Blogpost #2: The Windigo's Myth

Imagine yourself lost in the depths of the forest, then you feel a sensation of someone or something watching. Beware, traveler. It could be a bear, a mountain lion, or even worse, you're worst nightmare. A windigo.

In this blogpost, you will be introduced to the actual fearsome creature known as the Windigo where the Windigo Psychosis got its name from.

I've read an article entitled, "Creatures: Supernatural, Sci-fi, and Fantasy Beings" from the site blogspot.com which was written by Lauren. It said that the windigo has a variety of names such as wendigo, witigo, witiko, wee-tee-go, windago, wihtikow, weendigo, waindigo, and windiga. And all these names closely translate to "the evil that devours" which originated in the Algonquian mythology. They are believed to inhabit the norther woods of Minnesota and in the northern regions of Canada. A wendigo was once a man who turns into a cannibal to survive. It is said that if a man consumes human flesh, he would gain supernatural abilities like unfathomable speed, enhanced strength and immortality. It could also imitate human voices to lure their victims. And as he obtains more human flesh, he becomes less of a human. The windigo symbolizes greed and gluttony that's why it is associated with always being hungry and never satisfied after every kill. It is said that windigos are vulnerable to with protective circles, can be injured by silver tipped bows and arrows (much like of a werewolf) and can be killed by fire.

According to, Basil Johnston, as I've mentioned in my previous blogpost: "The Weendigo 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 Weendigo 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 Weendigo gave off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption."

The legends really emphasized the windigo as a blood-thirsty creature. Well, as far as all the articles I've read, it's true. It feeds on human flesh and never stops craving for murder because it can never be satisfied with all the lives that it feeds on. And that is its curse.

In another article that I've read that was entitled, "Wendigo" from monsterpedia.org that was written by an anonymous author. It says that in the tribes of Native Americans who spoke Algonquian, the windigo is a malevolent supernatural creature. It is usually described as a giant, estimated to be 15 feet tall with a heart of ice and sometimes it is thought to be entirely made of ice. Its body is skeletal and deformed, with missing lips and toes. According to Native American mythology, it can be killed by shattering its heart of ice. The early accounts of the windigo myth by explorers and missionaries date back to the 17th century. They described it generally as a werewolf.

Different origins of the windigo are portrayed in various mythologies and legends. The first one was, a hunter may become the windigo when encountering it in the forest at night, or when becoming possessed by its spirit in a dream. When the cannibalistic element of the myth is stressed, it is assumed that anyone who eats corpses in a famine becomes a Windigo as a result. The only way to destroy a Windigo is to melt its heart of ice. Another one was, a windigo will follow a lone wanderer for a long time. When the prey becomes suspicious and turns around the Wendigo always manages to get out of sight by hiding behind a tree. After a while the followed person starts to become hysterical and runs until he makes an error. The windigo then strikes. If someone actually survives a windigo attack they get the windigo-fever: after a night of nightmares and pain in their legs, windigo-fevered people strip themselves naked and run into the forest screaming. And lastly, in Cree mythology, the Windigo was a man-eating monster that was killed by the trickster hero Wesakechak and an ermine which he persuaded to help him.

According to, the Canadian poet George Bowering in his poem 'Windigo' he describes it as this:

"His huge round eyes

 bulge out of his head, lidless eyes
 rolling in red blood of pain,
 always rolling, blood sockets
 behind them."

There are a lot of articles that describes a windigo. Some descriptions are very alike but some are not but only descriptions that is always constant is... the windigo is a vicious creature who eats human flesh. Who can never be satisfied with all the people it has killed because as it consumes humans, the more it gets stronger and faster. It's like the Windigo is the ultimate Id. In which the Id removes all the humanity and reasoning in a person's mind and thrives of from the pleasures of sadism.