The Wendigo

About this book

Dr Cathcart, his young nephew Simpson, two guides and a cook set out to hunt moose in the vast, empty forests of northern Canada. One night by the fire the French-Canadian guide Défago grows terrified by a smell on the wind, and later, in their small tent in the dark, something calls his name and he rushes out into the snow. Simpson follows his tracks, which change in a way he cannot understand, and hears his voice crying from the sky about his feet of fire, as the hunting party discovers what the Native peoples of the region mean by the Wendigo.

Context and significance

Algernon Blackwood (1869–1951), who had himself camped and worked in the Canadian wilderness, published the story in 1910. It is one of the masterpieces of the supernatural tale, and H. P. Lovecraft greatly admired it. Blackwood's other great story of the wild is The Willows.

About the author