enigmatic puzzle - A-maze-ing Wordsearch

_{This is an entry to the 12th fortnightly challenge}

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You and your party realize that you possibly shouldn't have crossed the mad wizard at the black tower when all your vision goes pink and pale. When you come to your senses again, you are standing in a black corridor with a solid wall behind you and white marble floor stretching straight ahead into the darkness. The floor is tiled in large, white squares and the ceiling and all walls are pitch-black. Suddenly, you hear a voice coming from everywhere and nowhere.

"Ha! You thought you could escape me? Not in a thousand years! Welcome to my maze of eternal frustration. Know that these halls may seem to have several exits, but none behind you. There is only a single path across the tiles which you can safely walk, and if you step on a single wrong tile, well, you do not really want to know it..."

You glance with a worried frown to the floor. All tiles seem quite equal to you, offering no clue of which would be as treacherous as the wizard claims.

"I'm cruel but not unfair. Do you see the little map in front of you?"

You pick up a scroll form the floor, which just seconds ago definitely has not existed there!

"This is the map of these halls and the only clue I give you. Just remember: You may only step one tile at a time and if you step on an incorrect one, well, ... Ha Ha Ha Ha.... "

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Starting from the little arrow at the bottom (the entrance), find a single path to any of the other openings, but beware: Your path may not touch a single 'forbidden' tile (and neither can you jump over one or walk through walls). A correct solution consists of two things: The (correct) path and a detailed explanation why this is the (only) correct path.

Some particulars:

• No word with less than 4 letters is used in this puzzle.


• You may find more than you need. Remember: There has to be a single, valid set of 'instructions' which would guide you through the maze.


• Beware of too quickly drawn conclusions, as every misstep is, well....

Answer

The solution is this path:

The clues that give it to us:

Directions are hidden throughout the grid. Not just north/south/east/west/up/down/left/right, but the same in several other languages that are entries in the grid. There is only one way to orient "north" so you can follow the directions fully. Then, you can turn off of each word in the way it tells you to (go right off of "RIGHT", go north off of "NORTH"...); this leaves a unique path leading to an exit.

The complete list of connections is:

Bold letters indicate the connection point to the next word.

ENTER
RIGHT

LEFT
LEFT
RIGHT
SOUTH
UPWARD
WEST
RIGHT
RIGHT
NORTH
ORIENTUL - _{(Romanian for East)}

POHJOINEN - _{(Finnish for North)}
OSTEN - _{(German for East)}
WESTEN - _{(German for West)} --> this basically a turn-around on the spot!
NORTH
LEWO - _{(Polish for left)}
LINKS - _{(German for left)}
RECHTS - _{(German for right)}
NORTH
SJEVERNO - _{(Croatian for North)}
LINKS - _{(German for left)}

NORTH
WEST
EXIT

Here's the spreadsheet where we all figured this out; I've made copies at various times so you can see our progress. Many of the words are also highlighted in the sheet (though I'm sure we've missed some).