The Wendigo in Native American mythology
In the mythology of the Algonquin tribe of Native Americans, the Wendigo (or Windigo) 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. It is noted for its fearsome cruelty and diet of human flesh. Also, any human who partook of human flesh (as a means of combating starvation) was believed to become such a creature himself. He would forever be tortured by an unyielding hunger for more human flesh.
This myth was used as a deterent 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.
Actual Wendigo murder trials took place in Canada around the beginning of the 20th century. The alleged clinical condition of believing oneself to be a Wendigo has been described as Windigo (note the spelling: not Wendigo) Psychosis.
The Wendigo in Fiction
Algernon Blackwood's 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. 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:
the Wendigo stalks hunters in the forest, eats moss, can be heard crashing through the trees,
has a terrifying voice, and is associated with insanity.
Robert Colombo has collected a whole book of stories and poems on the Wendigo, many inspired by Blackwood.
Ogden Nash wrote the following poem about the Wendigo:
The Wendigo,
The Wendigo!
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!
The Wendigo,
The Wendigo!
I saw it just a friend ago!
Last night it lurked in Canada;
Tonight, on your veranada!
As you are lolling hammockwise,
It contemplates you stomachwise.
You loll,
It contemplates,
It lollops.
The rest is merely gulps and gollops.
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 the day, but as a cannibal. 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 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.
Despite the title, the movie
Wendigo (http://www.thewendigo.com) does not bear much resemblance to the legend. The movie Ravenous is arguably closer; the term windigo is mentioned by a Native American scout.
In Marvel Comics, the Wendigo is created by a curse of unknown origin: Anyone who eats human flesh while in the Canadian woods becomes one. 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 lifted off a person, by a shaman who knows the appropiate spell; yet the curse itself still exists in Canada. The victim will not remember what he did as a Wendigo.
It is also referenced in the TV series Charmed, when Piper Halliwell turns into a wendigo in the episode "The Wendigo".
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.
External links
Cannibals, Clowns, Wendigo and Other crazy stuff (http://wendigokaan.tripod.com/cannibalsclownswendigoandothercrazystuff/index.html)
The Wendigo By Algernon Blackwood (http://www.horrormasters.com/Text/a0228.pdf)
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