That’s not a wendigo! Part deux

What characterizes specifically pre-modern wendigo stories is that the monster itself is typically a man-eating giant (known in anthropology and comparative mythology as an "ogre") that lives in the cold. Hence the generic name "ice cannibal" used in comparative mythology. Due to the overwhelming negative influence of Western colonialism, the modern wendigo stories told by Ojibwa re-purpose the motif as a Mammon figure.

As I have said before, this is completely absent in appropriations of the wendigo name by Euro-American popular culture. I already went over some Euro-American wendigo depictions and how accurate or inaccurate they were. Keep in mind that the wendigo stories have changed over time and any matter of authenticity is decided by the surviving Algonquin peoples, not some random ignorant morons on the internet.

So I assembled a list of monsters in popular culture that are called or compared to "wendigo" by commentators, but never referred to as such in the original work itself. Most of these have nothing in common with ice cannibal stories, and comparisons are only made because of that stupid moose skull meme.

• The Beast, Over the Garden Wall.
• The Pestilent God, Channel Zero: Butcher’s Block. 
• Jersey Devil, The Wolf Among Us.
• Leshen, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
• Moder, The Ritual. 
• Cleric Beast, Bloodborne. 
• Kandar the Destroyer, Ash vs Evil Dead.
• The Mordeo, CryptTV.

At least thematically, some of these monsters display similarity to certain aspects of some wendigo stories. But these are largely generic forest demons, giants and such. Some might eat souls, brutally butcher people or be transformed from humanity, but nothing of that is specific to wendigo. "The Girl in the Basement" probably has more in common with the wendigo thematically.

Cannibalism granting you power at the cost of your humanity only plays a role in the stories of "the Pestilent God" and "the Mordeo." Both creatures look like the generic creepypasta goatman, yet the authors chose not to call them "wendigo." (The creator of the Mordeo explicitly stated that it was based on the wendigo stories, although obviously very loosely.) I will give the authors credit for not engaging in cultural appropriation, and I admire the ease with which they did so. So many other authors are too lazy to just make up their own names and mythology.

Fun fact: mordeo is Latin for "I bite, nibble, gnaw." Quite apt, don't you think?

Something I didn't mention in prior posts was that the "wendigo" has taken a life of its own in the folklore of non-Algonquin Euro-American settlers. Sightings describe it as a tall, hairy creature with antlers. It is alternately considered an omen of death, or a territorial protector of the forest that punishes trespassers and those who disrespect nature. These stories seem intended to promote tourism (Nathan Robert Brown, The Mythology of Grimm: The Fairy Tale and Folklore Roots of the Popular TV Show).