"Little Red Man" refers to an hallucinogenic mushroom called "amanita muscaria". It's red with white dots. Reindeer love to eat them. In the good old days it was the duty of the shaman to eat the mushroom and then urinate into a container which would be passed around the community for a "high".
This is the ONLY substance of its kind that does not get metabolised in the human body. Consequently it is believed to be "soma" as referred to in ancient Indo-European texts.
"Herb Woman" appears to have many tasks ~ gathering herbs is definitely one!
Thor and Odin were picked up by the locals.
Now that bit about linking little red man to soma is fascinating and the first time I’ve read it — but how do you link that to the idea that soma was originally “developed” when the Aryans were wandering in Central Asia? Are there these mushrooms there?