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Tuesday, October 27, 2009
title: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
author: Washington Irving
published: 1820
firts line: Found among the papers of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow starts off with the narrator describing the town of Sleepy Hollow. The mood is set perfectly, the small town is said to be haunted and the townspeople believe there is such a thing as the Headless Horseman.
Enter Ichabod Crane, who is a schoolteacher and arrives at Sleepy Hollow from Connecticut to teach the townchildren. Ichabod is described as being tall and lanky, with his clothes too large for his thin frame. He also enjoyed reading, singing and flirting with the townswomen. He spent winter evenings with the old Dutch wives and loved to hear them tell ghost stories.
When he meets Katrina Van Tassel, he likes her right away. However, Katrina is being courted by Brom Van Brunt, a young man well known for being mischevious.
When there is a party at the Van Tassel home and the whole town is invited, Ichabod is more than happy to go. Ichabod hopes that one day he will marry Katrina and he will inherit the Van Tassel property.
As the night goes on with dancing and drinking, the townspeople begin to tell thier ghost stories. And invetiably, they begin to tell stories about The Headless Horseman.
Once the night is over and everyone starts to go home, Ichabod stays behind to speak to Katrina. When he is done, he leaves, walking home alone late at night. He begins to pass a few of the places where the ghost stories he heard of took place.
Out of the dark appears the Horseman, and comes after Ichabod. The next day all that the townspeople find is Ichabod's horse, hat and a smashed pumpkin. Everyone just accepts that the Horseman killed Ichabod.
A few years later, an old farmer visits New York and comes back to town saying that he saw Ichabod Crane there. He claims that Ichabod ran off that dark night because he was spooked in the woods and because Katrina had turned him down. Brom also seemed a bit suspicious whenever people mentioned Icabod's dissapearance. He would laugh at the story and seemed to know more than he was telling anyone.
I hadn't read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow since I was in grade school, and on re-reading it, I found that I still enjoyed it. This is a great spooky story for anyone, especially older school children.
I liked how Irving sets the mood and there is no dialogue in the story, it is just the narrator telling his tale.
From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by the name of SLEEPY HOLLOW, and its rustic lads are called the Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighboring country. A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere.
The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted region, and seems to be commander-in-chief of all the powers of the air, is the apparition of a figure on horseback, without a head. It is said by some to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head had been carried away by a cannon-ball, in some nameless battle during the Revolutionary War, and who is ever and anon seen by the country folk hurrying along in the gloom of night, as if on the wings of the wind.
All the stories of ghosts and goblins that he had heard in the afternoon now came crowding upon his recollection. The night grew darker and darker; the stars seemed to sink deeper in the sky, and driving clouds occasionally hid them from his sight. He had never felt so lonely and dismal. He was, moreover, approaching the very place where many of the scenes of the ghost stories had been laid.
I read this online at:
This read has been part of R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril…IV
