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?
It's a potent source of hallucinogenic material in the Old World. it's a dud in the New World (partly because it does not do well here and also because there are 378 MORE POTENT wild plants, mushrooms and "stuff" in the New World).
The ancient records show that the priests/shamen ate soma then urinated into a container, and the devotees then drank the urine and got high.
That's exactly what goes on in the Far North these days ~ and is KNOWN to have been a custom among the Sa'ami up into historic times.
BTW, the Norse are not native to Scandinavia, so whatever they were doing "way back when" they were doing it somewhere else!
When they moved to Scandinavia the Sa'ami picked up on Thor and Odin. Thor Hyerdahl believed (and I think proved) that Odin was a real guy! Thor was a different story.
The Sa'ami also had FOUR HOUSEHOLD GODDESSES in their pantheon. They all had what seem to be quite suspiciously names more typical of Southern India than of Northern Indo-European sources.
Remember, the Sumerians were not Indo-Europeans and their most ancient tales are of visiting places with lots of ice ~ it is now believed the original Sumerian language was part of the Dravidian family.