Outlander Book Club: Dragonfly in Amber Chapter 1 breakdown

Foreshadowing within the Dragonfly in Amber chapter

There is a little foreshadowing within the chapter. The first is with the list of names. Claire gives a little bit of information about them. They’re all men from Jamie’s area who fought in the Battle of Culloden. They weren’t with Lovat’s army. She never once mentions Jamie’s name, which leads us to wonder all sorts of things.

It’s clear that this list is going to come up. How does Claire know so much and why is she so interested in a group of men from one village?

One thing’s clear, and that’s that Brianna is Jamie’s daughter. She smiles in her sleep, which Claire comments on. It means we get to go back to the past at some point to fill in this 20-year (200-year?) gap.

Another element of foreshadowing is the mention of Mrs. Graham and Fiona. There’s the mention of the Druids and the dances. Is it possible that Fiona is like Mrs. Graham? Does she follow some of the practices? Is it possible that she already knows about the stones?

There also seems to be a hint of something between Roger and Fiona. However, it could also be that one likes the other more than the other likes the one.

Something else that stands out is the mention of Frank. Roger notes that Frank saw Reverend Wakefield about 10 years earlier. It’s clear this is foreshadowing that Frank was involved in more research into the Jacobite era. He was looking for Jamie, and maybe even for proof that Claire would go back to Jamie at some point.

Finally, we have the hint of Geillis’s story coming back. At the end of the first book, we learned she was from 1967. Is that the year she traveled through the stones? If so, Claire is going to be late. She won’t find Geillis anywhere in Scotland, and Geillis may not even be in inverness. However, there’s a chance she may be able to find something in newspapers or from rumors.

It does hint that Geillis’s tale isn’t completely done. I got the sense from the first book that Geillis wasn’t dead. We know now that she pops back up in the third book, but at this point, it would have always just been speculation.