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"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving

I have always been fascinated by, and loved, the ghost story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. Since childhood, I loved everything I had seen about the tale on TV, in the Disney animated version, in children's novel adaptations. But I had never read the original source material of Washington Irving's story. 

Irving's tale-- part of a larger work "Sketchbook"-- has everything one could want for a pastoral, autumnal work of the small town tale, fable and ghost story. Ichabod and the drowsy, small village/settlement in New York's Hudson country at harvest is beautifully described, in passages such as this: "It was, as I have said, a fine autumnal day; the sky was clear and serene, and nature wore that rich and golden livery which we always associate with the idea of abundance. The forests had put on their sober brown and yellow, while some trees of the tenderer kind had been nipped by the frosts into brilliant dyes of orange, purple, and scarlet." And it is from this lush, secluded, rural autumn setting Irving explores the nature of myth, of legend, of the ghost story. 

The work-- somewhere between a novella and a long short story-- is brief, and spares not a word. The reader is told and shown different pieces, viewpoints of this greater story which has become legend. We are told the story was found in papers, and in these papers we are told of the telling to the papers' writer from another. We see Ichabod, in glimpses, and know only what appear to be flashes on his lead up to the now famous ride home from which he never returns. And then we are left with the many tales the locals tell about what they believe happened to Ichabod-- and we are left to wonder. Did Ichabod meet the Headless Horseman on the fateful night? Was he simply a victim of harassment or worse by Brom? It seems, at first, probable that Ichabod did not meet the ghost, but fell victim to Katrina's other suitor. But the questions abound. Because, if so-- why would Brom attack Ichabod after it appeared Katrina rejected him? There are so many questions left unanswered, and so many answers which become the ghost story legend of Sleepy Hollow-- and the reader is beautifully shown just how local legends are born.

Artwork: Source