Wendigoag come from Algonquin mythology. The belief was that in times of famine, if you resorted to eating other people, then the hunger would overwhelm you and you’d become nothing but a monster of ceaseless need for more flesh. Your body would continue to grow and contort with every meal and you could never be full.
These creatures were often partially made of ice and melting their heart or piercing it with a silver dagger was the only way to kill them. In more modern adaptations, they’re often shown with antlers, but this likely originated from a film that conflated them with skinwalkers.
When I saw these horrifying ice zombies with an insatiable need for human flesh, I naturally thought they’d be the perfect love interest for my first novel.
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