Ichabod Crane is a poor man with aspirations; a lover of ghost stories who fears the dark. In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving creates an unsympathetic character as the subject of his American ghost story. Last week, Ichabod courted Katrina Van Tassel, hoping she would accept him as a suitor. One wonders why the poorest man in her social acquaintance thought the only daughter of the richest farmer in the region would marry him. Nevertheless, Ichabod approached Katrina expecting her approval. She declined his attentions. In this installment, Ichabod, heavy-hearted and crestfallen, [pursues] his travels homeward. 

Mounted on Gunpowder, Ichabod rides into the dark night. All the stories of ghosts and goblins that he … heard in the afternoon now [come] crowding upon his recollection. The night [grows ]darker and darker; the stars [seem] to sink deeper in the sky, and driving clouds occasionally [hide] them from [Ichabod’s] sight. Immersed in his disappointment, Ichabod approaches the scene of many local ghost stories .

An enormous tulip-tree stands before Ichabod in the center of the road. To stave off his fear, Ichabod begins to whistle. As [Ichabod] got closer, he [thinks] he [sees] something white, hanging in the midst of the tree: he [pauses] and [ceases] whistling. Ichabod examines the white substance and realizes it’s only a scar on the bark from a lightening strike. Ichabod’s fear gives way to relief and perhaps a cold sweat. Then, suddenly, Ichabod hears a groan. His teeth [chatter], and his knees [knock] against the saddle.

Another false alarm. The sound is from a breeze moving tree branches against each other. No doubt, Ichabod laughs at his fear. Perhaps he clutches Gunpowder’s reins a bit more tightly. The nervous rider looks ahead to a bridge consisting of logs laid side-by-side.

As [Ichabod approaches] the stream, his heart [begins] to thump; he [summons] up … all his resolution, [gives] his horse half a score of kicks in the ribs, and [attempts] to dash briskly across the bridge. Gunpowder has other ideas and runs into a fence. Ichabod’s terror grows. He jerks the reins, and kicks Gunpowder’s side. The horse stumbles into a thicket of brambles.

Ichabod applies both whip and heel upon the starveling ribs of old Gunpowder, who [dashes] forward, snuffling and snorting. The horse stops by the bridge, with a suddenness that … nearly sent his rider sprawling over his head. Picture ungainly Ichabod, his eyes wide with terror.

Ichabod’s eyes nearly pop out of his head when he looks at the side of the brook and sees something from his worst nightmare. The apparition is huge, misshapen and towering … like some gigantic monster ready to spring upon the traveller.

“Who are you?” Ichabod shouts with false bravado.

No answer.

“Who are you?” Ichabod shouts again, his voice quavering.

Still no answer.

Ichabod tells himself there’s nothing there, and begins singing a psalm to dispel the mystery before him. But, just as whistling didn’t dispel Ichabod’s fear, singing a psalm provides no relief.

Just then the shadowy object of alarm put itself in motion, and with a scramble and a bound stands in the middle of the road. Though the night [is] dark and dismal, yet the form of the unknown [may] now in some degree be ascertained. He [appears] to be a horseman of large dimensions, … mounted on a black horse of powerful frame. 

The Midnight Ride Begins

With a sigh of relief, Ichabod remembers Brom Bones saying that he had outrun the Horseman. Ichabod urges Gunpowder forward. The stranger, however, [quickens] his horse to an equal pace. Ichabod [pulls] up, … into a walk, thinking to lag behind,—the other [does] the same. And then Ichabod gets a good look at his unwelcome companion. 

The rider [is] gigantic in height, and muffled in a cloak, Ichabod [is] horror-struck on perceiving that he was headless!—but his horror was still more increased on observing that the head, which should have rested on his shoulders, was carried before him on the pommel of his saddle!  

Ichabod whips Gunpowder forward; the horseman keeps pace. They [dash] through thick and thin; stones flying and sparks flashing at every bound. Ichabod’s flimsy garments [flutter] in the air, as he [stretches] his long lank body away over his horse’s head, in the eagerness of his flight. 

