Wendigo
The
Wendigo (also
Windigo,
Wiindigoo, and numerous other variants, since the word appears in many different Native American languages and dialects) is a spirit in
Anishinaabe mythology. It has also become a stock horror character much like the
vampire or
werewolf, although these fictional depictions often do not bear much resemblance to the original mythology.
In the
mythology of the
Algonquian-speaking tribes of
Native Americans, the
Wendigo is a malevolent
supernatural creature. It is usually described as a giant with a heart of ice; sometimes it is thought to be entirely made of ice. Its body is
skeletal and deformed, with missing lips and toes.
The first accounts of the Wendigo myth by explorers and missionaries date back to the 17th century. They describe it rather generically as a
werewolf,
devil, or
cannibal.The Wendigo was usually presumed to have once been human. Different origins of the Wendigo are described in variations of the myth. A hunter may become the Wendigo when encountering it in the forest at night, or when becoming possessed by its spirit in a dream. When the cannibalistic element of the myth is stressed, it is assumed that anyone who eats corpses in a famine becomes a Wendigo as a result. The only way to destroy a Wendigo is to melt its heart of ice. In recent times, it has been identified with
Sasquatch or
Bigfoot by
cryptozoologists, but there is little evidence in the indigenous folklore for it being a similar creature.
Perhaps this myth was used as a deterrent and cautionary tale among northern tribes whose winters were long and bitter and whose hunting parties often were trapped in storms with no recourse but to consume members of their own party. It could be indicative of starvation that the Wendigo is said to consume
moss and other unpalatable food when human flesh is unavailable. Its physical deformities are suggestive of starvation and
frostbite, so the Wendigo may be a myth based on a personification of the hardships of winter and the
taboo of cannibalism.
In some stories a Wendigo will follow a lone wanderer for a long time. When the
prey becomes suspicious and turns around the Wendigo always manages to get out of sight by hiding behind a tree. After a while the followed person starts to become hysterical and runs until he makes an error. The Wendigo then strikes. If someone actually survives a Wendigo attack they get the Wendigo-fever: after a night of nightmares and pain in their legs, Wendigo-fevered people strip themselves naked and run into the forest screaming.
The most comprehensive resource on the Wendigo is
John Robert Colombo's
anthology. It contains stories and poems on the Wendigo, many inspired by
Algernon Blackwood's.
The
anthropologist Morton Teicher has described the alleged clinical condition of believing oneself to be a Wendigo, which he calls
Windigo Psychosis. The article is reprinted in Colombo's anthology.
*
Algernon Blackwood's 1910
horror story
The Wendigo introduced the legend to
horror fiction. Blackwood's story eschews the aspect of cannibalism in favour of a more subtle psychological horror; a central theme is that whoever sees the Wendigo
becomes the Wendigo (or at least something rather like it). The reader never sees the Wendigo, though we witness the progressive dehumanization of a character who has seen it. Blackwood based his story, he claims, on an actual incident of Wendigo panic in a lonely valley while he lived in Canada. He worked many details of the Native American legend into the story. Blackwood's Wendigo:
** stalks hunters in the forest
** can be heard crashing through the trees
** leaves distinctive tracks
** has a terrifying voice
** is associated with insanity
** eats moss.
However, Blackwood's Wendigo is not a former human, but a primordial pre-human spirit, in keeping with Blackwood's private nature
mysticism.
* The Canadian poet
George Bowering wrote a poem 'Windigo'. In it, he describes the Wendigo in some detail:
His huge round eyes: bulge out of his head, lidless eyes: rolling in red blood of pain,: always rolling, blood sockets: behind them.
*
Ogden Nash wrote a humorous poem about the Wendigo, where the appearance of the Wendigo is characterized with the lines::Its eyes are ice and indigo! :Its blood is rank and yellowish! :Its voice is hoarse and bellowish! :Its tentacles are slithery, :And scummy, :Slimy, :Leathery! :Its lips are hungry blubbery, :And smacky, :sucky, :rubbery! As Canadian author
Margaret Atwood points out, Nash's description is only partly true to the legend, since the Wendigo does not have blubbery lips, much less tentacles.
* The book
Fearsome Critters collects similar legendary creatures.
* Windigo Psychosis features prominently in
Thomas Pynchon's short story "Mortality and Mercy in Vienna" [
1]
* In the
Cthulhu Mythos created by
H.P. Lovecraft and his contemporaries, the Wendigo is another title for
Ithaqua the Windwalker, one of the
Great Old Ones who seems to be restricted to those parts of the earth that are predominantly cold, favouring Alaska and North America. This is derived, via
August Derleth, from Blackwood.
