Edi Holley

Solstice Fish Edi Holley

Solstice Fish reads like a Norse legend. Gorgi, a troll, the size of a turnip, herds Santa's reindeer onto the Trans Siberian Railroad and takes them to their winter grazing pastures near Lake Baikal. He catches a magic fish at Lake Baikal and takes it home to his Mum for a Solstice present. It turns into a magic stove and all manner of delicious Christmas cookies and pastries issue forth. Santa, with his amazing sniffer snoffer smells this and comes. As he is gobbling cookies and drinking glug, two evil dwarfs steal his bag of presents from his sleigh and hide them with Gunlord, inside the mountain. Gunlord is a giantess, "a great gawk of a girl" with dagger like fingernails. But when Helena Rubenstein, a travelling beautician, paints her nails candy pink, a transformation takes place. Suddenly Gunlord is a golden-haired princess. She accompanies Santa on his midnight ride and, while crossing the North Pole, she spies "itty bitty" reindeer in a crevasse in the Norwegian high Arctic. Gorgi pulls him out and Gunlord comforts him with her charming lullaby as they speed away on Santa's sleigh.