Ichabod gains ground until his saddle girth slips. Ichabod seizes the pommel, and finally flings his arms around Gunpowder’s neck as the saddle falls to the ground. At an opening in the trees, Ichabod sees a bridge over a brook and the walls of a church further ahead. This was where Brom Bones lost his pursuer. “I just have to reach the bridge,” Ichabod thinks.

Ichabod hears the horse behind him and kicks Gunpowder in the ribs. Horse and rider gallop across the bridge, but the Headless Horseman rides hard behind him. The Horseman has his head in his hand as he prepares to throw it at Ichabod. The head sails through the air and collides with Ichabod’s skull. Ichabod falls off his horse. The Headless Horseman thunders by.

The next morning the [Gunpowder is] found without his saddle, and with the bridle under his feet, soberly cropping the grass at his master’s gate. Ichabod is missing. A search party locates the saddle, tracks from horses’ hooves, and Ichabod’s hat.

What happened to Ichabod? Did the Headless Horseman kidnap him?

Illustrations

Tulip Tree by Glyn Baker

Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane by John Quidor

Jumping Black Stallion by Deathfly0

Sleepy Hollow. 1884.

Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. Anonymous.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Gutenberg Project.

Jacqueline Smith.  “Halloween History: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” New York Historical Society. Oct. 25, 2013.

The post Ichabod Crane Flees The Headless Horseman first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

In honor of Halloween, I’m sharing Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow this month. It’s about more than a wild horseback ride in the dead of night. Last week we met Ichabod Crane, a man of unfortunate appearance and few prospects. Nevertheless, Ichabod persevered in his quest for a comfortable life.

Ichabod set his matrimonial sights on Katrina Van Tassel, a student in his singing class. She was a blooming lass of fresh eighteen; plump as a partridge; ripe and melting and rosy-cheeked as one of her father’s peaches, and universally famed, not merely for her beauty, but her vast expectations. Katrina was also the only child of a wealthy farmer. Ichabod dreamed of a sumptuous family life with Katrina by his side.

Whenever Ichabod walked over to Heer Van Tassel’s farmhouse, he couldn’t help but notice the vast barn, that might have served for a church; every window and crevice of which seemed bursting forth with the treasures of the farm.  

Sleek unwieldy porkers were grunting in the repose and abundance of their pens, from whence sallied forth, now and then, troops of sucking pigs, as if to snuff the air. 

A stately squadron of snowy geese were riding in an adjoining pond, convoying whole fleets of ducks; regiments of turkeys were gobbling through the farmyard.

Ichabod’s mouth watered in anticipation of the feast these creatures could provide. In his devouring mind’s eye, he pictured to himself every roasting-pig running about with a pudding in his belly, and an apple in his mouth . . . . In the porkers he saw carved out the future sleek side of bacon, and juicy relishing ham; not a turkey but he beheld daintily trussed up, with its gizzard under its wing.

In short, Ichabod lusted after every creature and crop on the Van Tassel farm. Consequently, when Ichabod rolled his eyes over the fat meadows and rich fields, his heart yearned after the damsel who was to inherit these domains.

And then there was the farmhouse itself, and its furnished parlor where claw-footed chairs and dark mahogany tables shone like mirrors; andirons, with their accompanying shovel and tongs, glistened from their covert of asparagus tops . . .and a corner cupboard, knowingly left open, displayed immense treasures of old silver and well-mended china.

One might wonder what Katrina wants. The pretty eighteen-year-old has an indulgent father who probably grants her every request. She enjoys attention from every male in the area; married or single, young or old. Many suitors have a respectable amount of property and family status. All flatter Katrina for her beauty and skill. She probably enjoys playing them off against each other. She’s no doubt attracted by the town “bad boy” Brom Van Brunt, if only because he pretends to be unaffected by her wiles.

Ichabod Woos Katrina

Ichabod exhibits surprising self-confidence in wooing Katrina. He is sure his education, erudition, singing voice, and dancing ability outshines all other suitors, including Brom Van Brunt. Katrina hasn’t given Ichabod her exclusive attention, but she hasn’t rejected him either. Could Katrina be playing one suitor off against another? Such a thought doesn’t cross Ichabod’s mind when he accepts the invitation to a quilting-frolic at the Van Tassel farm.

Ichabod carefully prepares for the evening. In order to cut a more attractive figure, he borrows a horse named Gunpowder. The horse is gaunt and shagged, with a ewe neck, and a head like a hammer; his rusty mane and tail [are] tangled and knotted with burs; one eye [has] lost its pupil, and [is] glaring and spectral, but the other [has] the gleam of a genuine devil in it.

Mounting his steed, Ichabod rides with short stirrups, which [bring] his knees nearly up to the pommel of the saddle; his sharp elbows [stick] out like grasshoppers’ . . . and as his horse [jogs] on, the motion of his arms [is] not unlike the flapping of a pair of wings. In short, Ichabod won’t win Katrina by looking good in the saddle.

Brom rides up to the Van Tassel farm on Daredevil, a black, muscular horse no one else can ride. No doubt, Brom galloped up to the house with Daredevil’s tail streaming in their wake. Everyone admires Brom’s equestrian prowess and the beauty of sweating Daredevil.

Upon entering the mansion’s hall, Ichabod immediately goes to the refreshment table to indulge in all manner of delectable dishes, in keeping with fall harvest season. There’s ham, smoked beef, and roasted chickens; dessert offerings of cakes [sweet, short, ginger, or honey] and pies [apple, peach, or pumpkin]. Ichabod chews his food with the expectation that once he marries Katrina, he’ll eat like this every day. In the next room, musicians tune up for dancing. Ichabod puts down his empty plate and prepares to woo Katrina on the dance floor.

You might think that after such a meal, Ichabod would be too sluggish to dance. Not so. In fact, Ichabod prided himself on his dancing ability, easily leading Katrina through the steps. For her part, Katrina felt nearly everyone’s eyes follow her graceful movements—everyone except Brom who stands off to the side clenching his jaw.

Tales of Ghosts & The Headless Horseman

When the dancing ends, Ichabod joins guests telling each other legends and ghost stories. Soon attention turns to the Headless Horseman who had been heard several times of late, patrolling the country; and, it was said, tethered his horse nightly among the graves in the churchyard. No doubt, Ichabod felt a delicious shiver up his spine.

There was the story of old Brouwer, a most heretical disbeliever in ghosts, how he met the Horseman returning from his foray into Sleepy Hollow, and was obliged to [mount] behind him; how they galloped over bush and brake, over hill and swamp, until they reached the bridge; when the Horseman suddenly turned into a skeleton, threw old Brouwer into the brook, and sprang away over the tree-tops with a clap of thunder. Listeners drop their jaws, imagining Bouwer’s encounter.

Brom stands the floor, and tells the credulous crowd he knows for a fact that the Headless Horseman is nothing but a jockey. To prove his point, Brom tells the group that one night while returning from the neighboring village, he encountered the midnight trooper on the road. Holding his audience’s attention, Brom says he challenged the horseman to a race. The loser would pay for a bowl of punch. The two horsemen set off at a gallop. Brom claims, Daredevil beat the goblin horse all hollow. But they never finished the race. Just as they came to the church bridge, the Hessian bolted, and vanished in a flash of fire. The room falls silent. Brom raced the Hessian devil and won! Katrina looks at Brom, her blue eyes wide with admiration.

Well, Ichabod thought, Brom isn’t the only one to defeat the supernatural. Ichabod stands to get the audience’s attention and shares his experiences walking home on dark nights. Ichabod admits he hasn’t seen the Headless Horseman, but swears he knows about ghostly figures who accost innocent travelers. Guests finish their drinks and tap the ashes out of their pipes. They rise and stretch. The party breaks up. Brom mounts Daredevil and gallops away to unknown late-night pursuits.

With Brom out of the way, Ichabod looks for Katrina. Perhaps, he thinks, she’ll accept me as a serious suitor. Ichabod finds his beloved. Perhaps he takes her hand and begins to declare his love. Ichabod emerges from the house a short time later with a desolate expression. Did Katrina laugh at Ichabod’s wooing? Did she use him to make Brom jealous? Ichabod doesn’t say anything as he walks to the stable. The spurned suitor saddles Gunpowder, mounts, and begins the long journey home.

‘It was the very witching time of night.’

???

