What if everything is based on the Sámi worldview?
The Sámi shaman, or Noaidi, was a spiritual guide and mediator of his Sámi siida, or village-collective. He had the ability to travel through the three realms of spiritual reality in which the Sámi believed, during a trance state. His purposes for contacting the other realms were many: finding game and performing hunting-related rituals, foretelling the future (divination), uncovering secrets, healing, bestowing good or bad fortune, manipulating the weather, providing protection from a hostile noai’de, and communicating/mediating with the dead, the spirits of nature, gods, and the unseen worlds.
For the Noaidi, the drum and the yoik were two very important aspects of the Sámi culture that aided the shaman in his transcendental journey. The drum, or govadas, typically had images painted on the skin surface in alder bark juice and sometimes had images carved into the sides of the wooden bowl, often made of birch. The images painted on the surface of the drum served as a map for the Noaidi in his travels through the other realms. The images depicted were that of the sun, in the center, and different spirits which the Noaidi would encounter on the different levels, including his own gáccit, the helper spirit.
The Sámi pre-Christian worldview was based on polytheism, shamanism, and animism. They held the belief that there were multiple gods and spirits inhabiting the three different realms of existence: the upper, middle, and the lower levels. The middle level was earth, where man lived (although spirits resided here also, such as some female spirits that aided in childbirth). The upper and lower levels were the spirit realms. When humans died on earth, their souls would move to the lower level, which was divided into four realms. Saivu was a good place for spirits, while Ruta was a negative place. Saivu was believed to be an ‘upside-down’ version of the living realm on earth. Noaidi could travel to these different realms to heal people or contact spirits, among other purposes. The spiritual realms may have seemed inaccessible to the untrained eye, but the Sami believed that everything was interconnected and spirituality flowed through all things. The Sami believed that they were descendants of the sun, their father. They were also very deeply connected with nature and the cyclical passage of time represented in the cycle of the seasons. (source)
Reconstruction of the ancient Sami world-view (source):
Proto- Uralic world-view:
@virtual-winter
So Ahtohallan here could be the lower level (dark and cold) and the land of the dead souls. In this concept art Elsa and Anna are travelling in the middle level on earth, the human world. The castle up in the sky then would be the upper level (bright and warm), the realm where the gods are living; and all is connected by a river in this concept. I bet this time it was Anna who was leading the way. Last time it was Elsa who followed the call to the north.
