Sleepy Hollow and the Headless Horseman
A village on the Hudson gave its name to the legend of the Headless Horseman, and celebrates him every October.
What was reported
In 1820 Washington Irving published The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, set in a Dutch farming community near Tarrytown, New York. It tells of the schoolmaster Ichabod Crane, chased one night by a headless horseman, said to be the ghost of a Hessian soldier who rides out from the churchyard.
The village of North Tarrytown renamed itself Sleepy Hollow in 1996. The Old Dutch Church and its burying ground, where Irving himself is buried, draw thousands of visitors every Halloween.
Explanations offered
Irving drew on local folklore and on European tales of headless riders, such as the Irish dullahan. The legend is fiction, but it has become a living local tradition.
- When
- Published in 1820
- Where
- Sleepy Hollow, New York, USA
- Witnesses
- Hudson Valley tradition, and Washington Irving
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.