The Goddess Hel

This thread has been moved to Heathenism from Misc Topics.

Over the years of being a proud heathen i have told my young cousin's story's that hel will be waiting to eat them if they became a Christian. And for some reason i feel bad about doing this to every young child in my family. But i do respect the goddess of the underworld

I think it's a little.. Disrespectful. To say the least.

I most certainly wouldn't think Hela would eat anyone for not being Heathen as it goes against what is known of her.

I also read that when vikings sailed, they would be weary of where the ship head was pointed as it was believed to scare away the spirits of the land. When in enemy territory, they would take the head of the ship off and carry it into the lands so the local wights would not interfere with their battles. I don't know much historical stock should be put into this, as I've not seen longships with detachable heads, but that could just be me.

It just made me curious what other uses masks, busts, and helms had within Heathenry.

From what I know, they didn't like intimidating posts on their ships because it was thought that it upset the landvaettir when strangers sailed into their land with the carved heads of their ships facing the land directly. I think it's because that arrangement is very similar to a nidstang, which has the carved head at the top and channels negative energy in the direction it's pointed. I've seen that cited many times, so I don't think it's just you, Eis.

As for the other part of what you wrote, there's actually a surprising amount of helms and other items found throughout the eddas, sagas, etc. There were a lot of magic rings and such too.