The Wendigo

About the book

A party hunting moose in the Canadian wilderness divides its members to improve the search. Young Simpson, a visiting divinity student, travels with the experienced guide Défago, whose deep attachment to the forest gradually reveals an undercurrent of fear. Strange sounds and the sense of an unseen presence disturb the routine of camp, placing Simpson in circumstances for which neither training nor ordinary courage seems sufficient. The story sets practical woodcraft and psychological explanation beside a dread connected with the vastness of the country itself. Blackwood's literary use of the Wendigo tradition makes the wilderness both alluring and threatening, while the uncertainty of what different witnesses can grasp keeps the horror from settling into a comfortable account.

• Wilderness
• Fear and fascination
• Uncertain testimony

Why read it

Read it for the way immense spaces and barely understood sounds unsettle an apparently practical adventure.

English text