The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

[palefrost]

While halloween approaches we should probably celebrate with one of the best legends of the season.

The story is set in the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town, New York in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow, around the year 1790. It tells the story of Ichabod Crane, a priggish schoolmaster from Connecticut who is scared away from town by Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, his rival in love for the hand of eighteen-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, daughter of Baltus Van Tassel and a fifth-generation Dutch immigrant herself. The legend featured in the story is that of The Headless Horseman, the ghost of a Hessian trooper who lost his head to a cannon-ball during "some nameless battle" of the American Revolutionary War and who "rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head."

Ive seen the johnny depp movie on this and was lead to believe the story is based on fact. How true is that?

[Melos]

I saw that movie too - pretty good. I have also heard that the legend is based on fact, but I think MOST good legends are based on fact actually. If you cut right down to it, there is not really anything supernatural going on in the story.

[vicki2]

So much in Irving's story is real ...the locations, the descriptions (I live not too far from Sleepy Hollow) ...that it so adds to his fictional story. So, much of it is based on fact but not the headless part lol.

[palefrost]

So the graves are there and the people were real? Im sure the horsemen part is made up but i still wonder how he died then and who turned it into a headless horsemen? Where did the writer come up with that? Interesting.

[TheFolklorist]

The Headless Horseman part of the story is based on a real legend from the area. You can read about it here (http://www.forteantimes.com/features/fortean_traveller/145/sleepy_hollow_westchester_county_new_york.html).