The Wendigo is the enigmatic cryptid of Native American legend. It’s been portrayed through several books, motion pictures, and folk stories. Famous as it is, there are many misconceptions as to the origins of the Wendigo, and the nature of the beast itself.

Join me, and we’ll descend into the origins of one of North America’s most terrifying and mysterious monsters.

7. Wendigos are Cruel Spirits

In many Algonquian legends, Wendigos are humans afflicted by a malicious spirit. The spirit latches onto vulnerable people, and slowly causes them to turn into monsters themselves.

A person infected by the evil Wendigo spirit may become withdrawn from society, and slowly descend into a hungering madness. Driven to seclusion and hatred, the victim is overwhelmed by an insatiable greed and appetite. The combination of ruthlessness, selfishness, and hunger cause the afflicted to eventually turn to cannibalism. Once a person has feasted on the flesh of their fellow human, there is no going back.

6. Certain People are Easier Targets

For someone to become a Wendigo, they must go through a rather gruesome metamorphosis. Often becoming emaciated, due to their excessive hunger/starvation, the bones of a Wendigo are typically visible through the skin. On some occasions, they’ve even been described as “protruding through the flesh”.

The Wendigo spirit may find particular individuals easier to possess than others. They favour traits such as selfishness, greed, gluttony, reckless/irresponsible treatment of the environment, or otherwise willingness to put one’s self ahead of others. Traditionally, these traits could be easily found in people who had already been isolated from society, or exiled, due to crimes against their people. Rapists, murderers, and thieves may be easy prey for a Wendigo spirit, and likely make for a smoother transition than someone who cares for their fellow human being, and respects life.

5. Originally Wendigos Didn’t Have Antlers

An antlered, humanoid depiction of a Wendigo

Once adopted by European settlers, many aspects of indigenous culture were significantly altered. This too was true in the case of the Wendigo. Modern stories about the creature often describe it as having stag-like antlers, large horns, or it’s entire head being similar to a cervine skull (that of a deer, moose or elk).

This change is probably due to the impact of similar creatures that stem from European legends. Werewolves, vampires, loup garou, and wolpertingers may all have been inspiration for the European adaptation of the Wendigo.

The Wendigo legends were easily adopted into white-American folklore, due to the similarity of the metamorphic nature of many legendary European cryptids.

The contrast between the cervine skull/antlers of the European version, and the original Wendigo’s more human-like form, is especially poignant when you consider the traditional Wendigo’s detachment, and disrespect for nature.

4. Wendigos are Cold and Stanky

Imagine living in the wilds, bare and exposed. No proper sense of hygiene, barely any concept of social graces. You’d probably stink too!

They don’t tend to be as well put together as this gentleman…

Wendigos were even worse. Constantly clouded in a miasmic shroud of putrescent stench, the smell of a Wendigo is unmistakable. It’s almost as if they, themselves, were living corpses in an advanced state of decomposition.

To add insult to injury, getting close enough to smell a Wendigo would lend you to feel them too. Their hearts had turned to chunks of ice, and it’s believed that along with their putrid stink, they carried an aura of biting cold.

A freezing chill to the air and terrible smell scent were considered harbingers of a Wendigo’s arrival.

3. It’s Possible to Stop the Transition

Once you begin the slow, painful, and existential metamorphosis into a Wendigo, you may feel your world turn upside down. Slowly, you’ll devolve into a starving, hulking, mass of bones and flesh. Perhaps you’ll feel your own chill? Smell your own stench? If you find yourself self aware enough to turn back, and resist the transformation, there is hope.

So long as you have not yet taken the final step to becoming a Wendigo (by partaking of human flesh), there’s a method that is believed to halt the transformation.

In Cree folklore, it is believed that to purge the Wendigo spirit, you need to feast on fatty animal meats, or better yet, animal grease. This will cause your body to eject the evil spirit through vomiting ice.

2. A Wendigo’s Weakness

In all likelihood, if you encounter a Wendigo, you’re probably screwed. They are bigger, faster, stronger, and more resilient than a human, but have been thought to take living humans as prisoners. Whether for a snack later, or other more nefarious reasons, if you end up the captive of a Wendigo, it’s important to go for its frozen heart.

In destroying the icy heart of the Wendigo, it’s believed that you will not only kill the Wendigo, but set free the spirit of the person hosting the Wendigo.

1. Wendigos can be Contagious

As I mentioned earlier, a Wendigo may take a human on as a captive. In one story, a young native boy, is held prisoner by a Wendigo, who forces the child to lead it to his people. In doing this, the Wendigo shows an intelligence and restraint that’s not commonly attributed to them. Obviously due to the child’s size, it’s not much of a meal, but this implies that Wendigos are capable of not only communication, but potential cohabitation with/manipulation of humans.

Some legends hint that Wendigos can, for a time at least, integrate with society. In these cases, the presence of the Wendigo can be infectious, in itself. This can lead to an overarching sense of evil pervading the minds and attitudes of the community, and possibly causing them to become Wendigos themselves.

Ultimately, there still may be much to learn about the Wendigo. The same way European culture altered the Wendigo, Hollywood has further cemented their new image. But what of their past? What of the origins of these monsters?

With so much rich history of the Native Peoples of North America lost, or passed down verbally, there’s never enough to sate our insatiable hunger…

Know something about Wendigos that I don’t? Got a bone to pick with some of my descriptions?

Leave a comment below, and set me straight!