Illustrations

Katrina

Roast Turkey by Mark Miller

Canada Geese by Rhododendrites

Old Dutch Farmhouse 1906

Katrina spinning

Jumping Black Stallion by Deathfly0

Ichabod Crane and Katrina by Daniel Huntington

Ichabod Crane Imagining the Phantom by Frederick Simpson Coburn

Courtship in Sleepy Hollow by John Rogers.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Gutenberg Project.

Jacqueline Smith.  “Halloween History: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” New York Historical Society. Oct. 25, 2013.

The post Ichabod Crane Goes a-Courtin’ first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

October is best known for Halloween, a spooky holiday on the last evening of the month. The day is associated with costumes, ‘trick-or-treating,’ and spooky stories of ghosts and other supernatural beings. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, published by American writer Washington Irving in 1819, is one of the most well-known. The famous headless horseman is only one part of the story. Today’s blog is the first of an October series centered on this famous American legend.

The Real Sleepy Hollow

There is, in fact, a Village of Sleepy Hollow, located on the Hudson River, 25 miles north of New York City. The area was first settled by Dutch colonists who came to New Netherlands for a life not unlike their life in Holland. Dutch landlords established estates with tenant farmers. In 1655 Adriane Van Der Donck, published the name of his village: Slapershaven, or Sleepers’ Haven. It isn’t a long stretch to reach the name Sleepy Hollow. In 1664, the British took over the colony and called it New York.

By the 18^th century Sleepy Hollow was a central point for farmers in the area who came into the village to attend events at the Dutch church founded in 1697, and bring their crops to the mill. By 1776, residents were a mixture of Dutch-American, French Huguenot, Swiss, and German. The majority of tenant farmers supported the American Revolution and were able to purchase their farms after the war.

One of the officers during the war, a Major General William Heath, kept a journal. His entry from Nov 1, 1776: “A shot fired from the American cannon at this place [White Plains] took off the head of a Hessian artillery man.” Thus began the tale of the headless horseman.

In 1798 while a yellow fever raged in New York City, Washington Irving and his friend decided to wait out the epidemic in Tarrytown, about 10 miles away from White Plains, and very close to Sleepy Hollow. They explored the area and listened to the local folklore.

Meet Ichabod Crane

There was once, Irving wrote, an unfortunate man named Ichabod Crane. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served as shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snip nose, so that it looked like a weather cock perched upon his spindle neck to tell which way the wind blew.

Crane taught at the local school. The revenue arising from his school was small, and would have been scarcely sufficient to furnish him with daily bread, for he was a huge feeder, and, though lank, had the dilating powers of an anaconda; but to help out his maintenance he was … boarded and lodged at the houses of the farmers whose children he instructed. With these he lived successively a week at a time, thus going the rounds of the neighborhood, with all his worldly effects tied up in a cotton handkerchief.

You might think such a person would suffer from low self-esteem, but that was not entirely the case. In addition to his other activities, Crane earned extra money as a singing-master. It was a matter of no little vanity to him on Sundays, to take his station in front of the church gallery, with a band of chosen singers; where, in his own mind, he completely carried away the palm from the parson. In fact, Crane’s voice resounded far above the rest of the congregation, and there are peculiar quavers still to be heard in that church…which are said to be legitimately descended from the nose of Ichabod Crane.

On long winter evenings, Crane liked to visit with the old Dutch wives as they sat spinning by the fire, with a row of apples roasting and spluttering along the hearth, and listen to their marvelous tales of ghost and goblins, and … particularly of the headless horseman, or Galloping Hessian of the Hollow, as they sometimes called him.

Such tales were deliciously frightening while sitting by the fire, and a source of terror as Crane made his way home in the darkness when he was often thrown into complete dismay by some rushing blast, howling among the trees in the idea that it was the Galloping Hessian.

Walking through the woods on a moonless night, many people are nervous. The transition from apprehension to abject terror often begins with a single unexpected sound.

Illustrations

Ichabod Crane & the Headless Horseman

Tarrytown 1828

Ichabod Crane by Edwin Austin Abbey

Old Dutch Church, Sleepy Hollow

Pumpkin by Evan Swigart

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Gutenberg Project.

Jacqueline Smith. “Halloween History: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” New York Historical Society. Oct. 25, 2013.

