Myth of the Week 013

Read about the Wendigo here.

“The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tautly over its bones. With its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, the Wendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. What lips it had were tattered and bloody [....] Unclean and suffering from suppurations of the flesh, the Wendigo gave off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption.”

— Basil H. Johnston, Ojibwe teacher and scholar from Ontario, Canada

Also of note is the cult horror film Wendigo, based on the folklore. Directed by the great Larry Fessenden and starring the incredible Patricia Clarkson, the film was panned but remains an effective, atmospheric creep-fest, IMHO.