2. Belonging to, characteristic of, or constituting another and very different place, society, or person; strange. See Synonyms at foreign. 3. Dissimilar, inconsistent, or opposed, as in nature: emotions alien to her temperament.
n, pl -thens or -then. 1. (Alternative Belief Systems) a person who does not acknowledge the God of Christianity, Judaism, or Islam; pagan. 2. an uncivilized or barbaric person. 3. (Alternative Belief Systems) the heathen (functioning as plural) heathens collectively.
Heathenism (also called Heathenry, or Germanic Heathenry) is the contemporary revival of historical Germanic paganism, therefore it is also frequently known as Germanic Neopaganism. Precursor movements appeared in the early 20th century in Germany and Austria. A second wave of revival began in the early 1970s.