(18) WENDIGO

 

“The Wendigo, the Wendigo
I saw it just a friend ago
Last night it lurked in Canada
Tonight on your veranada!”

 

A malevolent supernatural being “in the mythologies of several Algonquian and Athabaskan peoples”, with its definitive characteristic as its monstrously voracious hunger, for eating you – or perhaps even worse, possessing you. While its definitive characteristic is its hunger for human flesh, whether literally as predation or metaphorically as possession, its more disturbing feature is its human origin – that the Wendigo is a human transformed into a cannibal monster.

The nature of that transformation varies – “you can become one just by coming across a Wendigo, being possessed by the spirit of a Wendigo or even dreaming of a Wendigo”. Of course, that suggests that somewhere down the chain, there must be an original Wendigo, which is where other causes of transformation might kick in, such as cannibalism or whatever.

The appearance of the Wendigo also varies – “its most common description is a dreadfully skinny giant of ice devoid of lips and toes”, although recently that’s been overtaken by having antlers or even a deer’s skull with antlers for a head due to recent media adaptations or depictions.

What also varies is the way it can be killed, if indeed it can be. “The more it devours, the larger and more powerful it grows, and thus it can never find enough food to satisfy its hunger”.

Although it varies, the Wendigo is consistently a “malevolent, cannibalistic, supernatural being” – “they were strongly associated with the north, winter, cold, famine, starvation”. As such, it has been widely adapted throughout popular culture, particularly in the horror genre.

 

RATING:

X-TIER (WILD TIER)