There are a few different sources for how the wendigo is now widely perceived in Euro-American popular culture. I mentioned these in my post exploring variations on the wendigo monster:
- Algernon Blackwood wrote about a "wendigo" that resembled the Inuit ijiraq and possibly the Algic baykok.
- Theodore Roosevelt wrote about a "wendigo" that resembled the American bigfoot or sasquatch.
- August Derleth
was inspired by the original myths to invent Ithaqua, but even so that entity took just as many cues from stories of Old Man Winter.based his Ithaqua on Blackwood's story, not the original myths. - Stephen King wrote about a "wendigo" that resembled the Kandarian demon from Evil Dead.
- Marvel Comics tried to stay closer to the original myth, although they still took liberties that resulted in it more closely resembling the Metis rugaru (which, ironically, was based on the French loup-garou).
- Hannibal depicted a "wendigo" that resembled the peryton from Jorge Luis Borges' The Book of Imaginary Beings.
Most of these examples bear little or no resemblance to the wendigo myth and just recycle the name for an unrelated monster. But though wendigo in Euro-American popular cultures bears little to no resemblance to its original myths, popular culture has made lots of attempts to systematize it to the point where everyone can agree on what it looks like and what it does (i.e. the zombie were-deer). This contrasts the original myths, which were nebulous and inconsistent at the best of times, as folklore is wont.
This is no more obvious than when you read about the evolution of the myths across time and space. For example, the wendigo is currently used as a metaphor for the evils of colonialism and capitalism within modern Algonquin culture. Naturally, this depiction has not spread to Euro-American popular culture that continues to just regurgitate its entirely separate branch of reinvention.
The baykok and ijiraq have likewise undergone transformations across tribes and over the recent centuries. There are multiple different versions of the baykok in different tribes and the ijiraq has undergone a merger with another spirit. What follows is an attempt to cut through the confusion.
Baykok
While generally imagined as a flying skeleton ghost, the exact details vary by tribe. In some stories of Algonquin origin it just portends when a friend will get lost by rattling and squeaking its bones terribly. In other stories of Ojibwe origin it is the ghost of a starved hunter who now hunts the living with ghostly poisoned arrows, clubs them to death and then eats their flesh.
In other tales it is the patron of a cult of windigokan or "cannibal dancers," selecting initiates through their dreams. Contrary to what the name might imply, they were actually healers and exorcists. This may have been where Blackwood might have gotten the idea to conflate the two.
A variation on the baykok appears in Pathfinder Bestiary 3. It is a generic murderous undead.
Ijiraq
The ijiraq is a creature of Inuit folklore. The details vary, as folklore does. In some stories it is a shape-shifter who lures children, in others it flays its victim’s shins (or removes the shinbones) and makes them faster runners if they survive. The ijiraq is known to assume the form of a caribou in whole or in part, although it is by no means limited to a specific form.
The ijiraq was apparently undergoing a merger with the tariaksuq when the Canadian Aboriginal myths were first transcribed by Christian missionaries. While some interviewed considered them separate beings, others said they were different names for the same being. Near as I can tell, originally the ijiraq were trickster spirits whereas the tariaksuq were invisible people who otherwise lived like humans. Some descriptions of the ijiraq claim they invisibly live in tribes like people, which seemingly arose from conflation with the tariaksuq.
The article "What Do Place-Names Tell about non-Human Beings among Canadian Inuit?" by Guy Bordin in Journal of Northern Studies (Vol. 11 No. 1, 2017) includes a table on page 16 outlining the differences between these and other supernatural creatures of Inuit folklore.
A variation on the ijiraq appears in Pathfinder Bestiary 4. It is a generic shape-shifting fairy.
Etymology
Because the names of these monsters originate from oral traditions passed down through generations across several cultures, I have not been able to find a consistent spelling for the names. This makes cross-referencing sources very difficult unless you find a source which did the work for you. So I will do the work myself.- Wendigo is just one variant on the name, with others including windigo, windago, and witiku. As a presumably old word, it has acquired multiple different meanings and translations. These include "he who lives alone," "the hermit," "cannibal," "evil spirit," and "the evil spirit that devours mankind."
- Ijiraq or ijirait, translates to "invisible mountain spirits," "one that hides" or "those who have something about the eyes."
- Tariaksuq or tarriassuit, translates to "invisible people" or "shadow people."
- "Baykok" (IPA /bekak/) is actually an anglicized version of the Algic names. Spellings include baguck, bakaak, bekaak, pa·´guk` (Timiskaming), pa·´gαk (Timagami), paguk, pägûk (western Ojibway), pahguk, pakàk (Algonquin), pau'guk, paˣkaˣ (Menomini). The meaning is variable, but generally some variation of "skin draped bones," "skeletal decomposed remains," "skeleton," "flying skeleton," "skeleton being," or "flying-skeleton death spirit."
American "Wendigo" (aka Wild Hunt misidentified)
The zombie were-deer was almost certainly influenced by the medieval Christian conception of demons as horned goat-like beings, based on the demonization of pagan deities like Pan, Baphomet and Cernunnos. In fact, modern google searches show that people are now conflating the Wendigo with (mostly neo-pagan) nature deities like Herne the Hunter, Cernunnos, the Oak King and the Horned God, as well as unrelated cryptids and mythical monsters like the Jersey devil, Navajo skinwalker and Irish pooka.
This creature has no place in the folklore of the First Nations and is just another manifestation of the Wild Hunt. This really just goes to show that Euro-Americans have co-opted indigenous myth as a fresh coat of paint for our own myths because we genuinely cannot think of anything new or accept foreign myths as being unique and different. And that is a tragedy, boohoo cry me a river and drown the whole world.
A variation on this "wendigo" appears in Pathfinder Bestiary 2. Addendum 7/19/2018: It takes Blackwood's footless wind-borne wendigo and then shoehorns the cannibal curse from the Algonquin folklore into a bizarre mishmash.
Research links
- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wendigo
- http://nathanandersonart.tumblr.com/post/165304990939/name-ijiraq-area-of-origin-inuit-cultures
- http://nathanandersonart.tumblr.com/post/170967803384/name-wendigo-area-of-origin-algonquian-speaking
- https://thecloakedhedgehog.wordpress.com/2015/06/12/windigo/
- https://alannahkpearson.weebly.com/blog/tariaksup-ijiraq
- http://alphabeastiary.blogspot.com/2011/03/i-ijiraq.html
- http://www.inuitmyths.com/ijirait.htm
- http://www.jns.org.umu.se/JNS_1_2017_fulltext.pdf
- http://www.native-languages.org/hiawatha.htm
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFQ0j9HuP5Q
- https://monstrumclassicum.wordpress.com/2018/01/19/the-wendigo/
- https://anishinaabek.com/2014/08/28/wounded-warrior-struggles-from-the-other-side-of-the-frontline/
Gaming links
Bibliography
- Inuit Shamanism and Christianity: Transitions and Transformations in the Twentieth Century; by Frédéric B. Laugrand, Jarich G. Oosten
- Journal of Northern Studies - Vol. 11 • No. 1 • 2017
- Encyclopedia of Giants and Humanoids in Myth, Legend and Folklore; By Theresa Bane
- Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore; By Theresa Bane
- Wawenock Myth Texts from Maine; by Frank G. Speck
- Political Organizations, Cults, and Ceremonies of the Plains-Ojibway and Plains-Cree Indians; by Alanson Skinner
- The Plains Indian Clowns, their Contraries and related Phenomena; by John Plant
- An Encyclopedia of Shamanism Volume 2; by Christina Pratt
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