The Outlandish Companion - Diana Gabaldon [302]
“This violent rain forced me to a new work, viz., to cut a hole through my new fortification, like a sink, to let the water go out, which would else have drowned my cave. After I had been in my cave some time, and found still no more shocks of the earthquake follow, I began to be more composed; and now, to support my spirits, which indeed wanted it very much, I went to my little store and took a small sup of rum, which however, I did then and always very sparingly, knowing I could have no more when that was gone.
“It continued raining all that night, and great part of the next day, so that I could not stir abroad; but my mind being more composed, I began to think.…”
—from Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe (1660-1731)
1 While not university-educated in the usual sense, Claire has an equivalent cultural background, owing to her unorthodox upbringing and her marriage to an academic.
2 Personally, I’m a hardcore King James version reader; I think the New American Bible is heresy, just on aesthetic grounds, and you don’t even want to know what I think about gender-neutral scriptures. Don’t talk to me about inclusion; I’d rather be referred to as “mankind” than be included in something so clumsily written. St. Jerome and the Vulgate are fine, and the Douay-Rheims version is okay, too—but the King James stands as possibly the only excellent piece of work ever produced by a committee.
3 So far as I can. I don’t claim this appendix is absolutely complete; I don’t keep track of quotations as I write, so was obliged to cruise back through the novels, picking them out. Consequently, I may well have missed one here or there.
4Doubtless by a few other people before and since; however, I like Crashaw, and his translation is also out of copyright, which allows me to reprint the entire text.
5My husband, who took Latin in school, originally contributed this gem (as well as the information that the quote is from Virgil, The Aeneid). He prefers the variation “My arm was run over by a dog on a motorcycle” (virumque, vroom-kay, motorcycle… geddit?)—but since the allusion would be lost on Ian, Claire likely would use the less sophisticated (ahem) form.
Oh—for the benefit of those who didn’t take Latin in school, the quote actually is translated: “Of arms and a man I sing.”
6Both Celtic and English versions are per Carmichael.
7All Biblical quotes are taken from the King James version.
8A “macaroni” was a fop; a person of marked affectation and extreme fashion (often imported from Italy; hence the name).
9Jack’s very helpful reminiscences of his days as a Scottish folk-singer formed the backbone—complete with kilt jokes—of this aspect of Roger MacKenzies character.
10“Strawberries,” right?
11A number of readers apparently believed the excerpts to have been taken from an actual book titled The Impetuous Pirate, and inquired as to the author and publisher of this book, as they wished to read the whole story. Ahem. I’m flattered. I think.
12And still in print, which I suppose goes to show something about the durability of Great Literature.
*If not its length; Sir Samuel is one of my personal patron saints, his works tending to run about 1500 pages in the unabridged original editions.
APPENDIX IV
ROOTS
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A BRIEF PRIMER ON GENEALOGICAL, RESEARCH
You have four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, sixteen great-great-grandparents, and thirty-two great-great-great-grandparents. With an average of twenty-five years between each generation, this means that during the past five hundred years, there were 1,048,576 people—all contributing to the production of you!
I get a great many letters from people newly interested in their Scottish heritage as a result of reading the Outlander novels, and asking either for any information I may have on clan MacLellan, MacLeod, McIver, McEtc, or for advice on beginning an exploration into their own family tree.
I’m really not the person to ask, as I don’t have a great deal of information personally on the clans as such. I poke around in the historical records,