Dropping a line in the water

[pegkerr]

All right, then. I'll throw it out to you, because I'm curious to see what you might think.

What do YOU think the fish have to say to Solveig?

Comments

[peacockharpy.livejournal.com]

avoid sushi restaurants. :)

just kidding, I really could not resist.

"Be strong. Take your strength from adversity -- you're going to get a lot. Adversity acts on you like cold on water -- it chills you, makes you harder, makes you able to bear the weight. It focuses you. It can focus your power, if you will allow it to do so. And you do have power, power you have never tapped into -- power you will need in the months ahead.

"Your power is based in our magic, winter magic -- magic that hardens and strengthens. But you are human, and your power cannot exist without love -- your love for your daughter, your love for your mother, yes, but also love in the wider sense. Love in the sense of your enjoyment of the world you live in, your appreciation for beauty, for taste, for smell. Love for other people. Love for yourself. Remember, no matter what difficulties you face or magics you have, if you cannot open yourselfs to love, you have no power at all."

Do fish love? I'm not sure, but this is what they said to me...

[eeyorerin]

I don't know what exactly it is they have to say, but I keep thinking of them telling her something cryptic that she doesn't understand until later, and then it becomes the key to unlocking the mystery/solving the crisis/something like that. Sorta that she can hear them, but she can't understand them when her heart is still so solid.

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

You said you wanted the main drama to be heart of stone vs heart of flesh, and that Solveig must discover and trust/rely on/use her heart of flesh...

Fish absorb the magic during the winter, under the ice, and it changes them. So maybe they tell her to accept things, not to fight everything that might lead to change and difference, that becoming different won't make her not her or cause her to lose herself.

It's not things out in the world that give you strength. It's what happens to you when you let them in and make them part of you.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

The fish can say whatever they need to say for the sake of your plot and theme. (Though I like Utusri's suggestion above.)

But they'd say it in their own particular fashion, according to their own ways of perception and not in 'human' ways. "Fish" is too general. What species? I don't know Minnesota lakes -- what fish get frozen in the water? Not the bottom feeders, I assume, but more top swimmers... Are there particular types of fishes that appear in Native American mythologies of the area?. Do they have aspects and names, personalities and voices in those mythologies? If so, use those to get resonance with the mythic undercurrent.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Fish don't freeze in the ice, they just live below the ice. Thus, ponds that are shallow enough to freeze to the bottom don't have fish in them.

More on the subject of fish, I have been curious lately about why there are fish in our lakes at all. I mean, think about it. The world is covered with miles-thick glaciers. The ice retreats, scooping out lakes as it does so. This was only 10,000 years ago. Where could the fish possibly have come from? The lakes aren't connected, and the fish could not have evolved that fast. And they don't freeze in the ice, like I said. So... what's the explanation?

Well, this isn't helping you, Peg. I think the fish make cryptic remarks that Solveig eventually figures out and which then move the plot along. I think this happens 1) while she is ice fishing (possibly on Lake Minnetonka, from which flows Minnehaha Creek, but possibly on Lake Calhoun) and 2) while she is on the docks at Lake Harrriet by the bandshell. It is also possible that she has some epiphany while watching the fish in the tank at her dentist's office.

K. [rambling]

[daedala.livejournal.com]

Use your gills, dear.

[fairmer.livejournal.com]

No salmon in Minnesota, are there? Because it really should be a wise old salmon. Oh, wait, that's Celtic, not Nordic. Never mind.

I think they should be cold fishies, with lots of advice about how freezing makes time meaningless and other cryptic goodness. Perhaps a fish frozen in a lake at midwinter represents a heart of stone. It's all about waiting for the thaw, so stone may become flesh once more.

Or not. :)

[naomikritzer]

This is Minnesota, so it would be a walleye that talked to her, I think.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what it would have to say. If anything comes to mind I'll post again later.

Peg, have you ever listened to "Kalevala: the Dream of the Salmon Maiden"? It's a musical piece that was written by someone Scandinavian, IIRC. It was performed in the cities a few years ago, and got a lot of coverage on NPR. The music is awfully cool, in a very eerie, unearthly way.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Yes! I saw the show and found it profoundly moving. And I bought the CD and listen to it often--only when Rob isn't in the house, though, because for some reason he hates it.

[delirieuse.livejournal.com]

I think they might have some wisdom on allowing other people to help you. Solveig seems the dangerously self-reliant type. But then it's tired and I'm late. :)

[dejaspirit.livejournal.com]

I think they would ask why she's talking to a bunch of fish.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I know salmon are Celtic -- I'm Celtic. But salmon are in Celtic mythology deeply connected with transformation. Not so much knowledge as being able to see things from the right end. So maybe they wouldn't speak so much as show her something through a different lens, another way of seeing.

[red-queen.livejournal.com]

Remember the first part of The Once and Future King (a.k.a., The Sword in the Stone), by T.H. White? Merlin turns himself and young Arthur into fish, so they can learn from the other fish in the moat.

I do think the mystery of fish wintering under the ice has some good resonance -- perhaps even when one thinks one's heart is frozen solid, impenetrable, there is still fluidity and hope for Spring?

[diony.livejournal.com]

A reminder that there's life under the ice? As other people have said, that seems to tie into the heart of flesh/heart of stone thing.

Has Solveig given up on connection?

[kishmish.livejournal.com]

Perhaps its that the fish, who are caught in that cold lake and can never leave, are caught up in its cold magic and can never leave and become 'warm-hearted' (sort of like the heart of flesh thing), and they are warning her, that even though the heart of ice gives power, you can be frozen and trapped inside if you are not careful. Perhaps if she uses its power only for the right reasons, for reasons of the heart of flesh, only then will she come through mostly unscathed? Does she pay a price for using her magic? Or maybe the heart of stone only works properly in conjunction with the heart of flesh, one without the other may give power but it can go horribly wrong.
Although really, I'm sure they'd wonder why she was talking to them anyway:P Connected through magic I'm sure.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The fish seem more alive with the winter, not less, so while I like all the heart of stone/heart of flesh stuff, I wonder if there isn't something about overturned convention in Solveig's own life.