The reason being that the American book was already in galleys when we sold Outlander in the UK.
It was pushed back to 1946 in the British printings after it became apparent that the dates didn't quite match up there-for example, as mentioned above, there's no way Claire and Frank Randall could've made it to Scotland for Beltane by because that's a full week before V-E Day signaled the end of WWII.Īs Gabaldon herself wrote, when addressing a question about the character Geillis Duncan's birthday: The discrepancy in dates is a mistake–it’s a copy-editing error caused by differences between the British edition of the books (which begin in 1946) and the American ones (which begin in 1945). The author has explained the reason for this herself on her website, stating the events of Cross Stitch (the original name of the series' first book, Outlander) began in 1945 in the original American edition.
Gabaldon's Outlander book originally began in 1945, and was later changed to 1946. In short, these numbers are fuzzy at best. This also clashes with what Balfe's Claire tells Jamie onscreen, that she is 26 going on 27. To recap: By Gabaldon's timeline, Jamie and Claire's age difference is 5.5 years, while on the show, that age gap shrinks to 4.5 years. This would make Claire five and a half years older than Jamie.īut this means that on the show, Claire had to have just turned 27 on October 20, 1945, less than two weeks before she meets Jamie. That would make her 27-and-a-half at the time she and Jamie meet in the books, while Jamie's barely 22. Claire Fraser was born on October 20, 1918.Īccording to Gabaldon's website timeline, Claire falls through stones on May 2nd, 1946 (again, not 1945, but more on that later). If we're sticking to the birthday established by Gabaldon, that is. Thus, on the show, Jamie is a smidge older at 22 and a half when Claire first meets him. Notably, this action takes place in 1945, not 1946 -six months after V-E Day on May 8, 1945, which is the point where Caitriona Balfe's Claire starts telling her story in episode 1, "Sassenach." On Outlander, Claire falls through the stones just after the Gaelic festival of Samhain, celebrated on October 31/November 1, not Beltane. By Gabaldon's math, Jamie would have just turned 22 years old in the books.
On her site, Gabaldon writes that Claire falls through the stones on May 2nd, 1946, traveling 203 years back in time to May 2nd, 1743-just after the Gaelic festival of Beltane, an actual ancient event traditionally celebrated on April 30/May 1. Now, here's where things start to get tricky when parsing out book versus show. Per Gabaldon's dates, James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser entered the world on May 1, 1721.Ĭlick here for more on Outlander season 5! Jamie Fraser was born on May 1, 1721.įor consistency purposes, we'll be referencing the timeline of events on Diana Gabaldon's website here. The answer is a wee bit more complicated than it seems, but here's what we know about Jamie and Claire's ages, according to the Starz series, author Diana Gabaldon's own account, and Caitriona Balfe herself. Which brings us to another head-scratcher: What is Claire and Jamie's age difference, again? Jamie and Claire Fraser are always at the center of this century-spanning action, a couple with white-hot chemistry who've been married for over twenty years. How do the Craigh Na Dun standing stones work as time portals? Why does Frank see Jamie's ghost in the first episode? How come only certain people can pass through the stones-and what's that buzzing sound about, anyway? And then there's the matter of the show's timeline, though "timelines" may be more accurate given how it hopped between the 20th century and the 18th for four seasons.