THE LEGEND OF THE SLEEPY HOLLOW

CHARACTERS

Ichabod Crane is a comically portrayed schoolmaster from Connecticut

who has few redeeming qualities. A misfit in Sleepy Hollow in many
Ichabod Crane ways, he wants Katrina Van Tassel and the wealth that would come
with her, actually believing he has a chance at winning her over Brom
Bones.
18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel is the only child in the wealthy Van
Tassel family. Spoiled, pretty, and flirtatious, she is an object of desire
Katrina Van Tassel in Sleepy Hollow.
Brom Bones, whose birth name is Abraham Van Brunt, is the most
popular young man in Sleepy Hollow. He is an athletic, good-natured
Brom Bones rogue who desires Katrina Van Tassel and is determined to win her
over his main rival, Ichabod Crane.
Baltus Van Tassel is the successful Dutch farmer who gives his
daughter, Katrina, whatever she wants. He is contentedly wealthy
Baltus Van Tassel without showing off.
The Headless Horseman is the ghostly main character in the vast
folklore tradition that the people of Sleepy Hollow treasure. In the
Headless story, he seems to chase the frightened Ichabod Crane home one
Horseman terrifying night, but it becomes evident the specter is none other than
Brom Bones in disguise.
Doubting The doubting gentleman is present when the storyteller relates the
story that is recorded by Diedrich Knickerbocker. He questions the
gentleman veracity of the tale and asks that its moral and meaning be clarified.
Diedrich Diedrich Knickerbocker is the narrator of the story, having written the
tale down in "his papers" after hearing it told orally by the storyteller.
Knickerbocker Irving often uses this fictional narrator, an offbeat young scholar of
Dutch American history, in his stories.
The storyteller is described by Diedrich Knickerbocker as an old farmer.
He apparently has some stature in New York, as he is among respected
Storyteller gentlemen when he tells the story that Knickerbocker records in
writing.
Hans Van Ripper is the extremely grumpy old Dutch farmer with whom
Ichabod Crane is staying at the time of the Van Tassel party and from
Hans Van Ripper whom he borrows the horse he rides to the party and back on that
fateful night. Van Ripper gets rid of Ichabod's belongings after he
disappears.
Dame Van Tassel is the wife of Baltus and the mother of Katrina. She
stays happily busy at her many household tasks and does not pay
Dame Van Tassel much attention to Katrina's activities.
 The Van Tassel servant, described as "a negro in tow-cloth jacket and
trowsers," comes to the schoolhouse to deliver to Ichabod Crane the
Van Tassel servant formal invitation to the Van Tassel party.

Symbols
Music
Music is an essential element for setting the mood throughout "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Ichabod
Crane is depicted as vain when it comes to his singing voice and his dancing ability. With tongue-in-cheek
descriptions of his efforts in both areas, Irving reveals that Ichabod Crane's vanity is not backed by talent.
Nevertheless, giving singing lessons to young people is one way Crane makes extra income. When he
sings for this purpose, he is confidently in charge. Music represents the cocky side of his personality; he is
blind to his own shortcomings. However, he also sings at other times, times when he is far from confident
and is in fact filled with fear. When he travels through the valley at night and becomes spooked because
of his belief in ghosts, Ichabod Crane sings psalm tunes, no doubt believing the force of God will protect
him. At these times, the music highlights his weakness in a different way.

Music is also present in the form of the singing birds in the valley. It is part of the rich description of the
beautiful natural world. Here birdsong represents the ideal rural life. Yet sometimes it is this type of music
that spooks Ichabod Crane, the outsider, on his travels through the area at night.

Books
For the inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow, books are a symbol of high-level education and learning. The people
do not seem to own books, preferring to share stories and news orally. It is telling that among all the
details given about the Van Tassel home, for example, a library of books is not included. Instead, shelves
and cupboards are filled with natural objects and valuable items used when serving or enjoying meals.
Equally telling is how the few books that are seen in the valley are used to repair the windows of the
schoolhouse, which are patched "with leaves of old copybooks."

