The Origin of Sleepy Hollow
October 27
By now, you have probably heard of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. A headless horseman searching for his head in a small town. Although it seems like it would be centered around the horseman, it has lots more history and a story plot along with it. From the history of the American Revolution to the rivalry between two Englishmen for a girl's hand in marriage.
The story of The Headless Horseman goes like this. Back in the time of the Revolutionary War, there was a soldier. He fought hard and ended up losing his head. Now as he searches for his head, a man named Ichabod stumbles upon him as he is going home from a party. The horseman supposedly disappears after crossing a bridge in the forest, but instead the Headless Horseman lashes out and throws his head at Ichabod. The next day he is nowhere to be found. All that was left of him was a smashed pumpkin and his pack of gunpowder.
Believe it or not, that is not the full original story. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow follows a school teacher named Ichabod Crane. The residents of the town often report seeing a ghost of a headless soldier riding on his horse searching for his head. Ichabod teaches and sings in church on Sundays because he believes that he is an excellent singer. Like the other men in the town of Sleepy Hollow, he likes to impress the young women in the village. Especially a girl named Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter of a wealthy farmer. While trying to get her to marry her, there is competition between him and a man named Abraham Van Brunt. They try many ways to impress her and make the other gentlemen jealous. After a party is rejected by Katrina. Ichabod takes a short horseride through the woods shooting gunfire to quicken his horse. After a couple of minutes, he stumbles upon the headless horseman who crosses the bridge and throws his head at Ichabod. He was never to be seen again and Abraham ends up marrying Katrina.
This tale has been told many times and in many different ways through word of mouth and by text in books. The original story was written by a man named Washington Irving and was passed down through transcripts written by Diedrich Knickerbocker. A historian named Elizabeth Bradley believes that the idea for this tale originated from a German poem called The Wild Huntsman. History.com says, “Elizabeth Bradley, a historian at Historic Hudson Valley, says a likely source for Irving’s horseman can be found in Sir Walter Scott’s 1796 The Chase, which is a translation of the German poem The Wild Huntsman by Gottfried Bürger and likely based on Norse mythology.”
Sleepy Hollow has many secrets hidden within history. From a barely known and told tale to the creative use of a German poem. I hope you learned something by reading this article. Have a Happy Halloween!