Why is the Headless Horseman headless?

In the story he is the ghost of a Hessian trooper whose head was carried away by a cannon-ball in a battle of the Revolutionary War. Irving says the battle is nameless.

Why does the Headless Horseman ride at night?

Irving reports the local belief that he is buried in the churchyard and rides out each night to the battlefield to look for his head. He hurries because he must be back before daybreak.

What does the Headless Horseman look like?

Irving shows him only on the last night: a big rider on a powerful black horse, gigantic against the sky, muffled in a cloak, with his head carried in front of him on the pommel of his saddle.

Does the Headless Horseman throw a pumpkin in the story?

Ichabod sees him rise in his stirrups and hurl his head. The next morning a shattered pumpkin is found beside Ichabod’s hat. Irving puts the two facts next to each other and leaves the reader to decide.

Was the Headless Horseman really Brom Bones?

Irving never says so. Brom marries Katrina soon after Ichabod vanishes, looks knowing whenever the story is told, and laughs whenever the pumpkin is mentioned. Some in the story suspect he knew more than he told.

The Legend

The Headless Horseman

The ghost of a Hessian trooper who lost his head to a cannon-ball and rides out each night to look for it. Who he is in Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, where he rides, and why he hurries home before daybreak.

Who is the Headless Horseman?

The Headless Horseman is the ghost that haunts Sleepy Hollow in Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820). The story says he is a Hessian trooper who lost his head to a cannon-ball in the Revolutionary War. Buried in the churchyard, he rides out each night to look for his head and must be back before daybreak.

Who he is

Washington Irving puts the Headless Horseman at the front of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, before any of its people. He is the chief spirit of a valley already full of ghosts. Irving calls him “the apparition of a figure on horseback, without a head.” The country folk say he is the ghost of a Hessian trooper whose head was carried away by a cannon-ball in a nameless battle of the Revolutionary War.

A Hessian was a soldier from Hesse-Cassel, a German state that loaned its army, for a price, to Great Britain, and the Hessians fought on the British side in that war. Irving does not explain the word. The old Dutch wives have their own name for the ghost: the Galloping Hessian of the Hollow.

How Irving describes him

Irving gives him few details at first: a shape on a horse, seen hurrying through the dark at the speed of the wind. You do not see him up close until the last night, when Ichabod Crane meets him on the road home. Then Irving shows “a horseman of large dimensions, and mounted on a black horse of powerful frame.” Against the sky he is gigantic and muffled in a cloak. His head is not missing. He carries it in front of him on the pommel of his saddle.

His haunts and the church

His haunts reach beyond the valley to the nearby roads, and most of all to a church close by. The church stands on a knoll among locust trees and elms, whitewashed, with a grassy burying ground. The trooper is buried there, and the guests at the Van Tassel party say he ties his horse each night among the graves. Below the church a wooden bridge crosses a deep black part of the brook under overhanging trees. Irving calls it a favorite haunt and the place where the Horseman is most often met.

Why he rides

The reason is in the first telling. Irving reports what the careful historians of those parts allege: the trooper was buried in the churchyard, and the ghost rides out to the battlefield “in nightly quest of his head.” That is why he hurries. When he tears through the Hollow like a midnight blast, it is because he is late and must be back in the churchyard before daybreak. The story does not say what happens if he is not.

The pumpkin

The morning after the chase, the searchers follow hoof tracks to the bridge. On the bank beyond it they find Ichabod’s hat, and close beside it a shattered pumpkin. Irving does not say the Horseman threw a pumpkin. He says Ichabod saw the goblin rise in his stirrups and hurl his head. The pumpkin is what was found. Brom Bones, who marries Katrina soon after, laughs out loud whenever the pumpkin is mentioned. Irving sets the facts side by side and leaves the conclusion to you.

In Irving’s words

Irving, on the Horseman’s first telling.

Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, 1820. The voice reading Irving in the films was designed for Sleepy Hollow with ElevenLabs. It is not a recording of any person. The whole story is free to read.

The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted region, and seems to be commander-in-chief of all the powers of the air, is the apparition of a figure on horseback, without a head. It is said by some to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head had been carried away by a cannon-ball, in some nameless battle during the Revolutionary War, and who is ever and anon seen by the country folk hurrying along in the gloom of night, as if on the wings of the wind. His haunts are not confined to the valley, but extend at times to the adjacent roads, and especially to the vicinity of a church at no great distance.

On Roblox

In the game

In The Sleepy Hollow Experience the Headless Horseman rides every night. At nightfall the bell rings and he comes, whether you play alone or with friends. He carries no weapon. He throws a pumpkin, and a caught player is knocked down and can be helped back up by a friend. Reach the covered bridge and you are safe; he cannot cross it. Pumpkins by the lanterns rear his horse. At the statue in the square you can put on his costume and ride as the Horseman yourself. The game is coming to Roblox.

Coming to RobloxWatch the films

He rides tonight

“A figure on horseback, without a head. Hurrying along in the gloom of night, as if on the wings of the wind.”

Keep reading

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the whole of it

Asked

What people ask about The Headless Horseman

In the story he is the ghost of a Hessian trooper whose head was carried away by a cannon-ball in a battle of the Revolutionary War. Irving says the battle is nameless.
Irving reports the local belief that he is buried in the churchyard and rides out each night to the battlefield to look for his head. He hurries because he must be back before daybreak.
Irving shows him only on the last night: a big rider on a powerful black horse, gigantic against the sky, muffled in a cloak, with his head carried in front of him on the pommel of his saddle.
Ichabod sees him rise in his stirrups and hurl his head. The next morning a shattered pumpkin is found beside Ichabod’s hat. Irving puts the two facts next to each other and leaves the reader to decide.
Irving never says so. Brom marries Katrina soon after Ichabod vanishes, looks knowing whenever the story is told, and laughs whenever the pumpkin is mentioned. Some in the story suspect he knew more than he told.