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November 12 - 15
A Perenial Favorite
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” has become a classic ghost story, but the Headless Horseman legend did not originate with Washington Irving. Versions of the Headless Horseman have existed since the Middle Ages.
They have appeared in Grimm’s fairy tales, Dutch and Irish folklore, and 19th-century German literature. It is not known how Irving came to know the legend, but placing the figure in a Dutch community aligns with its cultural origins.
Ultimately, the legend is designed to warn against otherness among these small, often ethnically defined villages. In this case, Ichabod, an outsider attempting to gain access by controlling the education of the local children and wishing to marry the most eligible maiden, is chased away by the last unsuccessful outsider, the Hessian Horseman.
