00:00This video is brought to you by Paramount Scares.
00:05-"Murder needs no ghost to come from the grave."
00:09Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're unearthing the legend of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy
00:13Hollow fame.
00:14-"Here!
00:15Take her!
00:16She's yours!"
00:20The Headless Horseman is synonymous with Washington Irving's 1820 short story, The Legend of
00:25Sleepy Hollow.
00:26The narrative follows schoolmaster Ichabod Crane, who travels to the village of Sleepy
00:30Hollow where he attempts to woo the aristocratic Katrina Van Tassel.
00:34-"I'm looking for Balthus Van Tassel."
00:37-"I'm his daughter, Katrina Van Tassel."
00:40Standing in his way is the town resident ruffian, Abraham Bron Bones Van Brunt.
00:45Brom antagonizes Ichabod with pranks, although the greatest trick is saved for one autumn
00:50night.
00:51Brom tells the tale of the Headless Horseman at a party with Ichabod in attendance.
00:55-"He rode a giant black steed named Daredevil."
00:58This ghostly figure is said to be a Hessian trooper, i.e. a German soldier who assisted
01:03the British army during the Revolutionary War.
01:06The Hessian earned his headless reputation amid battle when a cannonball knocked his
01:10skull off.
01:11-"This butcher didn't finally reach his end until the winter of 79."
01:17Although the horseman was supposedly buried, his spirit continues to roam at night, searching
01:21for a new head.
01:22-"But now the Hessian wakes.
01:25He's on the rampage, cutting off heads where he finds them."
01:28The horseman has his limits, though, unable to cross a bridge near a stream.
01:32The legend gets too real for Ichabod as he rides home that night.
01:36Along the way, he comes face to face, kind of, with the Headless Horseman himself.
01:41-"Who's there?"
01:42At least, that's what we're led to believe.
01:52Irving never makes it clear if the horseman is real or if this is just Brom playing his
01:57most elaborate prank yet.
01:58Either way, Ichabod is chased to the bridge, but he isn't out of the woods.
02:02The horseman shucks what appears to be his own head at Ichabod, who falls from his horse
02:07gunpowder.
02:08Along with gunpowder, all that's found of Ichabod is his hat near a broken jack-o'-lantern,
02:17suggesting the severed head was really a pumpkin.
02:20This leans toward the theory that the horseman was truly Brom, who ultimately marries Katrina
02:24with no competition left.
02:26Even if Ichabod had stuck around, Katrina previously turned him down.
02:30-"Goodbye, Ichabod Crane.
02:32I curse the day you came to Sleepy Hollow."
02:34Given Katrina's rejection and his terrifying encounter with the horseman, it'd make sense
02:38for Ichabod to leave Sleepy Hollow.
02:40Of course, there's also reason to believe the horseman got him.
02:43However you interpret the ending, the residents of Sleepy Hollow never saw or heard from Ichabod
02:48again.
02:49Just as Irving leaves the nature of the headless horseman open-ended, the inspiration behind
02:54this character is clouded in mystery.
02:56-"The Bronx is up, the Battery's down, and home is this way."
03:01Much like how Ichabod was an outsider in Sleepy Hollow, Irving found himself in a new
03:05town when he arrived in Tarrytown, New York.
03:08Yellow fever had broken out in the teenage Irving's native Manhattan, forcing him to
03:12relocate in 1798.
03:14Irving's experiences in Tarrytown planted the seeds of Sleepy Hollow as the locals shared
03:19ghost stories.
03:20-"The horseman was a Hessian mercenary, sent to these shores by German princes to keep
03:26Americans under the yoke of England.
03:29But unlike his compatriots, who came for money, the horseman came for love of carnage."
03:36For Ichabod, it's been said that Irving drew inspiration from schoolmaster Jesse Merwin
03:41and teacher Samuel Youngs.
03:43The bridge from Irving's story is also derived from real life.
03:47It once stood over the Pechanico River, although the bridge has since been replaced.
03:51The inspirations behind the headless horseman are less clear-cut.
03:54-"It was a headless horseman."
03:55-"You must not excite yourself."
03:56-"But it was a headless horseman!"
03:57-"Of course it was, that's why you're here."
03:58-"No, no, you must believe me.
03:59It was a horseman, a dead one.
04:00Headless."
04:01-"I know, I know."
04:02-"You don't know because you were not there!"
04:07Of course, it's not as if Irving invented the concept of a headless man.
04:11Based on the records available, the first beheadings might have taken place as early
04:15as 3000 BCE.
04:18Throughout history, decapitation has been a form of capital punishment.
04:21-"The heads are gone."
04:24-"Taken.
04:25Taken by the headless horseman.
04:29Taken back to hell."
04:31In ancient Greece and Rome, beheadings were actually seen as an honorable execution.
