Just 25 miles north of Manhattan is a quiet, mystical village known as Sleepy Hollow. Established by Dutch immigrants before the Revolutionary War, it is a place of natural beauty, lush forests, silent trails and pristine rivers. Yet, paradoxically, it inspired one of the most frightening tales in American folklore, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving. Irving came upon the village in the late 1790s, and its beauty left an indelible impression on him. He once stated: "If ever I should wish for a retreat, whither I might steal from the world and its distractions and dream quietly away the remnant of a troubled life, I know of none more promising than this little valley." The narrative itself is actually an Americanized version of an old German folktale, but Irving used the topography and customs of the small burg as the setting for his horrific story. Along with Irving’s other tale, “Rip Van Winkle” (whose origin is also in German lore), “Sleepy Hollow”, is considered one of the first American short stories.
Here is the enduring tale of a school master’s fateful encounter with the infamous headless horseman who roamed the darkness in quest for what he had lost, “hurrying along in the gloom of night, as if on the wings of the wind”.
Read ”The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.
