Are you ever scared of what you hear at night? Whenever you hear a sudden thump or animals outside, are you fearful? But what if you heard something else? What if you heard the sound of horse hooves clomping on the ground and someone cackling? Would you be scared? Well, maybe you would be, but I don’t think I would, because that is one of my favorite American literature characters, the Headless Horseman!
Now, if you don’t know who the Headless Horseman is, he’s a legend that has been around for a long time. The legend takes place in Sleepy Hollow in upstate New York. It’s a tourist attraction that people often visit. The legend about the Headless Horseman is that he was once a Hessian soldier in war and got his head blown off by a cannon. A Hessian is a German mercenary fighting for the British against the Colonists in the American Revolution. Now his ghost is riding around Sleepy Hollow in search of his head after dark. The tale of the Headless Horseman was first told in 1820 by Washington Irving and also considered America’s first ghost story. Over time, the story of the Horseman has developed more characters and a more intricate plot. This is the story people are familiar with today. The characters are Ichabod Crane, Brom Bones, and Katrina Van Tassel. The story takes place in Sleepy Hollow, as it always will, but is now known as TarryTown, NY. Please enjoy this short retell.
The residents of Sleepy Hollow live a quiet life but live in fear of the Horseman after dark. One day, a newcomer arrives, taking the position as school headmaster; his name is Ichabod Crane. Brom Bones, is the leader of an infamous group,the Sleepy Hollow boys. Brom is a troublemaker and always ready for a fight. Ichabod later meets a wealthy farmer’s daughter, Katrina Van Tassel, and falls in love with her but Brom Bones also wants Katrina, so they both compete for her affection. Brom starts harassing Ichabod with pranks and jokes. One evening, Ichabod is invited to a harvest party at the Van Tassel household. He attended the activities there and listened to the ghost stories that partygoers told. One included Brom Bones racing against the Headless Horseman and another ghost story was about the ghost himself. Ichabod confesses his love to Katrina but she rejects him, and he leaves heartbroken on a horse named Gunpowder. As he rides though, he encounters the ghost himself and is pursued by the Hessian soldier. Ichabod remembers that the spirit is supernaturally barred from the other side of a wooden bridge and he rides off, with only ghost tales as his hope. The chase is tense and he makes it over the bridge unharmed but the Horseman has other ideas. The spirit throws a severed head and knocks Crane off his horse. The next morning, Gunpowder is found grazing by the schoolmaster’s gate and all they found by the bridge was Ichabods hat.
His rival presumed dead, Brom Bones marries Katrina. It is said that Brom had been disguised as the spirit and drove Ichabod out of town using a jack-o-lantern as a false head. Whenever the story of Ichabod’s disappearance is ever told, Brom would always laugh at the mention of the broken pumpkin by the bridge. Years later, a farmer comes and tells the town that Ichabod is alive and well in a distant part of the country. He studied politics and eventually became a judge. Though the town was told that Crane was alright, people still believe that he had been killed by the spirit. The students that Crane had taught were sent to another school and the original one was left abandoned. Some even say that Ichabod haunts the old school house and on late summer evenings, you can hear the voice of Ichabod Crane, singing a melancholy tune in the night.
The story has been shown on stage and screen multiple times and if you want to learn more about the story, you can watch one of the movies. Just a fair warning, there is blood and gore in it so, watch out for that. Have you heard of this legend?
Work Cited
Wikipedia, http://n.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Sleepy_Hollow. Accessed 10 May 2024.
