The Wendigo (also Windigo, Wiindigoo, Windago, Windiga, and numerous other variants) is a spirit in Algonquian 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. "Windigo Psychosis" is a culture-bound disorder which involves an intense craving for human flesh and fear that one will turn into a cannibal, occurring among Algonquian Indian cultures.
In Native American mythology
To 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,[citation needed] 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. 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.
References in popular culture
- 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.
- Ogden Nash wrote a humorous poem about the Wendigo
- 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.
- In Marvel Comics, the Wendigo is created by a curse that may have derived from the Arctic Gods or "Elder Gods".
- A creature called Wendigo also appears in episode twelve of the supernatural dramedy television series Charmed under the guise of FBI agent Ashley Fallon.
- In the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, the Fiend Folio has a Wendigo template.
- Wendigos are also featured as monsters in various computer and video games, including Final Fantasy and the Warcraft Universe.
- The cannibalistic aspect of the Wendigo myth plays a key role in the movie Ravenous, starring Guy Pearce
References
- 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.