The post Meet Ichabod Crane – Credulous Schoolteacher first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

The story begins in 1790 in an area near Tarrytown, New York that is called Sleepy Hollow. The hollow had a reputation for enchantment and the appearance of unusual apparitions, the most famous of whom was the ghost of a Hessian trooper whose head had been blown off by a cannon ball during the Revolutionary War. He was buried in the nearby Old Dutch Burying Ground. This Headless Horseman rode forth every night in search of his head, but he had to be back in his grave by daybreak.

We leave this luckless specter to consider the schoolmaster Ichabod Crane. In appearance, “he was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck to tell which way the wind blew.”

Ichabod was also a credulous individual with an appetite “for the marvelous, and his powers of digesting it, were equally extraordinary … No tale was too gross or monstrous for his capacious swallow.”

Ichabod wanted to marry Katrina Van Tassel, the only child of a wealthy Dutch farmer. Aside from her financial attractions, Katrina “was a blooming lass of fresh eighteen; plump as a partridge; ripe and melting and rosy-cheeked as one of her father’s peaches.” She was also a flirt, and among her other suitors was Brom Van Brunt, a young man of considerable prowess. The countryside “rang with his feats of strength and hardihood. He was broad-shouldered and double-jointed, with short curly black hair, and a bluff but not unpleasant countenance, having a mingled air of fun and arrogance.”

Ichabod didn’t give up his suit, but kept things low key to avoid a direct conflict with his rival.

One evening Ichabod was invited to a party at Katrina’s house. He took extra care with his appearance and borrowed a horse. “The animal he bestrode was a broken-down plow-horse, that had outlived almost everything but its viciousness. He was gaunt and shagged, with a ewe neck, and a head like a hammer; his rusty mane and tail were tangled and knotted with burs; one eye had lost its pupil, and was glaring and spectral, but the other had the gleam of a genuine devil in it.”

Ichabod rode with short stirrups that brought his knees up to the saddle pommel. He carried his whip like a scepter, “and as his horse jogged on, the motion of his arms was not unlike the flapping of a pair of wings.”

Nevermind. It was an excellent party with good food, plenty to drink, dancing, and the telling of ghost stories, especially the tale of a man named Brouwer who encountered the Headless Horseman. The ghost chased Brouwer until they reached a bridge where the ghost turned into a skeleton and disappeared in a clap of thunder. Brom revealed that he himself had raced the Hessian on the wager of a bowl of punch and would have won. But when they reached the bridge, the Headless Horseman disappeared in a flash of fire.

Ichabod drank in every word.

Before leaving, Ichabod had a quiet word with the lovely Katrina. Apparently the interview did not end well, because when Ichabod left he “stole forth with the air of one who had been sacking a hen roost, rather than a fair lady’s heart,” got on his horse and dejectedly went on his way.

Soon Ichabod was surrounded by darkness. He reached the stream by Wiley’s Swamp where he beheld shadow of something huge. Ichabod urged his horse into a gallop. The shadow matched his gate. Ichabod increased his speed. So did the shadow.

“On mounting a rising ground, which brought the figure of his fellow-traveller in relief against the sky, gigantic in height, and muffled in a cloak, Ichabod was horror-struck on perceiving that he was headless!—but his horror was still more increased on observing that the head, which should have rested on his shoulders, was carried before him on the pommel of his saddle!”

Ichabod’s desperate race continued until he saw the bridge where he might lose his tormentor. He reached the other side, and turned to see the horseman standing in his stirrups. The monster threw his head directly in Ichabod’s face.

The next day, Ichabod’s horse was found at home eating grass. There was no sign of Ichabod. A search found the saddle, a smashed pumpkin, and Ichabod’s hat. After considering the information, townsmen concluded the Headless Horseman had carried off the schoolteacher to an unknown destination, and thought no more about it.

Acknowledgements:
Featured Image: “Ichabod Crane Pursued by Headless Horseman.” by F. O. C. Darley. 1849. US Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

All pictures in the US Public Domain and accessed at Wikimedia Commons.

Quotations taken from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Gutenberg Project. Read the entire story Here.

The post AN AMERICAN GHOST STORY first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.