Headless Horseman (Legend of Sleepy Hollow) - Literature

Literature

The headless horseman has appeared in many forms of literature throughout history and throughout the world. Many countries have their own unique version of the legend in which some form of the headless horseman appears. In the United States, various states have their own version of a headless horseman tale; Texas' version of the legend, written by Thomas Mayne Reid in 1865 or 1866, tells of ghosts of beheaded horse thieves, who roam the countryside.

The more noted and recognizable headless horseman of today imitates the one that appears in Washington Irving's short story, which was published in 1819. The story is set in America, within a 1790's Dutch settlement that residents nicknamed “Sleepy Hollow”. Its protagonist is a schoolteacher named Ichabod Crane, whose apparent demise results from a meeting with the horseman. The horseman himself is allegedly a Hessian soldier from the Revolutionary War who was decapitated by a cannonball and now roams Sleepy Hollow on the back of his horse, with his severed head resting upon the pommel of his saddle. He is therefore also called the 'Galloping Hessian'. The Horseman is said to be incapable of crossing the bridge at the town entrance (a possible reference to the belief that ghosts cannot cross water), although he is shown throwing his head across a river to strike down Ichabod Crane. Mr. Toad tries to block the pumpkin with his body but he's too late. Ichabod's fate is left ambiguous; some of the background characters allege that he has been "carried off" by the Horseman, while others suggest that he has been frightened out of the county by the ghost and by the prospect of facing his landlord, later to become a lawyer in Philadelphia. It is implied later that the Horseman was in fact Brom Bones, Ichabod's rival for the hand in marriage of the local beauty Katrina van Tassel, who imitated the legend of the Galloping Hessian on purpose to kill or frighten away his competitor. The fact that a shattered pumpkin is found beside Ichabod's abandoned hat supports this, in that the pumpkin may easily have been used to simulate the Horseman's severed head, Mr, Toad is sad that he couldn't save Ichabod so he and his horse Cyril walk away continuing their travels. Some people say that Ichabod was still alive married to widow in distant county and Mr. Toad and Cyril are happy that Ichabod somehow survived. Intriguingly, there is no mention of a severed head in the story heard by Ichabod, though it is prominent in his own encounter with the horseman.

Other adaptations include collections of short horror stories such as The Headless Horseman: And Other Ghoulish Tales, poems such as The Headless Horseman Rides Tonight: More Poems to Trouble Your Sleep, and even plays such as The Mystery of the Headless Horseman. In A Hollow Sleep by Chris Ebert, the Horseman is given an identity of "Heinrich Luneberg" and his origins explored. The story is told from his perspective (appearing in the book Ophelia and Other Weird Tales).