* In Stephen King's novel
Pet Sematary, the eponymous graveyard marks the path to another, older burial ground, which in centuries past had been cursed by the Wendigo. Any corpse buried there would be re-animated within a day, albeit deranged and homicidal. At one point in the novel the protagonist believes that the Wendigo has passed in front of him in the woods; but it is a foggy night, and he is fortunately unable to see it. The Wendigo is also presumably the form that the God of the Lost takes in Stephen King's
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.
* The 1944 mystery novel
Rim of the Pit by
Hake Talbot features a windigo as a possible explanation for a murderer who appears to be able to fly.
* In
Alan Moore's story "Allan and the Sundered Veil", which accompanied the graphic novel
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,
Allan Quatermain's body turns into a Wendigo during an astral travel induced by a drug called Taduki.
* In
Michael Crichton's
The 13th Warrior (originally titled
Eaters of the Dead), the Wendigo myth is linked to the
Grendel character from
Beowulf. Crichton even implies an
etymological evolution from 'Grendel' to 'Wendigo.'
* In the juvenile-oriented
Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark by
Alvin Schwartz, the Wendigo was described as "attracting victims by calling to them in an irresistible way, then bears them away at great speed, finally sweeps them into the sky, then drops them, leaving them with frozen stumps where their feet once were, As they are carried off, they characteristically scream, '...My fiery feet, my burning feet of fire!'" This quote as well as the other details are taken straight from Blackwood's story.
* Another children's book of scary short stories,
Giant, Short, & Shivery, has a short story about a Wendigo. In it, a group of sailors arrive on an island and are met by a native
orphaned boy, who warns them of "the thing that's watchin' - watchin' from the trees." Eventually, the Wendigo comes and takes away the cruel
captain by grabbing him through the door of their
cabin with a giant
hand made of snow with ice for
fingernails.
* In
Alan Sullivans' s short story '
The Essence of a Man', a Wendigo preys upon the mind and will of the protagonist Tom Moore, a Native American. Tom is able to overcome the power of the Wendigo, when another (unnamed) spirit calls out to him.
* In Linda Hogan's
Solar Storms, a main character's estranged mother is possessed by the windigo. The characters are Native Americans so the depiction is powerful. When the main character was a child her mother tried to eat part of her face because of the windigo. The mother doesn't overcome the spirit.
* In
Marvel Comics, the
Wendigo is created by a curse that may have derived from the Arctic Gods or "Elder Gods". Anyone who eats human flesh while in the Canadian woods becomes a Wendigo. This Wendigo is a huge, apelike being of white fur, without human intelligence. Its strength is great enough to battle Marvel heroes like
The Incredible Hulk or
Wolverine. The curse can be transferred from one person to another by a
shaman who knows the appropriate spell; the former victim of the curse will not remember what he or she did as a Wendigo.
** In another reality of Marvel Comics,
Earth X, there is a creature that has struck fear into the mutant populace. This variation of Wendigo is not like the rest, typically characterized by only one Wendigo present, but rather forms an army of Wendigo, due to the curse afflicting
Multiple Man.
** Another creature called the Wendigo appeared in
Amazing Spider-Man 277 vol. 1. The creature seems more like Blackwood's portrayal; it is a supernatural entity, pale green and dragon like in appearance, and its very presence in New York caused a huge blizzard to strike the city. It appears at the end of the story where it devours a thug who had attempted to kidnap the child of a diplomat.
* Due to the prevalence of Native American themes and beliefs in
Twin Peaks, some fans have speculated that the main villain
BOB is actually the Wendigo.
* A creature called Wendigo also appears in episode twelve of the
supernatural dramedy television series
Charmed under the guise of
FBI agent Ashley Fallon, who later attacks
Piper Halliwell, which causes the main character to
transform into a Wendigo herself. Charmed's Wendigo mixes elements of the original Wendigo myths (e.g. the heart of ice, the causing of fever on the victim and the cannibalistic origin) and werewolves of modern fiction (e.g. transformation in connection with the full moon, aggressivity, losing morality and becoming the creature by means of being scratched). The creature itself was given a look that is a cross between a werewolf and a sasquatch. The defeat of the Wendigo is a quite literal use of the melting of the heart of ice�"the creature is killed with a flare gun. After the defeat, Wendigo Piper returned to normal, but ended up naked (the transformation ripped off her clothes) and freezing.
* Despite the title, the movie
Wendigo (film) [
2] does not bear much resemblance to the legend, since the Wendigo in this movie was part man, part deer.
