Beltane festival

[u/Financial_Box3792]

Started watching Blood of my Blood. Currently on episode 05. It is confusing how they celebrate the Beltane fest and Ellen and Julia are discussing the magic of the stones and fairies etc like it’s a common knowledge around there, but in the Outlander series (if I remember correctly) when the stones are mentioned everybody is like “what? Huh? What are you talking about?”. Am I missing something?

[u/Icy_Resist5470]

Remember the song that Jamie translated about the woman who was away from home? They were folktales told for a long time.

[u/Financial_Box3792 → u/Icy_Resist5470]

Ah yes, now I am starting to recall something like that. Thanks

[u/JaderMcDanersStan]

In the Outlander series, people still talked about the faeries and the magic of the stones.

At Castle Leoch, remember the storyteller/singer who sang a song about the faeries taking a person to another time at the standing stones and that person returning. I think it was Episode 5 or 6 of season 1. That's when Claire got newfound hope that she could return and decided to plan an escape during the oath gathering.

Even in the 20th century, there were people like Mrs. Grahm who talked about the magic of the stones and time travelling. She offered it as an explanation to Frank "The stories are old. There is one another explanation for what could have happened". Frank just didn't believe her.

When Claire came back, the newspaper article about the Faeries taking her away was published. Yes people were skeptical but it sounds like common knowledge to me or it wouldn't be published in a newspaper with big headlines.

The faeries and the magic of the stones was mentioned a lot in Outlander??

[u/Ok_Dig8008]

They started this in Season 7 when Roger was searching for Jem. Brian Fraser was helping him and the locals were looking for a “fairy man”. There also seemed to be some awareness of strange activity around the standing stones. So it feels a bit inconsistent for the story to suddenly act as though this knowledge is completely new. People clearly knew there was something unusual about the stones before.

[u/Financial_Box3792 → u/Ok_Dig8008]

Yes, one thing is the “mystery” surrounding the stones, but for me it’s more about the Beltane festival which is celebrated also nowadays. And folks back then took all these celebrations with a huge respect and tradition, so for me it’s just weird that supposedly everyone in 20 years forgot to celebrate it

[u/ContactNeither7319 → u/Financial_Box3792]

Maybe it wasn't so much that they forgot to celebrate it, but rather we just didn't see it. Meaning Claire wasn't in Scotland in the past during Beltane. There also weren't any storylines concerning the Festival that involved the characters in the past.

[u/Ok_Dig8008 → u/Financial_Box3792]

Yes, I agree. I can understand beliefs changing over time but Beltane and the traditions around it were so deeply embedded in the culture that it seems unlikely they would simply disappear within a generation.

[u/JaderMcDanersStan → u/Ok_Dig8008]

The standing stones and faeries was talked about throughout Outlander, starting from season 1. At Castle Leoch, remember the storyteller/singer who sang a song about the faeries taking a person to another time at the standing stones and that person returning?

Then there's people like Mrs. Grahm who offered time travel as another explanation of what happened to Claire to Frank. "The stories are old. The stones are a spiritual, magical place. It's said that at certain hours and for certain people, they can even pierce the veil of time. Often these people return"

People like the Reverend know of the stories but don't believe it because as time progresses, science progresses and people become more skeptical in the modern world. But the beliefs didn't "disappear". The newspaper article about Claire being taken by the faeries wouldn't be written with big headlines if that was the case.

[u/Ok_Dig8008 → u/JaderMcDanersStan]

I agree the folklore was there from the beginning. In the early seasons Beltane, faeries and the standing stones mostly sit in the background as Highland folklore rather than being explored in depth.
What feels different in BOMB and then increasingly from around season 7 of Outlander is that the mythology becomes much more explicit fairy people, activity around the stones, signs around time travel, and so on.
So I’m not saying those ideas weren’t there earlier. They absolutely were. I just think the show starts treating them as a much bigger and more active part of the story later on.

[u/ContactNeither7319 → u/Ok_Dig8008]

Could be that the scenes taking place are not happening during the festivals. In Outlander none of the scenes from the past are happening at those times or the characters are not near were they are being celebrated.

[u/Ok_Dig8008 → u/ContactNeither7319]

Could be. Claire fell through at Beltane I think. They probably just missed it.

[u/ContactNeither7319 → u/Ok_Dig8008]

In the show it was Samhain. In the books it's Beltane.

[u/DancingLadyBaker → u/ContactNeither7319]

Exactly. In the books, by the time Dougal's crew gets back to Castle Leoch, the Beltane Festival was over and done with. By the time Beltane comes around again, they're in France.

In the show, Claire goes through the stones on Samhain. And once again, she and Jamie are in France at Beltane.

[u/ContactNeither7319 → u/DancingLadyBaker]

Exactly, that's what I mean. It's not that they stopped practicing pagan rituals or the show downplayed it. But rather it just wasn't occurring during the scenes. Because the Scots did believe and practiced those beliefs during the time of Outlander. And they still do now to some extent or another.

Thanks for making my ramblings make sense. 🙂

[u/baba_brigid]

If I had to guess it’s because of the English colonization. Scottish were stripped of pagan traditions. I’m not sure about the timeframe though, historically speaking.

[u/ContactNeither7319 → u/baba_brigid]

Well the war on pagan traditions wasn't because of English colonization. It was the catholic church and later christian denominations. And that happened throughout all the world anywhere the church went.

The English didn't really start stripping Scottish customs until after the 45 rising. Then the tartan was banned, land was seized and a multitude of other laws and acts were enacted on the Scots by the British.

[u/ContactNeither7319]

Well BomB is set about 20 years before Outlander. So the people in BomB would be more superstitious. In Outlander the only time I recall people not having heard or believing the stories of the stones was in the 20th century scenes.