Book 10 title!

Big news for OUTLANDER fans today!! Diana Gabaldon announced that the title of Book 10 of the OUTLANDER series will be:

A BLESSING FOR A WARRIOR GOING OUT

Diana says:

NO, that doesn’t mean Jamie’s going to die. It’s not a death blessing, it’s the Blessing of St. Michael, said for a warrior about to go and do something important and possibly dangerous. There are quite a few people in this book who qualify for that blessing, believe me...

Note that she also says:

and yes, this is the final book of the main series, though there may be other companion books and side stories, depending on how long I live...

So that's confirmation of what many of us have suspected for a long time.

My immediate thoughts about A BLESSING FOR A WARRIOR GOING OUT:

At first glance, this title is a little bit scary to me, with the clear echo of the scene in DRAGONFLY IN AMBER, moments before Claire goes through the stones at Craigh na Dun, when she blesses Jamie just that way.

“Bless me, then, wisewoman,” he said softly, “and go.”

I laid a hand on his shoulder, groping for words. Jenny had taught me a few of the ancient Celtic prayers of protection; I tried to summon the words in my mind.

“Jesus, Thou Son of Mary,” I started, speaking hoarsely, “I call upon Thy name; and on the name of John the Apostle beloved, And on the names of all the saints in the red domain, To shield thee in the battle to come...”

(From DRAGONFLY IN AMBER by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 46, "Timor Mortis Conturbat Me". Copyright © 1992 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

The memory of that makes my stomach twist in knots, remembering how, for years, that parting used to reduce me to floods of tears, on every single re-read or re-listen. So it's a bit scary to me to see it in this context, when it's totally possible that any character we love might die for real in this book. (Especially since Diana Gabaldon says this IS the last book in the main series.) There's no safety net in this book, no guard-rails, no "he/she can't die, there's another book coming!" Absolutely anything might happen.

But then it occurred to me that there's another place in the books where we've seen a very similar phrasing before, in the scene in AN ECHO IN THE BONE where Claire is about to go to help Lizzie with what turned out to be a very harrowing, difficult childbirth:

I felt weirdly disembodied, caught between past and future, nothing visible save the whirling white silence that surrounded me. And yet I felt calmer than I had in many days. I felt the weight of Jamie’s hand on my head, with its whispered blessing. O blessed Michael of the Red Domain ...

It was the blessing given to a warrior going out to battle. I had given it to him, more than once. He’d never done such a thing before, and I had no idea what had made him do it now--but the words glowed in my heart, a small shield against the dangers ahead.

(From AN ECHO IN THE BONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 11, "Transverse Lie". Copyright © 2009 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

So the word "warrior" doesn't necessarily imply a battle involving armies.

Finally, here's a thought about the rhythm of the book titles when you say them out loud. Consider the pattern of the last few book titles:

AN ECHO IN THE BONE - like a drumbeat ("Ba-bum-ba-bum-ba-bum")
WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART'S BLOOD - similar, but the pace of the drumbeat is picking up, with a rat-a-tat feel to it, like a military drum ("Ta-ta-ta-ta-tum-tum-tum")
GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE ("Ba-bum-ba-bum-ba-bum-ba-bum") - a steady beat, reminding me of the "lub-dub lub-dub" heartbeat that Claire senses when she uses the blue light.

Looking at the rhythm of this title - A BLESSING FOR A WARRIOR GOING OUT ("Da-DA-da-DA-da-DA-da-DA Da-Da-Da" - what strikes me immediately is that it's also rhythmic, reminiscent of drums like ECHO and MOHB .... but it slows down perceptibly on those last three syllables. (As the story draws to a close?) I'm probably over-thinking this, but I wanted to share it anyway.

Lots to ponder here, for sure! I like this title! It's intriguing, and I think it's the sort of title that will develop additional layers of meaning as we think about it further.

What about the rest of you? What do you think of this title? Please leave a comment here or on my Outlandish Observations Facebook page.