Happy Halloween!

Here are some of my favorite Halloween-themed quotes from Diana Gabaldon's books and stories.  I first posted a version of this collection in 2009, and it's become an annual holiday tradition. <g> Hope you enjoy them!

1) Roger's thoughts, on the eve of Claire's departure through the stones to find Jamie:

Hallowe'en had always seemed to him a restless night, alive with waking spirits. Tonight was even more so, with the knowledge of what would happen in the morning. The jack o'lantern on the desk grinned in anticipation, filling the room with the homely scent of baking pies.

(From VOYAGER by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 22, "All Hallows' Eve". Copyright© 1994 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

2) This is one of my favorites from AN ECHO IN THE BONE:

Now there was nothing out there but the black of a moonless Highland night. The sort of night when Christians stayed indoors and put holy water on the doorposts, because the things that walked the moors and the high places were not always holy.

(From AN ECHO IN THE BONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 72, "The Feast of All Saints". Copyright© 2009 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

3) Claire and Roger on Halloween night, 1968. If you're not familiar with the story Roger is referring to, look here.

"No, I never could sleep on All Hallows'. Not after all the stories my father told me; I always thought I could hear ghosts talking outside my window."

She smiled, coming into the firelight. "And what did they say?"

"'See'st thou this great gray head, with jaws which have no meat?' " Roger quoted. "You know the story? The little tailor who spent the night in a haunted church, and met the hungry ghost?"

"I do. I think if I'd heard that outside my window, I'd have spent the rest of the night hiding under the bedclothes."

(From VOYAGER by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 22, "All Hallows' Eve". Copyright© 1994 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

4) I couldn't resist including a bit of Duncan's ghost story here:

"He said it was a figure like a man, but with no body," Duncan said quietly. "All white, like as it might have been made of the mist. But wi' great holes where its eyes should be, and empty black, fit to draw the soul from his body with dread."

(From DRUMS OF AUTUMN by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 1, "A Hanging in Eden". Copyright© 1997 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

5) Even wee Jemmy is affected by stories of "things that go bump in the night".

"Scared? Of what?" A little more gently, she pulled the shirt off over his head.

"The ghost."

"What ghost?" she asked warily, not sure yet how to handle this. She was aware that all of the slaves at River Run believed implicitly in ghosts, simply as a fact of life. So did virtually all of the Scottish settlers in Cross Creek, Campbelton, and the Ridge. And the Germans from Salem and Bethania. So, for that matter, did her own father. She could not simply inform Jem that there was no such thing as a ghost--particularly as she was not entirely convinced of that herself.

"Maighistear arsaidh's ghost," he said, looking up at her for the first time, his dark blue eyes troubled. "Josh says he's been walkin'."

(From A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 99, "Old Master". Copyright© 2005 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

6) Here's one of the creepiest moments in the whole series, in my opinion:

"We should go before moonrithe," she said softly. "She cometh out then."

An icy ripple ran straight up my spine, and Jamie jerked, head snapping round to look at the darkened house. The fire had gone out, and no one had thought to close the open door; it gaped like an empty eye socket.

"She who?" Jamie asked, a noticeable edge in his voice.

"Mary Ann," Mrs. Beardsley answered. "She was the latht one." There was no emphasis whatever in her voice; she sounded like a sleepwalker.

"The last what?" I asked.

"The latht wife," she replied, and picked up her reins. "She thtands under the rowan tree at moonrithe."

(From THE FIERY CROSS by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 29, "One-Third of a Goat". Copyright© 2001 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

7) Roger's father, Jerry MacKenzie, on a long-ago Halloween night:

“Damn,” said the fair one, softly.  “There’s a light.”  

There was; a single light, bobbing evenly over the ground, as it would if someone carried it.  But look as he might, Jerry could see no one behind it, and a violent shiver ran over him.

“Uisge,” said the other man under his breath.  Jerry knew that word well enough—spirit, it meant.   And usually an ill-disposed one.  A haunt.

“Aye, maybe.”  The dark man’s voice was calm.  “And maybe not.   It’s Samhain, after all."

(From "A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows", by Diana Gabaldon, in A TRAIL OF FIRE. Copyright© 2010 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

8) I don't care how many times I've read this, it still sends a chill up my spine, every time.

"You asked me, Captain, if I were a witch," I said, my voice low and steady. "I'll answer you now. Witch I am. Witch, and I curse you. You will marry, Captain, and your wife will bear a child, but you shall not live to see your firstborn. I curse you with knowledge, Jack Randall--I give you the hour of your death."

(From OUTLANDER by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 35, "Wentworth Prison". Copyright© 1991 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

9) Lord John's encounter with a zombie:

Bloody hell, where was the man?  If it was a man.  For even as his mind reasserted its claim to reason, his more visceral faculties were recalling Rodrigo's parting statement:  Zombie are dead people, sah.  And whatever was here in the dark with him seemed to have been dead for several days, judging from its smell.

He could hear the rustling of something moving quietly toward him.  Was it breathing?  He couldn't tell, for the rasp of his own breath, harsh in his throat, and the blood-thick hammering of his heart in his ears.

(From "Lord John and the Plague of Zombies" by Diana Gabaldon, in A TRAIL OF FIRE. Copyright© 2011 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

And last but not least, here's Bri's Pumpkin Homage to THE EXILE. I think this is truly hilarious (particularly if you've seen page 5 of THE EXILE), not to mention extremely creative. Can you imagine the amount of time and effort it took to do that? Amazing!

Happy Halloween / Samhain / All Hallows' Eve to all of you!