The Wendigo is a terrifying mythological creature, sometimes depicted as an evil spirit, originating in the folklore of the Algonquian people of North America. It can possess human beings — especially those tainted by greed or the sin of tasting human flesh — instilling in them an insatiable hunger, prompting them to kill other people and eat them, essentially turning them into wendigoes themselves.
It is often described as a lost hunter driven mad by hunger in the wilderness. However, some say it’s a relative of Bigfoot, and others say it’s reminiscent of a werewolf. Regardless, it’s not to be trifled with.
Get ready to be thoroughly weirded out because, in this piece, we’ll take you through ten of the creepiest facts about one of the most horrifying legendary creatures.
10. Its physical form is putrid
While the wendigo most often takes the form of an intangible evil spirit, it also manifests as a fully mortal being — and to say it’s not too pleasing to the eyes and nose would be an enormous understatement.
The skeletal creature has a stag’s skull for a head, haunting recessed eyes, and painfully tight skin stretched over its bones. It looks zombified, smells horrendous, and decomposes as it moves, making its appearance and mindless hunger similar to those of the walking dead. Despite its tremendous and imposing height (generally said to be around 15 feet), it seems fragile and sickly.
9. It’s impossible to escape from
Though the wendigo’s size and appearance make it seem slow and ungainly, it’s tremendously fast. It also possesses several other vital abilities that make it impossible for a human to escape.
For starters, it’s inhumanly strong. Once the wendigo gets a hold of its victims, they aren’t breaking free. But it also has supernatural levels of endurance and heightened senses, meaning it’s relentless in the hunt and knows precisely where its victims are at all times. Moreover, it can mimic human voices, meaning it can lure its victims in before doing as it pleases with them.
8. It often drives its victims mad before devouring them
The wendigo takes immense pleasure in frightening its victims, so its killing of them isn’t always instant. In many cases, it’s said to torment the poor individuals it targets for a prolonged period before ultimately devouring them, which terrifies them to the point of breaking their minds.
It plagues them with hideous odors only they can smell, inflicts nightmarish visions on them, keeps them awake for inhumanly long spells, imposes a powerful burning sensation on their bodies, and infects them slowly with “wendigo fever” until they’re driven insane.
7. Its hunger is never satisfied
It’s bad enough that the wendigo eats humans, but it’s even scarier that its hunger is neverending. It’s seen as the embodiment of gluttony, and legend says that when it consumes a human, it grows proportionately to that person, meaning it’s impossible ever to be sated.
So, if you’re part of a large group and one or even two members of the group fall victim to a wendigo, don’t feel safe in the knowledge that it’s been fed and feels satisfied — that foul beast is undoubtedly still coming to devour you.
6. It grows stronger as it ages
Wendigo lore suggests that the creature strengthens and gains more powers as it ages. Therefore, any hope of it naturally dying or becoming feebler as it ages is futile.
As well as becoming physically stronger, faster, more robust, and better at healing, some of the powers it’s said to develop as it ages include bringing darkness to the area it inhabits before the sun sets, controlling and manipulating the weather, and controlling other creatures in the forest, meaning it can tell other predators to attack targets on command.
5. There have been real examples of wendigo possession
It’s all well and good telling stories about the wendigo’s mythology, but there have been real-life instances of (supposed) wendigo possession. The most notable example is probably that of a Cree man in 1878.
His name was Swift Runner, and one bleak day, near a Hudson Bay Company’s supply post, he was overcome with the need to murder and eat his whole family. Authorities found the mutilated remains of his wife and their five children. He confessed to the foul deed but blamed the incident on being possessed by a wendigo. Regardless, he was sentenced to execution at Fort Saskatchewan for his actions.
4. Tribes held ceremonies to ward off the wendigo
Fear of the wendigo is genuine and dates back centuries. Several North American tribes lived in terror at the prospect of facing the creature and had plans in place to deal with said prospect.
One such plan was for the tribes to perform a ceremonial dance to ward off the wendigo. Another purpose of the ritual was to drive home the potential threat of the formidable supernatural creature into the minds of the tribe’s people during harsh winters. Additionally, the dances encouraged cooperation and moderation during difficult periods.
3. It appears prominently in popular culture
While this isn’t a creepy fact, it will direct you to some media that will scare you silly. The wendigo has been a staple of popular culture for many years, appearing in books, comics, television, movies, and more.
Perhaps most famously, in Marvel’s comic books, the wendigo isn’t one specific person but instead a manifestation of a curse that befalls anyone who commits a cannibalistic act in the Canadian North Woods. Marvel’s versions of the creature have fought the likes of the Hulk and Wolverine. Scary movies you should check out featuring the wendigo include 2001’s Wendigo and 2022’s The Wendigo.
2. It has a heart made of ice
The wendigo is strongly associated with winter and is often described as the personification of cold and hunger. One of the things that epitomizes this description is that the creature is said to have a heart made of ice.
That literal physical coldness also manifests in the environment, as victims of the wendigo are said to experience unseasonal chills — even on a scorching hot day — when the creature begins to approach them with malicious intentions.
1. There’s an actual condition called “Wendigo psychosis”
Such is the prominence of the creature in contemporary culture that modern psychiatry has identified a condition and named it “Wendigo psychosis” after the legend of the wendigo.
Described as a culture-bound syndrome due to it only being recognized in certain areas (North America being an obvious example), wendigo psychosis comes with a combination of psychiatric and somatic symptoms, including an overwhelming craving for human flesh, insatiable greed, destroying the environment, and a crippling phobia of becoming a cannibal.