An Echo in the Bone

Gabaldon portrays the ancestral Fraser home, Lallybroch, as a symbol of connection across generations and a physical totem of familial identity. Bree and Roger purchase Lallybroch when they return to the 20th century as a means of staying connected to Jamie and Claire and to their Scottish ancestry. Soon after moving in, Roger senses the “echoes of generations murmuring in its walls” (72), and Gabaldon implies that the ancient stone house contains the metaphysical presence of Bree and Roger’s ancestors. Physical proximity to the places their family inhabited inspires an emotional sense of intimacy, comparable to a benevolent haunting. Gabaldon complicates this portrayal by noting that Lallybroch “was a place that had its secrets, too” (72), suggesting the discoveries Bree and Roger will make there about themselves and their history. After living in the house for a time, Bree begins to see “not the albatross of a big, semi-decayed house, but the living organism that was Lallybroch, and all those of her blood who had been a part of it–and still were” (303). As she becomes more established in her life in Scotland, Bree perceives herself in continuity with her ancestors, some part of whom still inhabit her home.

Roger also connects to his sense of self by restoring the ancient chapel on the Lallybroch grounds. Although Roger grew up in nearby Inverness, he comes to Lallybroch with new context for the landmarks and features of the estate. Passing a boulder on the Lallybroch grounds, Roger realizes it is the site where Fergus lost his hand. Roger senses that the boulder bears “silent, stolid witness to horror and despair—and to the sudden grip of the past that took him by the throat” (379). As with Bree, Lallybroch enables Roger to simultaneously exist in the past and present via the memories the estate inspires. Immediately following this moment, Roger finds Jem hiding in the same cave Jamie used as a hideout centuries earlier, emphasizing an alternate, metaphorical form of time travel.

In the 18th century, Jamie and Ian experience a similar emotional connection to Lallybroch. Jamie’s return to his childhood home reconnects him with his past and empowers him to make amends with Laoghaire and Jenny, and to address his complex emotions about his father’s death. Young Ian’s return to Lallybroch, which he left as a teenager, allows him to assuage his guilt over Murdina Bug and to receive the acknowledgement he needs from his parents to fully embrace his manhood and commit to his life in America. Ian’s transition to independent adulthood is completed when he sees the gravestones at Lallybroch that Jenny placed for his stillborn daughter. By integrating Ian’s life in America into the physical landscape of Lallybroch, Ian’s Scottish and American selves are reconciled. As Jenny tells him and Bree later feels, Ian will “always be here wi’ us” (999).