Name: Wendigo

Area of Origin: Algonquian speaking cultures; Ojibwa, Saulteaux, Cree, Naskapi, Innu

Although depictions vary from culture to culture, the Wendigo is consistently described as a supernaturally malevolent and cannibalistic being, associated with the winter and cold, as well as with famine and starvation. According to the most common descriptions among Algonquian cultures, the Wendigo is an emaciated corpse, with rotting and desiccated skin pulled tightly over a framework of bones… with eyes pulled deeply into its sockets, tattered and bloody lips, ashen in complexion and reeking of an odor reminiscent of decay and corruption. In some variations it is attributed to be a giant, and that whenever a Wendigo ate another person, it’d grow in proportion to its last meal; It would never be full and satisfied, and was thus seen as both gluttonous and insatiable, but also dying from starvation. The common pop-culture appearance it has now, notably as an undead caribou-human hybrid is most likely taken from a combination of the Tariaksuq and Ijiraq, as first-hand stories and accounts usually don’t describe the presence of antlers and other associated features.