by Jane Ward

Created on: July 28, 2008   Last Updated: August 27, 2011

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is an excellent story for those windy fall nights when the whistling through the trees sounds like it might not be only that. Part American history, part ghost story, part study of the human condition and the stereotypical characters we encounter every day, it pays to revisit this tale now and again, whether to study what the Northeast was like when the country was new, or just to give yourself the shivers on a windy night.

Ichabod Crane is the buffoon teacher who, lacking a family of his own, accepts hospitality from various student and their families. It is his pupil Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter of a farmer, who catches his eye as something more, and he resolves to marry her. the villages find it laughable that Crane thinks he stands a chance at winning the heart of the young and beautiful coquette, especially with such rival suitors as the good-looking, but dull and boastful Abraham "Brom" Bones.

Both Ichabod and Brom Bones, along with other member of the village, dine with the Van Tassels one night, and after the meal someone tells the tale of the Headless Horseman, a Hessian soldier who, legend has it, was decapitated in battle, and rides through the village at night looking for his lost head.

As laughable a tale as it may have been when the cider was flowing and the place was well lit and full of people, it begins to make Ichabod nervous on his way home later. He begins to hear the hooves of another horse behind his, getting closer and closer until he can feel the horse's breat on the back of his neck. When he turns around he is terrified to find that the rider of the approaching horse is, in fact, missing his head. Driving his poor steed as fast as it can go, Ichabod tries to outrun the ghost, but it gains until he can feel the "ghost" horse's breath on the back of his neck. Looking around again, he realizes that the horseman is holding his own head high above him and preparing to throw it at Ichabod.

Ichabod Crane is never seen after that night- at least, not in the village of Sleepy Hollow. The only clue as to his disapearance is a smashed pumpkin on the road between his house and Van Tassel's.

The beauty of this story lies in the ghost story-like quality of the ending. Irving gets a good deal of fun out of putting the reader in the villagers' position. We, and they, don't know exactly WHAT happened to Crane the night he met the headless horseman, although the end of the story does mention that someone matching his description turned up as a successful lawyer in the city not far from Sleepy Hollow. In the light of day it is easy to believe that Brom Bones was playing a prank on the little teacher, and, emberrassed by his gullibility and fear, Crane chooses to leave town.

But on the road alone at night, there is room for doubt.

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