04:35In Christianity, several saints carry their own heads, such as Denis of Paris and Justice
04:40of Beauvais.
04:42These saints are known as cephalophores.
04:44The term stems from the Greek words kephali, which translates to head, and pheren, meaning
04:49to bear or to carry.
04:51Cephalophores are often portrayed as martyrs, their heads symbolizing the ultimate sacrifice
04:56in the name of their beliefs.
04:57Although Irving's upbringing wasn't without religion, his inspiration for the headless
05:01horseman more likely derived from European fables.
05:10Before Sleepy Hollow, there were already several prominent headless horsemen in folklore.
05:14-"Take this.
05:15It is my gift for you."
05:18-"No, I have no use for it."
05:20-"Are you so certain of everything?"
05:22One such example is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a 14th century Arthurian legend.
05:27After being challenged in King Arthur's court, Gawain beheads the Green Knight.
05:32Victory isn't easily claimed, as the Green Knight picks up his head, gets back on his
05:35horse and tells Gawain to meet him at the Green Chapel.
05:39Whereas that tale is categorized as a chivalric romance, Ewan of the Little Head is closer
05:44to a traditional ghost story.
05:46This Scottish legend centers on a horseman who was beheaded in the battle on the Isle
05:50of Mull sometime around 1538.
05:52Ewan's horse continued to ride on with his headless corpse.
05:56The horse eventually stopped, but Ewan's ghost endured.
05:59-"I have faced my fears and come out determined to locate the horseman's grave.
06:03In short, to pit myself against a murdering ghost.
06:09Who's with me?"
06:10Irving's headless horseman also draws parallels to an Irish folklore creature, the Dullahan.
06:15While interpretations vary, author Thomas Crofton Croker famously depicted the Dullahan
06:20as the headless rider of the death coach, signifying somebody is about to take their
06:23last breath.
06:25Since the horseman in Irving's story was a Hessian, it wouldn't be surprising if he borrowed
06:29from German folklore figures like Hans Jagenteufel, who lived out his afterlife riding a horse
06:34while carrying his head as penance for his sins.
06:37Another German figure, Kopfloser Reiter, is also portrayed as a sinner without a head.
06:42Hans Jagenteufel and Kopfloser Reiter both serve as cautionary figures, warning the living
06:46of the dangers that await.
06:48In that sense, they're less menacing than the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow.
06:52-"Wait!
06:53He's not after you!"
06:54-"I'll get him!"
06:56In 1778, German poet Gottfried August Börger wrote the poem Der wilde Jäger, a.k.a.
07:01The Wild Huntsman.
07:02-"Do you know of the horseman, ma'am, the Hessian?
07:08That'll be him, ma'am."
07:11With echoes of Norse mythology, the story centers on a hunter who is punished for his
07:16evil deeds.
07:17Being pursued by the devil, the hunter becomes the hunted.
07:21In 1796, Walter Scott translated Börger's poem into The Chase.
07:25Only three years before publishing The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Irving became good friends
07:30with Scott, who was just as much a mentor.
07:33Given their close bond, it's been theorized that the huntsman from The Chase inspired
07:37the headless horseman.
07:39-"He rides to the hollow and back.
07:42I hear him.
07:43I spill the blood on him."
07:46While numerous stories could have influenced Irving, the headless horseman just might be
07:50grounded in real life.
07:51No, we're not saying that a literal headless ghost haunts the village of Sleepy Hollow
07:55on horseback.
07:56During the Battle of White Plains, though, some historians believe that an actual Hessian
08:00trooper lost his head via cannonball.
08:03The battle occurred on October 28, 1776, right around the spooky season that defined
08:09The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
08:10The soldier was supposedly buried in an unmarked grave at Old Dutch Church, which would be
08:15featured in Irving's tale.
08:16It is entirely possible that Irving heard about this Hessian trooper during his time
08:20in Tarrytown, providing the basis for the headless horseman.
08:23-"The horseman does not kill at random.
08:26His victims are chosen by someone who controls him."
08:29Within the decades following the publication of Sleepy Hollow, Halloween developed into
08:33an annual tradition in the U.S.
08:35It's no shock that the headless horseman would become a Halloween staple.
08:39Irving truly created a modern legend that continues to fuel stories around the campfire
08:43and the ensuing nightmares.
08:45It may be debatable where exactly Irving got the idea for the headless horseman.
08:50Considering that he intended the character to be vague, perhaps the mystery is welcome.
08:55One question exceeds all others, though.
08:58Did Washington Irving envision the horseman looking anything like Christopher Walken?
09:09We like to think so.
09:10What was your introduction to the headless horseman?
09:12Let us know in the comments.
09:14-"The skull is gone.
09:18Take him.
09:19That is where the horseman returns from the grave, to take heads of his own."
09:25This video is brought to you by Paramount Scares.
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