WE ARE A HEATHEN WARRIOR TRIBE We are heathens, and we say that with pride. The word heathen comes from the Old English hǣþen, rooted in the Proto-Germanic haiþinaz, meaning “dweller of the heath.” It refers to those who lived outside the reach of the Roman world—free people, whose faith was bound to the land, the tribe, the gods, and the unseen. This same root survives across the Germanic languages: In German, Heide means a person of the heath, and heidnisch means heathen, pagan, non-Christian.