RO-MD Transnational Educational Project - It is all about legends and a translegendary friendship
Călărețul fără Cap este una dintre cele mai fascinante legende de Halloween. Legendele ne pune pe jar imaginația, ne fascinează, ne agasează, ne învață să scormonim trecutul, să înțelegem sensurile ascunse ale metaforelor omenirii și hiperbolelor istorice.
The Headless Horseman is one of the most fascinating Halloween legends. Legends ignite our imagination, fascinate us, annoy us, teach us to rummage through the past, to understand the hidden meanings of human metaphors and historical hyperbole.
The Headless Horseman
All these legends become alive, sometimes frightening, because they are born right in the depths of the collective human subconscious. The more such a legend takes root, the more all-encompassing it becomes in our minds. It is the fruit of spirit, superstition and magic. The book that underlies this myth is Washington Irving’s classic story – “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, a small town from 1799 where all sorts of weird and grotesque things happen. Written in 1820, the book refers to a Dutch community in the mountains during the colonial period. Set in a quintessential horror atmosphere, the book inspires the 1999 film directed by Tim Burton starring Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane and Christopher Walken as Headless Horseman.
Irving’s book was inspired by a local legend from the 1776s when Prussian mercenaries were hired by British forces to fight the colonies that would later become the United States. This rider loses his head due to a cannon shot near the town of Sleepy Hollow. It is said that from then on he would return to take the heads of the living and take them with him to hell.
The legend of the Headless Horseman
The legend of the Heracles Rider has appeared in many versions around the world. Many countries have their own unique version as well as the states of America. The headless rider continues to be a real motif of European folklore since the Middle Ages. In the 18th century there was talk of a headless horseman on a black horse with a huge hanger, sometimes with a lantern as his head.
There are many examples in mythology and folklore, but also in Christian theology. Namely, the beheaded saints, who are represented wearing their heads as a symbol of their martyrdom, are called „cephalophore” from the Greek „one who wears his head.” The best known of this saint is Saint Denis, the patron saint of Paris. He prophesied, carrying his head in his hand, from Montmartre to the place of burial, and in French hagiography there are over a hundred such saints
The legend of Aphrodisius of Alexandria, the examples in the Divine Comedy of Dante and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight arouse interest in this strange type of sacredness.
Celtic folklore
The Irishman dullahan or dulachán („dark man”) is a headless horseman on a black horse, who carries his head under his armpit or holds it up high to be seen from afar. The rider’s head is the colour of mould and has small, black eyes, and his mouth smiles crookedly, demonic. He also holds a whip made from the spine of a corpse. When the rider stops, someone dies. Dullhan shouts a name, and the person named dies instantly. In another version, it is the headless visit of a black carriage. The hearse is full of funerary objects (candles in skulls, spikes are made of human bones, the roof is made of human skin). Gan ceann („headless”) can be driven away by carrying a gold object or leaving one in its path.
You can’t hide from the dullahan and there is no way to oppose him – in front of the Rider all the locks and closed gates open. Whoever looks at him at work is sprinkled with blood and significance. He is blind because of his whip and will be the next to be visited by Death.
The most important Scottish story is about a Headless Horseman named Ewen beheaded in a clan battle at Glen Cainer on Mull Island. Here appears the horseman and the headless horse.
German folklore
The Brothers Grimm talk about two encounters with such a Headless Rider, which they saw with their own eyes. The first takes place near Dresden in Saxony. One Sunday, a woman sees him in a forest. In a place called „Lost Waters”, she hears a hunting horn and sees the rider in a grey coat, riding a grey horse.
In another story from Brunswick, Lower Saxony, a Headless Horseman named „Wild Hunter” warns the hunters out loud not to go hunting the next day, as they will have an accident. In other cases, he hunts down those who have committed crimes, and in others he has a pack of black dogs with tongues of fire with him.
American folklore.
His legend begins in Sleepy Hollow, near New York, during the colonial war. Traditional folklore describes him as a Hessian mercenary who was killed in 1776 in the Battle of the White Plains. His head was blown off by a cannon and he remained on the battlefield, while his body was taken by his comrades. He was buried in the cemetery of a Dutch church in Sleepy Hollow, from where he rises every Halloween night like a furious ghost looking for his body.
In 2013, the TV series „Sleepy Hollow” introduced new notions such as Sin Eater, connections related to the Dance of the Dead and the Sabbath Dance, the Symbolism of the Skull to the Devil’s books.
The historical truth about the Legend of the Headless Horseman – the Hessian mercenaries.
During the War of Independence, Landgrave Frederick II of Hesse-Kassel (a small independent country in northern Hesse) and other German princes engaged his army to fight for Britain against the American Revolution. The fighters were called Hessians because the largest army corps (13,000 soldiers out of a total of 30,000) came from that region. Whole units of flags, officers, uniforms, and custom weapons were sent to America with extreme discipline: the deserters were either beheaded or beaten by the entire company.
The Hessians accounted for a quarter of the forces used by the British in this war and had a good reputation: jäger, hussars, three artillery companies and four grenadier battalions. The light infantry was armed with muskets, and the Hessian artillery used powerful cannons and büchse, a short, large calibre weapon. Initially, such a regiment had between 500-600 soldiers.
Nearly 18,000 Hessian troops arrived in America in 1776. They first landed near Staten Island, New York, and took part in the battle. Then came more and more, participating in every battle and becoming indispensable to the English. After 1777, they were used more as garrisons or patrol troops.
Their image for the American revolutionaries becomes terrible, because of their professional barbarism, their equipment and their uniforms. A regular army of such magnitude, trained to kill with the latest techniques, could look like a real monster to American rebels.
Translated by:
Team 01 - The Holiday Bringers - Ocrainiciuc Ioana & Prodan Adriana