American writer Washington Irving ( 1783-1859 ). MPI/Getty Images “ Irving had merely met and become friends with Scott in 1817 so it ‘s very probable he was influenced by his fresh mentor ‘s bring, ” she says, “ The poem is about a disgusting hunter who is doomed to be hunted everlastingly by the devil and the ‘ dogs of hell ’ as punishment for his crimes. ” READ MORE: The Dark Side of the Grimm Fairy Tales According to the New York Historical Society, others believe Irving was inspired by “ an actual Hessian soldier who was decapitated by a cannonball during the Battle of White Plains, around Halloween 1776. ” Irving ’ mho report takes position in the New York greenwich village of Sleepy Hollow, in Westchester County. In it, lanky newcomer and schoolmaster Ichabod Crane courts Katrina van Tassel, a young heiress who is besides being pursued by the Dutchman Brom Bones. After being rebuffed by Katrina at a party at the vanguard Tassel farm where haunt stories are shared, Ichabod is chased by a headless horseman ( who may or may not be his rival ) who hurls a pumpkin at the valet, throwing Ichabod from his knight. The schoolmaster vanishes. Irving may have drawn divine guidance for his history while a adolescent in the Tarrytown region. He moved to the area in 1798 to flee a yellow fever outbreak in New York City, according to the New York Historical Society.
He “ would have been introduced to local anesthetic ghost stories and lore at an impressionable senesce, ” Bradley says. “ He cleverly weaves together actual locations—the Old Dutch Church and churchyard, ‘ Major Andre ‘s Tree, ’ some actual family names, including van Tassel and Ichabod Crane—and a small sting of Revolutionary War history with pure imagination and fantasy, ” Bradley says. “ It ‘s a melt pot of a fib, and frankincense wholly american english. ” READ MORE: Famous Ghosts in American History
The Headless Horseman pursuing Ichabod, illustrated by Frances Brundage. polish Club/Getty Images Franz Potter, a professor at National University who specializes in Gothic studies, says the brainless horseman, as a supernatural entity, represents a past that never dies, but always haunts the surviving. “ The brainless horseman purportedly seeks revenge—and a head—which he thinks was unfairly taken from him, ” Potter says. “ This injustice demands that he continually search for a alternate. The horseman, like the past, still seeks answers, distillery seeks retribution, and ca n’t rest. We are haunted by the past which stalks us so that we never forget it. ” As for folklore shuffle with history when it comes to the character of Ichabod Crane, The New York Times reports an actual Col. Ichabod B. Crane was a contemporary of Irving who enlisted in the Marines in 1809, serving 45 years. But there ’ s no evidence that the two always met, according to the newspaper.
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America ’ s first ghost floor, Bradley says, has endured because it accommodates the changing american english resource. “ It inspires people because it reminds them that there are still some american mysteries, some half-truths that may never be in full known—and that ‘s the wholly point, ” she says. “ The ‘ Legend ’ lends itself to any interpretation, and it continues to fascinate and terrify us in the best possible means. ” READ MORE: 8 of Halloween’s Most Hair-Raising Folk Legends
