The inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow are fascinated by the “local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions” on account of the mysterious occurrences and haunting atmosphere. The most infamous spectre in the Hollow, and the “commander-in-chief of all the powers of the air,” is the Headless Horseman. He is supposedly the restless ghost of a Hessian trooper whose head had been shot off by a stray cannonball during “some nameless battle” of the Revolution, and who “rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head”. On night, Ichabod Crane encounters a cloaked rider at an intersection in a menacing swamp. Unsettled by his fellow traveler’s eerie size and silence, the teacher is horrified to discover that his companion’s head is not on his shoulders, but on his saddle. In a frenzied race to the bridge adjacent to the Old Dutch Burying Ground, where the Hessian is said to “vanish, according to rule, in a flash of fire and brimstone” before crossing it, Ichabod rides for his life. Ichabod turns back in horror to see the monster rear his horse and hurl his severed head directly at him with a fierce motion. The schoolmaster attempts to dodge, but is too late; the missile strikes his head and sends him tumbling headlong into the dust from his horse. The next morning, Ichabod has mysteriously disappeared from the area. Although the true nature of both the Headless Horseman and Ichabod’s disappearance that night are left open to interpretation, the story implies that the Horseman was really Brom Bones (an extremely agile rider) in disguise, using a Jack-o’-lantern as a false head, and suggests that Crane survived the fall and immediately fled Sleepy Hollow in horror, never to return but to prosper elsewhere.
Description The inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow are fascinated by the “local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions” on account of the mysterious occurrences and haunting atmosphere. The most infamous spectre in the Hollow, and the “commander-in-chief of all the powers of the air,” is the Headless Horseman. He is supposedly the restless ghost of a Hessian trooper whose head had been shot off by a stray cannonball during “some nameless battle” of the Revolution, and who “rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head”. On night, Ichabod Crane encounters a cloaked rider at an intersection in a menacing swamp. Unsettled by his fellow traveler’s eerie size and silence, the teacher is horrified to discover that his companion’s head is not on his shoulders, but on his saddle. In a frenzied race to the bridge adjacent to the Old Dutch Burying Ground, where the Hessian is said to “vanish, according to rule, in a flash of fire and brimstone” before crossing it, Ichabod rides for his life. Ichabod turns back in horror to see the monster rear his horse and hurl his severed head directly at him with a fierce motion. The schoolmaster attempts to dodge, but is too late; the missile strikes his head and sends him tumbling headlong into the dust from his horse. The next morning, Ichabod has mysteriously disappeared from the area. Although the true nature of both the Headless Horseman and Ichabod’s disappearance that night are left open to interpretation, the story implies that the Horseman was really Brom Bones (an extremely agile rider) in disguise, using a Jack-o’-lantern as a false head, and suggests that Crane survived the fall and immediately fled Sleepy Hollow in horror, never to return but to prosper elsewhere.
