Growing up, the vast variety of folklore was enough to invoke fear in my 8 year old heart. Although with this fear, came curiosity of the unknown. I remember countless hours at home with my family watching shows such as finding Bigfoot and dreaming of being the person who would finally prove the existence of the sasquatch. I would not consider myself superstitious by any means, but with such a large scale amount of witnesses of these mythical beings, it left the younger version of me with a lot of time on my hands to explore such peculiar circumstances.
Particularly, the folk legend that garnered my interest was that of the Wendigo. Although it is rather far fetched in terms of its believability, the sense of morality that the stories seemingly are trying to teach is what truly grasped my attention. The origin of the wendigo began within the lives of the Natives. It was much more common for people at that time to settle for cannibalism as a means to survive harsh climates or dire situations. The legend has it that those who engage in this activity make themselves vulnerable to possession of the wendigo spirit, ultimately transform into a creature with an undying urge of hunger. I find this concept rather interesting because rather than it just being a "scary story", it can also be used as a teaching point for the morality of humanity and right from wrong albeit in an extreme case.
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Hi Tayvon, when you brought up the Wendigo, that brought up some childhood flashbacks for me! I remember hearing about the Wendigo when I was a lot younger than I am now, and I totally forgot about it until now! When I learned about it years ago in elementary school, I fully believed it. Now, I don't believe in it so much, but I really appreciate you bringing this up for me! I enjoyed reading your post!
ReplyDeleteHi Tayvon, I completely agree in the fascination of the Wendigo mythology, which is strongly established in the folklore of numerous Indigenous peoples, hearing about it after so long definitely bring some lost memories of when is used to research on folklores, which somewhat sad that people don't really look into it. While the reality of the creature is unclear, the cultural importance and values linked with the mythology are worth looking into. Not to mention the historical context in which the legend of the Wendigo emerged.
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