Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The, is a famous short story written by the American author Washington Irving. It was first published in Irving’s collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (1819-1820). The story is actually an Americanized adaptation of a German folk tale.
Irving set the story in Sleepy Hollow, near Tarry Town (now Tarrytown), a Dutch community on the Hudson River in early New York. The central character is Ichabod Crane, a schoolteacher who courts Katrina Van Tassel, primarily because he expects her to receive a large inheritance. Crane’s rival for Katrina is Abraham Van Brunt, also called Brom Bones.
Crane is a superstitious man who believes in ghosts. One evening he is invited to a party at the Van Tassel home. He borrows a horse and dresses in his best suit for the occasion. At the party, Crane joins a group telling stories. He is especially struck by Brom Bones’s account of a headless horseman who haunts the neighborhood. The horseman was supposedly a soldier who lost his head during the American Revolution (1775-1783).
Later that night, after the party breaks up, Crane lingers to speak privately to Katrina. As he finally rides back to his home, he is terrified by the appearance of a ghostly headless rider. The rider chases the frightened Crane and throws a round object that Crane believes might be a head. The next morning, the object is discovered to be a pumpkin, which leads to the feeling that the fortune-hunting school teacher was the subject of a prank. Crane is never seen in Sleepy Hollow again. Brom Bones marries Katrina, and Crane’s story becomes a legend in the area.
Years later, a local farmer reports news about Crane after a visit to New York. According to the farmer, Crane left the area partly because he was afraid of the ghost and partly because Katrina had rejected him.
See also American literature (Literature of a young nation (1788-1830)); Ghost; Irving, Washington.