Part of what impresses people about Ichabod Crane is his book learning, which, Irving points out
humorously, is actually minimal: "He had read several books quite through." His particular fascination
with Cotton Mather's History of New England Witchcraft indicates something about his level of
intelligence, however. A Puritan, Mather believed that the devil was very present and at work in the New
England colonies; he fervently believed that people could be possessed by the devil to do evil in the
world. By wholeheartedly accepting Mather's words about witchcraft in New England—similar to how
easily he believes the ghost stories of Sleepy Hollow—Ichabod Crane shows how naive his thought
processes are. The book he loves is not factual, yet he believes in it as such.

When Ichabod Crane disappears from Sleepy Hollow, his books are burned by Hans Van Ripper. To him
they symbolize nothing but trouble, and no one in the valley ever misses them.

Brooks and Streams

Fresh, flowing water is found throughout the setting of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." It is part of the
bounty of nature found in the area. The brook running through the area makes a soothing sound and is
part of the magical quality of the landscape, "with just murmur enough to lull one to repose." Diedrich
Knickerbocker uses water as a metaphor to contrast Sleepy Hollow with the other rapidly changing areas:
"The great torrent of migration and improvement, which is making such incessant changes in other parts
of this restless country, sweeps by them unobserved."

However, where the brook runs at its boldest in Sleepy Hollow, tumbling over rocks and deep enough for
the water to be dark, that is where the Headless Horseman is most often seen. He supposedly crosses the
bridge over the water to reach the churchyard after he has wandered the nearby battleground looking for
his head. This is where Ichabod Crane experiences the terrifying encounter with the specter on the night
he disappears.

In the story, then, small, murmuring brooks represent peace and a desirable way of life. Rushing, noisy
streams represent chaos and fear. Small brooks symbolize the rural way of life; rushing streams are like
the undesirable life one encounters in cities.

Themes
Nature's Bounty
From the opening of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," the lush nature of the Hudson River Valley is
described in detail. Both the bounty of nature in the wild and the bounty afforded to the farmers of the
region by the fertile soil and favorable climate are featured. Trees, wild grape vines, all sorts of birds,
squirrels, fireflies, small brooks and spring-fed streams and ponds teeming with fish and ducks and
geese—all are plentiful in the wooded countryside. Farmers' barns are filled with crops from orchards and
fields; pigs, turkeys, chickens, and other animal food sources populate the yards and pens. There is no
shortage of food in the valley!

This bounty gives the people of the valley security and stability. Although monetary wealth is not much
discussed in the story, it is evident that the more successful a farmer is, the wealthier his family is—such
as the Van Tassels. Outsiders such as Ichabod Crane covet this form of wealth at a time in the history of
the United States when life in the cities is becoming more materialistic, industrialized, and fast paced. Yet
his greed for the bounty of the valley seems misplaced, as the inhabitants are neither prideful nor
interested in the world or what they can acquire outside of their pleasant, dreamy residence.

Unreliability of Stories
One of Washington Irving's main messages in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is the need to question
stories, whether they are legends that have been handed down, tales told among friends, or
contemporary works of fiction and nonfiction. By using and explaining a complex framing device, Irving
sets readers up to question the story's veracity. It is the story of Ichabod Crane as narrated by Diedrich
Knickerbocker, who heard it told orally from an unnamed person, with a 30-year lapse between the
events and Knickerbocker's recording of them. He follows through with this in the postscript, in which a
listener to the oral version of the tale displays doubt about it and the storyteller confirms, "I don't believe
one-half of it myself."

Irving, as an early Romantic, certainly believes in the power of story and superstition. Nevertheless, he
pokes fun at gullibility by portraying Ichabod Crane as an unquestioning believer in every ghost story he
hears, resulting in his irrational level of fear. People can hold to their traditions and be entertained by old
stories, and the history of a place can be somewhat bound up with the stories passed down through the
generations, but readers and listeners must still be logical and ask questions when warranted.

The Supernatural
Sleepy Hollow is a place seemingly ruled by the supernatural. It is said to have been bewitched by an early
settler or an Indian. As the narrator describes, "Certain it is, the place still continues under the sway of
some witching power, that holds a spell over the minds of the good people," who are "given to all kinds of
marvellous beliefs, are subject to trances and visions, and frequently see strange sights, and hear music
and voices in the air." Ghost tales abound and are one of the main forms of entertainment when people
gather together socially. Specific places are thought to be haunted, many of them attached to the most
famous tale of the area, that of the Headless Horseman.

The inclusion of supernatural elements in a story is one of the traits of Romantic literature. However, the
emphasis on the supernatural in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" goes beyond this by opening up space for
doubt among Irving's readers and the listeners within the frame narrative. This is perhaps one reason why
the short story has remained so popular for hundreds of years. By establishing the believability of the
ghostly tales for the inhabitants of the valley while making it ambiguous whether the Headless Horseman
is real or not, Irving hits the mark for creating a ghost story with lasting appeal. It is up to the reader, as it
is up to the citizens of Sleepy Hollow, which version of the tale of Ichabod Crane to believe.

Author Biography
Early Life
On April 3, 1783, in the waning months of the Revolutionary War, Washington Irving was born into a
family of limited resources living in New York City. The youngest of 11 children, Irving received much
affectionate attention from his mother but little from his stern, religiously rigid Presbyterian father. At
age 16 Washington was apprenticed to a lawyer. However, by 1802 his budding literary ambition led him
to publish his first satirical essays in his brother Peter's newspaper, Morning Chronicle, and in other short-
lived publications. Two years later Irving began an extended visit to much of Europe. Returning to New
York in 1806 Irving reluctantly practiced law while collaborating with his brother William and friend James
Kirke Paulding to publish scathing political and social parodies and caricatures in the periodical
Salmagundi.

Literary Life
By 1809 Irving had created his fictional amateur historian and narrator Diedrich Knickerbocker, an
eccentric American of Dutch descent. Irving made Knickerbocker the narrator of the popular, humorous
book A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty by Diedrich
Knickerbocker (1809). Irving's satiric narrative mixed fact and fantasy to lampoon political figures as well
as the pretensions of the early Dutch settlers. While writing this book, Irving fell in love, but he was
devastated when his fiancée became ill with tuberculosis and died in 1809. He never married.

Between 1815 and 1817 Irving managed his family's import business in Liverpool, England. There he met
Scottish author Sir Walter Scott, who urged him to continue to write. Back home in New York once again,
Irving began a series of short stories and essays. These works made up a collection titled The Sketch Book
of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., which Irving published in serial form (1819–20). "Rip Van Winkle" and "The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow" were part of the collection. The Sketch Book—as it became commonly known—
earned Irving an enthusiastic audience in the United States as well as in England. The stories in this book
evoke early settler life in New York's Hudson River Valley with vivid color, energy, and humor. Irving was
revealed as a master of landscape description and of acute and lively character study. He used his keen
wit to critique the foibles and customs of his neighbors. However, in these stories, Irving toned down his
earlier razor-sharp satire to gently mock local traditions and politics.

Other less successful volumes of fiction and real history followed, including Bracebridge Hall, or the
Humorists, A Medley (1822) and a collection of essays, Tales of a Traveller (1824). Then after a stay in
Madrid in 1826, Irving wrote A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (1828). This book
was one of the first truly authoritative historical accounts of the explorer. Because the book was based on
the invaluable documents available to him in Madrid, it helped solidify Irving's reputation as a writer of
history. Thereafter Irving wrote more history than fiction.

International Life

After serving as a member of the American diplomatic service in Spain and England, Irving returned home
in 1832. Many things about his native country had changed during his 12-year absence. Irving was acutely
attuned to changes in society and politics. He was curious to see if the dramatic changes he saw in New
York were mirrored by great changes on the frontier, west of the Mississippi River. In September 1832
Irving joined a party of frontier travelers. He journeyed to Pawnee territory in what is today Oklahoma,
where he met American Indians and hunted buffalo. He turned his frontier experience into a book—A
Tour on the Prairies—which was published in a series of volumes beginning in 1835.

