Are the Man Eating Wendigo and Wechuge Stalking the Forests of Canada?

If there's anything mythology has told me, a heavy club studded with silver, blessed with holy water, adorned with garlic flowers, has a cross bolted on it and sprinkled with white ash and iron dust will kill goddamn anything.

Genuinely? This is one of the most respectful and well-researched videos relating to the Wendigo I've ever seen. You didn't sensationalize them, you spoke of them and the culture they're from with regard and respect and honestly that's a sad breath of fresh air. Thank you for that.

The Wendigo, not to be confused with the Wendigoon

The taboos thing is interesting, reminds me of Cuchulain in Celtic mythology. He had two taboos, one to never eat the meat of a dog (his name means 'hound of Cullan') and to never refuse hospitality offered to him. So, of course one of his enemies tripped him up by offering him dog meat, and he couldn't refuse.

The Wechuge seems similar to the Chenoo which have hearts of ice. Also the story of the little boy that the Wendigo was waiting to get fat enough reminds me of "Hansel & Gretel" & while both stories are culturally distinct, both are linked to famine & cannibalism.

Yes, we are...

The food chain “Wendy’s” started as a cannibal restaurant by a capitalistic family of Wendigo named Thomas.

Should have opened by saying "THEY DON'T HAVE ANTLERS!"

Thank you for saying some of the tribal names, so nice to hear them. Loved your work on this. I'm part Metis but grew up around the Seneca people. Still, the stories reached me as a youngster.

I don't know about First Nations on the other side of the country, but my Innu friends told me they lived several intense famines over the years, to the point that their metabolism has adapted to it in some ways. This has to change something in a people's culture. There are stories like having one partridge to share between over 20 people during a month of December. There is such a thing as going ''crazy'' from hunger, which I think makes sense when talking about the Wendigo.

Stumbling across a giant subterranean super moose would be terrifying

Along with many werewolf legends this fits the almost universal cultural taboo against cannibalism.

this was incredible to listen to. i'd never heard of the Wechuge before, and seeing comparisons between cultures and exploring where similarities might have come from is something i find incredibly facinating.

Echoing similar comments, thank you for the respectful and well-researched video! I'm Mi'kmaw from Nova Scotia Canada and we're part of the Algonquin language family. Our word is wintiku (when-dig-oo), and similar to other cultures, our people had very harsh winters of famine. We have a ceremony for the first moon in february called esmut apuknajit meaning "feeding the snow-covered moon" where we offer spirit plates (plates of food with a prayer) to grandmother moon because February/that time of year is when our people would've struggled the most to harvest food. the idea is to give thanks to the moon and the earth for taking care of us all year round, and offering what we can in a time of our own desperation. Also, I would totally LOOOOVE to see you interview some natives and have them tell their teachings of the legends. Ethnographers are great in their own right, but lots of our Indigenous cultures are traditionally oral storytellers and those stories would be passed down for generations. It would be cool to learn directly from the people in addition to this video and the research you've already done and compare notes!

The Windwalker is considered the father of the Windigo, would you please consider an episode on that subject. Even if it is a modern myth does that make it any less interesting than an ancient myth?

It was a shame to hear that Aidan had succumbed to madness, causing him to attack and partial devour Aidan before disappearing into the nearby wilderness. My heart goes out to Isaiah; it's hard to lose a son, especially in such a horrific way.

I’m half German half native, and I always get a tad nervous when people talk about these things. You did it with great respect. ❤

all this stuff about taboos that can't be broken reminds me a lot of the ancient irish ideas of the geas, a taboo that can't be broken otherwise it makes you weak or close to death or something like that. Like for example, in the story of Cu Chulainn, Cu Chulainn is offered dog meat before his final battle, this is important because Cu Chulainn's geas' say he must eat offered food, and that he cannot eat dog meat (because his nickname is the hound of ulster). So when he eats it, the arm he used to take the food becomes numb and limp, making it harder for him to fight in his final battle against queen Medb and the forces of Connaught. Also it should be noted that Dene peoples are thought to have entered the continent at a later date than the other Native groups (besides the Inuit and Aleut who came after them), so if the story did originate as one story that split between peoples it was either a thing all the way back when both groups were in Siberia, or it originated amongst one wave or the other before spreading through cultural diffusion to another.

When someone is considered insanely strong immortal monster, and some fella breaks their back in WWE style is indeed pretty damn badass story

Love the Phineas and Freb joke in the intro