The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

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Washington Irving's 1820 short story of a headless horseman terrorizing a real village of Sleepy Hollow is one of America's first ghost stories. Since the Middle Ages stories of headless horsemen have been around. Brothers Grimm and an Irish and Dutch legend called "Dullahan" or "Gan Ceann" is a Grim Reaper-like rider who carries his head around. So Irving was not the first to tell such a tale. There is a 1796 Sir Walter Scott poem, The Chase, which is a translation of a German poem "The Wild Huntsman" by Gottfried Burger, and could be a source for the horseman in Irving's tale. Scott and Irving had just met and become friends in 1817. It is the story of an evil hunter who is hunted forever by the devil and the "dogs of hell" for his past horrors. The New York Historical Society says that others believe the author was inspired by a real Hessian soldier who was decapitated by a cannonball in the Battle of White Plains somewhere around Halloween of 1776. The article goes on to tell about Irving's move to the New York village of Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County. I am adding the link to that History Channel article: