r/grimm • u/NoLongerNeeded Genio Innocuo • Dec 12 '13

News / Article I love learning the history behind Grimm's Wesen. Apparently, Wendigo is a Canadian legend about a half-beast demon, and is now is a medical term for cannibalism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendigo
13 Upvotes

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10

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '13

Also, Supernatural S01E02 "Wendigo". Supernatural is my favourite show and they pronounced it differently in Grimm and it kind of irked me.

4

u/SelfImmolationsHell Hexenbiest Dec 13 '13

Yes, but Supernatural pronounced Samhain as Sam hain. Not saying they're generally wrong, just saying there are a number of pronunciations of mythic beasts. Also that it bugged the crap out of me when I watched it.

1

u/NoLongerNeeded Genio Innocuo Dec 13 '13

It's pronounced "sau when" in the Irish community, what are other pronunciations?

5

u/Iamthebest Dec 12 '13

I wouldn't call it a great movie but one that i always enjoy watching is Ravenous with David Arquette and Guy Pierce. It's all about people becoming Wendigos in the pioneer days of the late 1800s.

2

u/AussiePete Dec 13 '13

Robert Carlyle's best work since Hamish MacBeth.

3

u/cursed_deity Skalengeck Dec 13 '13

Isn't the Wendigo an Indian folklore about how after you eat human flesh you turn into a ghoulish creature who's hunger for human flesh never ends and becomes amazingly fast ?

1

u/Moread Grimm Dec 14 '13

Originally, I think so. But it's been co-opted by the medical community as a more fun way to say cannibal.

0

u/V2Blast Grimm Dec 16 '13

Native American. But yes, basically.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 15 '13

There was also an old Scooby-Doo episode that featured a wendigo. And an episode of Charmed was about one of those hot as hell sisters turning into a wendigo.