Wendigo

The Wendigo is a scary monster from North American indian legend that has been encountered by hunters and campers in the shadowy forests of the upper regions of Minnesota. It attacks those unlucky enough to cross its path and eats them whole.

Local Indian tribes tell tales of a evil creature or spirit of the wilderness. They call it “Witigo”, “Witiko” or “Wee-Tee-Go” which means “the evil spirit that devours mankind”.

It’s hunger for human flesh can’t be satisfied and it claims its victims during the night. The wendigo typically stalks hunters or travelers in the woods and thrives in harsh conditions and freezing winters.

They say the creature is gigantic, over fifteen feet tall, and it was once human but was transformed into a monster centuries ago because it resorted to cannibalism while lost out in the remote snowbound forests. It still has the abiltiy to take human form in order to trick and lure its victims to their demise.

Though all of the descriptions of the creature vary slightly, the Wendigo is generally said to have glowing red eyes, long yellowed fangs and a really long tongue. It’s body is matted with fur and some say it has the giant head of a deer, others the huge head of a wolf.

Some say it is the harbringer of death and that if you hear the creature’s voice calling your name faintly in the wind, in the lonely wilderness night, it means you are its next victim. Those who have heard the Wendigo have lost their minds, and unable to resist, went running out into the dark snowy night, never to return.

There are still many stories told of Wendigo’s that have been seen in northern Ontario, near the Cave of the Wendigo, and around the town of Kenora, where a creature has been spotted by traders, trackers and trappers for decades. There are many who still believe that the Wendigo roams the woods and the prairies of northern Minnesota and Canada.

In 1907 a Cree Indian named Jack Fiddler was sent to prison for killing a woman he said was in the process of turning into a Wendigo.

There is a short story you can read about the Wendigo called Burning Feet. There is another very long scary story called The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood which you can read online.

In the novel “Call of the Wendigo” by Robin Hardy, four teenagers at tennis camp encounter a monster with a heart of ice that devours bodies and souls. The creature also appeared in episodes of the tv shows Supernatural, Charmed, Psi Factor and Blood Ties.

In Charmed, the Wendigo looks like a normal person during the day but then it transforms at night. It survives by feeding on human hearts. The first Wendigo was a mortal who was betrayed by his lover. He cut out her heart and ate it. As soon as he did, his own heart turned to ice and that’s how he became a monster.

The 2001 movie Wendigo starred Dewey from Malcolm in the Middle as a young boy whose imagination conjours up the vicious Native American spirit of the woods.

The Dark Horse comic book series BPRD features a Wendigo – a creature of the Canadian wilderness that is a cursed ghost looking for another soul to take its place, so that the original host can rest in peace. “Daryl”, the man who inhabits the Wendigo still remembers his life and his family, and he wants to return to this normal existence.

There is also a Marvel comic book called Wendigo and the horror comic Eerie features a comic strip about this famous creature in issue #10.

There is a poem by Ogden Nash which goes like this:

“The wendigo, the wendigo
It’s eyes are ice and indigo
It’s blood is thick and yellowish
It’s voice is hoarse and bellowish”.