Máttaráhkká

Accounts place Máttaráhkká within Sámi cosmology as an originating female power involved in the embodiment of the fetus: in one recorded account (Christfried Ganander, 1789) Radien-attje gives a child to Máttaráhkká, who gives it life and hands it to Sáráhkká to place in the mother's womb. Scholarly interpretation (Kaarle Krohn) has proposed that Máttaráhkká and related names (cf. Finnish Manteren akka and the Kola Sámi mändir-ähke) may preserve an older notion of an ancestral female buried in the ground and venerated by descendants; this is presented as an interpretive hypothesis rather than a primary-source myth. Regionally, Máttaráhkká's cultic roles vary: in Western Sápmi she appears in a group with three daughters (Sáráhkká, Juoksáhkká, Uksáhkká), while such daughters are not attested in some Eastern Sápmi sources. Following Christianization, she was commonly associated or syncretized with the Virgin Mary.

The sources supplied do not record a consistent or detailed iconography for Máttaráhkká. She is characterized primarily by role and location (a mother figure who lives in the ground under the goahti) rather than by fixed physical description. Some Sámi drum iconography includes figures identified as Máttaráhkká and in some instances the drum corpus shows a husband figure named Máttaráhttje, but precise visual attributes, clothing, or standardized form are not documented in the provided materials. Regional variation in representation is implied by differing local traditions.

Máttaráhkká is described as giving a child its body (part of a chain of birthing powers recorded in historical accounts), making female humans and animals fertile, and acting as a helper and protector of women in matters of pregnancy and childbirth. She was petitioned with libations—drinks offered so she would be merciful toward a pregnant woman. Her active role in embodiment is attested in Ganander's 1789 account (Radien-attje → Máttaráhkká → Sáráhkká → woman's womb). Her daughters in Western Sápmi share helper roles for women. Beyond these functions, the supplied sources do not ascribe hostile or destructive powers to her.