Werewolf vs. wendigo

[Templar]

The first time I heard the term wendigo was when I watched Ginger Snaps Back. After that I equated it with werewolf, but later somebody told me that it was something completely different, although much of the modern werewolf lore is based off the wendigo. I looked it up on wikipedia, and from the descriptions it sounds more like a giant frozen vampire or zombie to me. Is this the general consensus, that the wendigo and the werewolf are two separate entities?

[Rhuen]

The Windigo is a monster that comes about due to cannibalistic tendencies. a new one is created when someone hears the Windigo's howl and succumbs to the urge to eat human flesh.
The Windigo is physically a giant grey furred big-foot like creature with dagger like teeth. It eats human flesh and drinks blood. Its scream can paralyze, and in some cases it is said to even be able to fly.

[THE ONE AND ONLY]

Plus he's really tough since he took on the Hulk aaaannnnddddd Wolverine simultaniously.

[Ranubis]

Yep, I would say separate entities.

[Fullmoonstar]

[STARWOLF_THE_MYSTIC]

[Searif]

Wendigo's are quite a wonder, although I prefer werewolves.

[Fullmoonstar]

It goes without talking, that i prefer Werewolves too

[00airknight]

The legend of the wendigo originated in Europe when some explorers came back from Midwest Africa. They told a story of these beast men that ate human flesh. One could assume they were reffering to cannibals. The men would likely look giants to most Europeans. I believe after that the story began to evolve from there. Rhuen is right on the money about the legend. I must say i am impressed with his knowledge of the lesser known legends. Tell me Rhuen do you know of the Grengel?

[Templar]

The legend of the wendigo originated in Europe when some explorers came back from Midwest Africa. They told a story of these beast men that ate human flesh. One could assume they were reffering to cannibals. The men would likely look giants to most Europeans. I believe after that the story began to evolve from there. Rhuen is right on the money about the legend. I must say i am impressed with his knowledge of the lesser known legends. Tell me Rhuen do you know of the Grengel?

Europe and Africa? Ain't those old stories about gorillas before they were actually discovered? All I've heard n' read says they's supposed ta be Native American/Canadian. As fer Grengel, ya mean "Grendel"?

[00airknight]

well aren't you the prince of noticing typos. I was just curious if he knew and obviously you do too. I guess if you spell the name wrong it weeds out people researching it. It isn't nice to leave people in the dark so why don't you tell them what a grendel is since you know about it.

[Templar]

Anybody whos read Beowulf knows who Grendel is. He and his mother are these giant trolls that lived in a marsh or lake. Every night Grendel would come out, go to Hrothgar the Dane's mead house, an slaughter one er two of his warriors. Nobody could stop him, until Beowulf the Geat promised to help and trapped Grendel one night, ripping Grendel's arm off.

[wolfsangel]

though i love the beowulf poems (its what they are known as) Grendal is a very loose interpertation of a wendigo(a.k.a. Windigo, Wiindigoo, Windago, Windiga). a wedigo is a native american hunter from the upper north american country who, during the winter months, eats his fellow hunters as an act of self pressurvation, because of running out of food. after eating the human flesh, the hunter would loose his soul and would become hollow inside, sorta. a windigo looks like a skiny gaint that has suffered from frostbite, lips are blue and frosted, toes and tips of fingers missing, ect. there is no known cure for "windigoism" because anyone who crontracts it tries to kill and eat anyone in site. they do not transfer their virius by bites but surviving an attack from a wendigo ussually ends up turning into one.
theres my bit of info

[neomoon]

Yeah; I don't think you're entirely accurate in the connection between the Wendigo and Europe. The Wendigo is an ancient tribal legend of native americans in the northeast, and great lakes areas (if I remember the area right). Cannibalism in all it's forms is universal, and Grendal is certainly a potential example of this type of fear given form. There are books you can find on Native American Folktales and Legends, some of which feature the Wendigo (unfortunatly I don't own any of them yet, and so I dont' have a referance for you).
The Wendigo is often (in description anyway) seemingly some sort of emaciated or perhaps diseased indevidual of Sasquatch (which the tribes also believed in). However, the emphasis on the cannibalism part lends weight to the fact that the creature, impliedly, at least USED to be human; and through time or events, transformed into this wraith. That actually does not sound all that dissimilar from some of the truly ancient werewolf and shapeshifter legends, especially those from eastern europe; a place where the folklore between shapeshifters and blooddrinkers was often blurred (I forget which language, but there is a nation who used to have the same word for Werewolves and Vampires, Vrykolakos). I believe, if we had better access to it; we would be able to find examples and manifestations of this type of creature in many more places around the globe, especially in Asia.

[Moonwatcher]

A Wendigo is said to have first trapped its pry then preserved it for year then ate the unlucky person who
happened to be it's food at the time.

It is also said that the only way to kill a wendigo is it burn it.
If u seen Supernatural they give a pretty through explanation of the wendigo

[RedEye]

I suspect that the Wendigo legends were used by the central tribes to teach that cannibalism is wrong, as well as to explain what happened to people who developed 'Cabin Fever' from being stuck inside a wanegon or tipi or other structure during the winter.
Cabin Fever is the modern term for a psychotic episode brought about by extremely long confinement. You go nuts, and cannibalism is one of the things that happens.
Thus they got in a warning (People aren't for eating) and an explanation (they didn't go nuts, the Wendigo caught 'em) in one lesson.

[Rhuen]

A Wendigo is said to have first trapped its pry then preserved it for year then ate the unlucky person who
happened to be it's food at the time.

It is also said that the only way to kill a wendigo is it burn it.
If u seen Supernatural they give a pretty through explanation of the wendigo

that show gave a horrible description of one, just like all the other monsters they use for the show. They should just make stuff up given how horrible they are.

[neomoon]

A Wendigo is said to have first trapped its pry then preserved it for year then ate the unlucky person who
happened to be it's food at the time.

It is also said that the only way to kill a wendigo is it burn it.
If u seen Supernatural they give a pretty through explanation of the wendigo

Sadly though, I've been rather unimpressed by the actual depth of research Supernatural's writers did; in most cases they didn't do more than a superficial bout; the kind of information that could easily be found in 5 minutes on Google or Wikipedia. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun show; it's just not a good source of factual information.

[LunarCarnivore]

hehe theres a wendigo in my shortstory series, Chris (main char, werewolf) is hiking through the woods to find the native american relic hidden there, runs into big frosty zomby-style wendigo, wendigo beats the bajeezus out of chris, bla bla bla, point is, wendigo=very different from werewolf.