** The movie
Ravenous is arguably closer; the term
windigo is mentioned by a Native American scout. In that film, a crazed cannibal preys on the staff of a military outpost in the Sierra Nevadas.
* The werewolf curse in the
Ginger Snaps movies originates from the Wendigo.
* The new WB series
Supernatural has the lead characters encountering a Wendigo in episode 2. Its first airdate was September 20th, 2005. Wendigo behaviours in this episode include cannibalism, a frightening roar, and extreme speed and strength. However, this version also has the ability to mimic other peoples' voices and climb trees. It is also a dark green color and highly flammable. Centuries earlier, this Wendigo had been an
Anasazi who was on a hunting expedition. The members of the hunting party were starving. One man ate his fellow tribesmen and gained special powers, becoming a Wendigo.
* In the second season of the Scifi series
The Invisible Man, a creature called a Wendigo is encountered in the episode Legends. It was very much like a sasquatch, and
Gigantopithecus blackii was referred to as well. The creature was able to make itself turn invisible at will and was a precursor to the government's creation of an invisible man.
* An episode of
PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal depicts the Wendigo as being normal in appearance, concealing its ravenous intent in order to avoid capture.
* A Norwegian grunge/funk/rock band is called Wendigo.
* In the
MMORPG The Five Pillars, Wendigoes are units summoned by forest-affiliated mages. They have little in common with the traditional Wendigo, as these are benevolent forest spirits. They serve mostly as damage-absorbers, as they have high health and resistance, but low attack power.
* In the
role-playing game Shadowrun, the Wendigo is an
ork infected by the
HMHVV (Human Meta Human Vampiric Virus). He feeds on human flesh and looks like a white
Sasquatch.
* In the
role-playing game Werewolf: The Apocalypse, the
Wendigo are a
tribe of Garou (werewolves) with almost exclusively Amerindian kinfolk. They claim Canada and the northern United States as their homeland, and are locked in the almost hopeless struggle against the encroachment of
Wasichu society and its effects. This same tribe follows the spirit of "The Great Wendigo", a mighty spirit of the winter and the wind who takes the form of a great white wolf and aids his people in their times of need. The spirit is known to be a cannibal spirit, and many garou of the wendigo tribe are likewise reputed by outsiders to have a temptation to eat human (or garou) flesh.
*In the
role-playing game Deadlands Wendigo is one of the main
bestiary features and its origins and looks are much like those from
Native American legends- It is very powerful creature looking a bit like
Yeti. It is rumored that Wendigos are humans that were lost in the mountains during a blizzard, forced to cannibalize their comrades to stay alive, and because of that terrible sin they are turned into beasts.
*In the
trading card game Magic: The Gathering, in the
Ice Age-set, there is a card named
Wiitigo. It gains strength when it engages in combat, and loses strength when it stays passive.
* Wendigos are also featured as monsters in various
computer and video games. In the
first-person shooter heXen, Wendigos live in arctic environments and they can shoot ice shards from their wrists. The
computer role-playing game Diablo II features the Wendigo as a large and weak yeti-like creature, commonly found in grasslands and deserts. In the
Warcraft Universe (as seen in
Warcraft III and
World of Warcraft), a Wendigo is a large and powerful Yeti-like creature found in snowy areas such as Northrend and other cold regions. In
Final Fantasy VIII, a Wendigo is a random encounter enemy located just outside of Deling City. Wendigos also appear in
Final Fantasy X. They make another appearance in
Final Fantasy XI as a
skeleton-type creature. Wendigo is also a boss battle in "
The Legend of Dragoon".
* A Wendigo creature appears in N°8 of Italian western-horror comic book
Magico Vento, spelled
Windigo.
* Windigo is one of the villains in the
Monster in My Pocket comic book, also as an action figure in the series with a trading card, and a surprise cameo (not noted in the manual) in the last scene of the video game.
* In the PC game
Ghost Master one of the ghosts, named "Windwalker" appears to be a wendigo. It has large, bulging eyes and no lips, certainly one of the creepier ghosts.
*Colombo, J.R. ed. Wendigo. Western Producer Prairie Books, Saskatoon: 1982.
*Teicher, M. Windigo Psychosis: A study of Relationship between Belief and Behaviour among the Indians of Northestarn Canada. American Ethnological Society: 1960.
*
Cannibals, Clowns, Wendigo and Other crazy stuff*
The Wendigo By Algernon Blackwood*
The Windigo & Windigo Psychosis*
Article on the Wendigo at the Bigfoot Museum*
Wendigo (film)*
The Cryptid Zoo: Windigo