Irving spent 1842 to 1846 as a U.S. minister to Spain. Returning to the United States, he settled in
Tarrytown, New York, on his beloved Hudson River. Here Irving wrote his long-planned, five-volume work,
The Life of George Washington (1855–59). The history was intended for both a scholarly and general
readership. The last volume was published shortly before Irving's death on November 28, 1859.

Summary
Epigraph and Setting

The epigraph at the beginning of the story is a portion of a poem titled "Castle of Indolence." Written by
the Scottish poet James Thomson and published in 1748, the poem inspired other Romantic poets with its
honoring of nature. Since an epigraph is used by an author to set the stage for or hint at the theme of the
work, readers might feel that the place described in the poem's lines is Sleepy Hollow, especially since
Irving begins the story with several paragraphs describing the setting. First the narrator describes the
origins of the two names of the area, Tarry Town and Sleepy Hollow. Housewives claim their men tarry
around the tavern in the village, which explains the town's name. The "listless repose" of the nearby
"sequestered glen" accounts for the valley's name. The descriptions of the area are all positive; indeed,
the narrator who pens the story, Diedrich Knickerbocker, practically identifies it as paradise. Much of the
description is focused on the dreamy nature of the valley and its inhabitants, who appear to be almost in
a perpetual trance "under the sway of some witching power." They are very superstitious people, but the
"dominant spirit ... that haunts this region" is that of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow. This
apparition is believed to be a Hessian soldier whose body is buried in the churchyard but whose ghost
seeks its missing head nightly at the nearby battleground where it was severed from his body.
Knickerbocker also lauds the unchanging nature of the valley, contrasting it with the "incessant change"
that is occurring throughout most of the rest of the country. He speaks admiringly of the Dutch settlers
who choose to keep Sleepy Hollow "one of the quietest places in the whole world."

All about Ichabod Crane

After describing the area and the main legend that haunts it, Knickerbocker introduces the main
character of the story—which, incidentally, took place 30 years prior to his recounting—who is an
outsider to the region, hailing from Connecticut. He is the schoolmaster named Ichabod Crane. Crane is
an odd-looking fellow: tall, skinny, and long limbed, with a small head and big ears, glassy eyes, and a
large nose. As a schoolmaster he is authoritative and swift to inflict corporal punishment. After hours,
however, he aims to be a helpful member of the community. He entertains the older students and
babysits the younger students, gives singing lessons, does odd jobs on the farms, and generally makes
himself useful in order to earn the free room and board he is given as he moves from household to
household. Ichabod is especially popular among the women of the valley, as he spreads gossip from farm
to farm and readily shares what most of the people perceive as his superior intellect. Like the residents of
Sleepy Hollow, Crane is superstitious and enjoys ghost stories. He is especially fond of the tales of
witchcraft that supposedly occurred in New England towns as they were first settled. He loves sharing
these tales and listening to those of the people of Sleepy Hollow, although he takes them to heart and
often becomes horribly afraid when walking alone in the valley at night. Another significant characteristic
of Ichabod Crane is his greed. He can barely be sated by food, having a huge appetite and the "dilating
powers of an anaconda." He lusts after women and money, particularly Katrina Van Tassel and the wealth
of her farming family. As Knickerbocker describes the well-appointed Van Tassel farmland and home, he
does it through Ichabod's eyes, letting readers know that the schoolmaster practically licks his lips when
thinking of getting his hands on the abundant sources of food and fine furnishings—not to mention the
cash.

