty-second birthday. But what about his life before this encounter? It's quite hard to put together the timeline and details. DG herself has made it clear that she prefers to look at the big picture, without looking back. Nitpicker fans all around the world have been trying for many years to square the circle – unsuccessfully – 'cause both the “fat books” and the novellas are still sprinkled with little and big inconsistencies. So we must take a deep breath and love Diana Gabaldon – despite inconsistencies. (And God, we love her well!). Here's what we know (about book-Jamie; we'll talk later about TV-Jamie). He was born on May 1st, 1721, and lived in Lallybroch with his family until the age of fourteen. His biggest grief, in these years, is his mother Ellen's and older brother William's deaths, which happened more or less in the same period: William in 1727, Ellen in 1729 (the year's in book 8, Written in My Own Heart's Blood, even if in the previous books sometimes Jamie's six years old, sometimes he's eight). In Lallybroch he grows up, goes to school and even has a tutor (who he still remembers, as a grown-up, for his strictness). Jamie then spends then a couple of years at his uncle Dougal MacKenzie's residence, Beannachd, improving his education. While living there he also receives careful training in sword fighting, which will be critical his whole life long. Here Jamie also experiences his first kiss with a resourceful cousin, Tabitha, Dougal's second-born daughter. We're between 1735 and 1736: Jamie's fourteen-fifteen years old.
At sixteen he moves to Castle Leoch, residence of his other uncle, Colum, Laird of the MacKenzie clan, where he meets for the first time – even if he'll later have no memory about it – Laoghaire. We're around 1737, so she's ten years old; despite being so young, she will remember quite vividly that first encounter, though. Jamie certainly is in Castle Leoch in 1737, for he's there during the Duke of Sandringham's visit. Dougal tells the story in Outlander chapter 24, heavily joking about the nobleman's sexual preferences and Young Jamie's hijinks to escape his undesirable attentions. At the beginning of 1738 Jamie is in Paris, completing his education, guest of his uncle, Jared Fraser. He attends the Université and becomes fluent in many languages, among which are Latin and Hebrew, and French of course: from this moment on, he'll speak French so perfectly as to be able to pretend to be French, if necessary. According to Written in My Own Heart's Blood, his Parisian period lasts more or less two years.
It is now, in 1738-1739, that the seventeen/eighteen-year-old Jamie meets Annalise de Marillac, the beautiful young noblewoman for whom he falls head over heels and that he'll meet again in Paris, with Claire, in Dragonfly in Amber. 1740: Jamie's back in Scotland. He lives in Lallybroch with his father and sister Jenny. His life changes for good when he crosses paths with Captain Jonathan Wolverton Randall – in Outlander, chapter 26, Jenny states that it was May or June, but according to Virgins, a short novella published in 2017, it's between August and September. While trying to save his sister from the redcoats' attack, Jamie gets beaten and arrested. Transported to Fort William, he's flogged twice – the second time brutally by BJR himself. He barely survives; while witnessing the flogging, his father, Brian Fraser, has an apoplexy and dies shortly after. In the following days Jamie is freed from Fort William by his clansmen. Right after his escape, he's formally accused of murder, for one of the sentries has been killed (Jamie wasn't the culprit, though). October 1740: escaping Scotland, where there's a price on his head, Jamie catches up with his best friend Ian Murray in France. Ian has joined the French army as a soldier of fortune. The whip wounds on Jamie's back are still fresh and gruesome. (NB: Outlander's fan base has at length been convinced that the ill-fated encounter between BJR and Jamie dated back to 1739, not 1740. But in book 8 – Written in My Own Heart's Blood – we find Brian Fraser alive in October 1739, so Jamie had not met BJR yet. And in Virgins DG writes even more clearly that the year of Jamie's flogging is 1740).
We don't know much about Jamie and Ian's period as soldiers in France. Details disagree. According to the main clues, Jamie's there from October 1740 to the second half of 1742, a little more than two years.
But his friend Ian has perforce to be in Scotland by autumn 1740, for at the beginning of November 1743 his first son, wee Jamie Fraser Murray, is two years old. In Outlander, Jenny states that he has turned two in August 1743. So the child must have been conceived before the end of 1740; and since the mother's Jenny Fraser, who hasn't been farther than twenty miles from Lallybroch in her whole life, that means that Ian was physically in Scotland in December 1740 at the very latest; and besides, with a missing leg – amputated after being wounded in battle in France. In addition, we do know Ian and Jenny's very wedding day: Saint Martin's Day (Outlander, chapter 29), November 11th. The year is definitely 1740, for she was a virgin on her first wedding night (so no chance of a “shotgun wedding”, before or after wee Jamie's birth). What happens to Jamie between the end of 1740 and April 1743? Does he remain in the French army without Ian? Does he go back to Scotland, avoiding Lallybroch (for his uncle Dougal has convinced him that Jenny has been dishonoured) and living for two years in hiding? We don'k know, actually. What we do know for sure is that for all these years he doesn't set foot in Lallybroch, for in Outlander, chapter 22 he tells Claire that he has never gone home after the flogging – therefore he hasn't yet seen his father's grave. Jamie has completely cut off contact with both Jenny and Ian: he doesn't even know they're now married. So here we are: May 1st, 1743. It's Jamie's birthday: he turns twenty-two years old. In the afternoon he meets Claire for the first time. Claire's just landed in the 18th century, unexpectedly and magically travelling through the stones of Craigh na Dun. But how is it that Jamie is there? When he meets Claire in the book he has very short hair, nearly shorn. A few months earlier, Gabaldon explains, he was attacked by a bunch of crooks, his head severely injured (Dougal, according to book 6, was not totally innocent in the raid against his nephew). Knocked out and unconscious, Jamie's been quickly transported to northern France, to an Abbey led by another uncle, Alexander Fraser. Hair shaved off by the monks in order to medicate his wound, treated for some months (a couple? more?), when Jamie's recovered – presumably in April 1743 – he leaves again, for the umpteenth time, heading to Scotland. He's with Murtagh and he catches up with his uncle Dougal. Here, near Inverness, on May 1st, 1743 Claire meets him, takes care of his dislocated shoulder and, a few hours later, the bullet wound. That's all – not considering the copious divergent information scattered by Diana Gabaldon in books and novellas. But what about the TV adaptation? Everything is simplified and vague. When Claire sees Jamie's scarred back for the very first time, in episode 2 of season 1, he explains to her that he's been flogged by Black Jack Randall four years earlier. In the TV show we're not in May 1743, but in November 1743 – Ron Moore having fixed the inconsistency about the beginning time of the story, keeping as close as possible to DG's original version but avoiding the historical blunder about the end of WW2. So basically TV-Jamie sets the flogging in Fort William somewhere around fall 1739. TV-Jamie talks again about his past in the Lallybroch episodes (12th and 13th) of season 1, which are set in May 1744; he confirms having been a soldier in France, mentioning a battle he'd fought in 1740. Even in the TV show Jenny and Ian's son, wee Jamie, is more or less two years old. © insideoutlander [English version proofread by Kath at www.gofoolproof.com] More articles in English? Please press here!
