The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

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"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a short story by Washington Irving contained in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., written while he was living in Birmingham, England, and first published in 1820. With Irving's companion piece "Rip Van Winkle", "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is among the earliest American fiction still read today.

Plot summary

The story is set circa 1790 in the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town, New York, in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. It tells the story of Ichabod Crane, a lanky schoolmaster from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, the town rowdy, for the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, only daughter of a wealthy farmer. As Crane leaves a party at the Van Tassel home on an autumn night, he is pursued by the Headless Horseman, supposedly the ghost of a Hessian trooper who lost his head to a cannonball during "some nameless battle" of the American Revolutionary War, and who "rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head." Crane disappears from town, leaving Katrina to marry Brom Bones, who was "to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related."

Inspiration

The dénouement of the fictional tale is set at the bridge in the real location of the Old Dutch Burying Ground in Sleepy Hollow. The characters of Ichabod Crane and Katrina Van Tassel may have been based on local residents known to the author. The character of Katrina is thought to have been based upon Eleanor Van Tassel Brush and her name comes from Eleanor's aunt Catriena Ecker Van Tessel.

While Irving knew an army colonel named Ichabod Crane from Staten Island, New York (who was also once the Commanding Officer of Lieutenant Stonewall Jackson), the character in "The Legend" may have been patterned after Jesse Merwin who taught at the local schoolhouse in Kinderhook, further north along the Hudson River, where Irving spent several months in 1809.

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" follows a tradition of folk tales and poems involving a supernatural wild chase, including Robert Burns's Tam O' Shanter (1790), and Bürger's Der wilde Jäger, translated as The Wild Huntsman (1796).

Film adaptations

Notable film adaptations include:

• The Headless Horseman (1922), a silent version directed by Edward Venturini, and starring Will Rogers as Ichabod Crane. It was filmed on location in New York's Hudson River Valley.
• The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949), directed by James Algar, Clyde Geronimi and Jack Kinney, produced by Walt Disney Productions. It is an animated cartoon version of the story, paired with a similar treatment of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. The climactic ride is more extended than the original story, and whether the visually impressive Horseman is an actual ghost or a human in disguise is left unclear. Later the Sleepy Hollow portion of the film was separated from the companion film, and shown separately as style="font-style : italic;">The Legend of Sleepy Hollow beginning in 1958.
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1980), directed by Henning Schellerup. A made-for-television movie filmed in Utah, starring Jeff Goldblum as Ichabod Crane and Dick Butkus as Brom Bones.
• In the Nickelodeon television series Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1992), the episode "The Tale of the Midnight Ride" serves as a sequel to the classic story. In this episode a boy moves to Sleepy Hollow where he develops a crush on a girl. One night after the Halloween dance, they see the ghost of Ichabod Crane and they send him over the bridge that the Headless Horseman cannot cross, prompting the Headless Horseman to then come after them.
• Sleepy Hollow (1999), directed by Tim Burton. A movie adaptation which takes many liberties with the plot and characters. Johnny Depp starred as Ichabod Crane while Christopher Walken plays the Headless Horseman.
• The Legend of Sleepy Halliwell (2004), an episode of the TV show Charmed. A headless horseman terrorises the teachers at Magic School by beheading them.

Stage adaptations

• Sleepy Hollow (1948), a Broadway musical, with music by George Lessner and book and lyrics by Russell Maloney and Miriam Battista. It lasted 12 performances.

Audio Books on CD

Notable Audio adaptation include:

• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (2005). Produced by The Colonial Radio Theatre on the Air and released by Blackstone Audio. Faithfully adapted from the book by Washington Irving, this production has an elaborate music score by Jeffrey Gage, sound effects, and a full cast. Originally released as a "Halloween Pick" by Barnes & Noble bookstores, the production went on to win the Ogle Award for "Best Fantasy Production of 2005." The cast includes Lincoln Clark as Ichabod Crane, Joseph Zamparelli Jr. as Brom Bones, and Diane Capen as Katrina Van Tassel. The book was dramatized, produced and directed by Jerry Robbins. On Halloween 2005, the production was broadcast coast to coast on XM Radio's Sonic Theater, and repeated the following year. It continues to be one of Colonial's most popular titles in release.
• Sleepy Hollow (2007), produced and directed by Dave Johnson. This version is voiced by Alan Zain, who plays all the parts. ISBN 978-1-4276-2425-3.

References

See also

• Sleepy Hollow Cemetery was founded in 1849, and is adjacent to the Old Dutch Burying Ground. They are separately owned and administered.

Further reading

• Thomas S. Wermuth (2001). Rip Van Winkle's Neighbors: The Transformation of Rural Society in the Hudson River Valley. State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-5084-8.

External links

• "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" from The Harvard Classics (1917), hosted online at Bartleby.com.
• "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" at American Literature
• "Sleepy Hollow", a non-fiction update on the story's locale, written by Washington Irving in 1839.
• Old Dutch Burying Ground of Sleepy Hollow, the churchyard where Ichabod Crane sought sanctuary.
• Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Founded in 1849, it is adjacent to but separate from the Old Dutch Burying Ground.
• List of locations related to "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"
• .
• (directed by Tim Burton).
• "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in Concert" Annual festival featuring Irving's original narrative and orchestral score by Steven Smith.]
• "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" Brickfilm (LEGO movie).
• The unabridged "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (Episode Number 174) is read in its entirety in Mister Ron's Basement Podcast
• A Librivox Podcast version of "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" can be found here as well

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