In Pursuit of Katrina Van Tassel

Ichabod Crane sets his sights on winning the hand of Katrina Van Tassel, but he is not without rivals in
that pursuit. She is a beautiful, flirtatious 18-year-old, and as the only child of the wealthy Van Tassels,
she offers much to be desired in a wife. The most formidable foe of Ichabod is the hero of Sleepy Hollow,
a burly native son named Brom Van Brunt, nicknamed Brom Bones. Brom is so well-liked and admired in
the valley that no one but Ichabod would bother to go up against him in pursuit of Katrina. Besides, it
seems clear that Katrina likes Brom and encourages his advances. Nevertheless Ichabod proceeds to
quietly woo Katrina, calling often at the Van Tassel home and giving her singing lessons. In response Brom
and his gang regularly play pranks on Ichabod, publicly ridicule him, and even train a dog to howl
whenever it hears the schoolmaster sing. Then one autumn day Ichabod has an invitation delivered to
him at the schoolhouse by a Van Tassel servant to attend a party at their house that night. Thinking this
might finally be his big break, Ichabod takes extra care in getting ready to go, dismissing the
schoolchildren a full hour early. He grooms and dresses carefully and borrows an old horse named
Gunpowder from a neighbor, Hans Van Ripper. As described by Knickerbocker, Ichabod Crane is a cartoon
version of a knight-of-old setting out to claim the hand of his maiden. He looks ridiculous as he trots along
on a "broken-down plow-horse" through the beautiful countryside. When he arrives the locals are all
gathering for the festivities, and Brom Bones looks particularly debonair on his beautiful horse.
Undaunted, Ichabod avails himself of every wonderful dish spread before him. He then dances wildly with
Katrina, his joyful smile and "amorous oglings" making Brom jealous as he looks on. The evening
continues with storytelling. Stories of the Revolutionary War soon give way to the usual ghost stories,
much to Ichabod's delight. Before long many different accounts of encounters with the Headless
Horseman are given, including one by the heroic Brom Bones. Finally Ichabod takes center stage with his
witchcraft tales and descriptions of creepy encounters during his evening walks through Sleepy Hollow.
As the party breaks up Ichabod lingers to have a private conversation with Katrina. However, something
upsetting to him, perhaps Katrina's inattention, happens during their visit, and he leaves the party "quite
desolate and chapfallen."

The Terrifying Chase

It is the "witching time of night" when a very melancholy Ichabod Crane begins traveling home. He feels
spooked as he remembers all the ghost stories he heard that night, several of them set around the area
through which he rides. Normal sights and sounds suddenly seem scary, and Ichabod takes his fears out
on the poor old horse on which he rides, kicking it and whipping it and trying all sorts of things to get the
horse to trot faster. As he tries to cross a stream that the village people believe to be haunted, he sees
that another horseman is nearby. He calls out but receives no answer. This rider shadows Ichabod,
speeding up or slowing down as Ichabod does. When the frightened schoolmaster is finally able to see his
unwanted companion in the moonlight, what he beholds is a headless rider—who carries his head on the
saddle in front of him! Now Ichabod begins a desperate ride to the church, where the legend of the
Headless Horseman says all will be safe. The headless rider is right behind him as Ichabod loses his saddle
and must cling to the neck of the horse. As he crosses the last bridge, he turns to see if his pursuer will
vanish, as the legend promises. Instead, the horseman stands up in his saddle and hurls his head, striking
Ichabod forcefully in the cranium. As Ichabod falls to the ground, the horseman thunders by. Ichabod's
horse gallops away as well.

Afterward and the Postscript

The next day the old horse is found at his master's gate. The villagers begin to search for Ichabod Crane,
and they soon find evidence of what happened at the bridge. The horse's lost saddle is there, trampled by
another horse that is obviously big and fast. Also by the bridge is a smashed pumpkin and Ichabod's hat.
But Ichabod Crane is never found. His meager belongings are dispensed with; his books and papers are
burned. Most of the inhabitants believe that the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow has struck again
and has carried off Ichabod's body. Some years later the old farmer who told Knickerbocker this story
reports to the villagers after a trip to New York that Ichabod Crane is alive and well, has become an
attorney and a politician, and was appointed as a court justice. However, most choose to continue to
believe in the story of Ichabod being spirited away by the Headless Horseman. As for Brom Bones, he wed
Katrina soon after Ichabod's disappearance and often laughs whenever the smashed pumpkin is brought
up as the story is told around the fire. The postscript at the end of the story is also supposedly written by
Diedrich Knickerbocker. Here he reflects upon the evening when he heard the story from the farmer, in a
group of highly respected businessmen and government leaders. One of the men questioned the
storyteller about the meaning or moral of the story, and the storyteller responded rather flippantly but
also apparently mostly to the man's satisfaction. However, upon hearing the man's observation that he
still had a few doubts, the storyteller responded with these words: "I don't believe one half of it myself."