Maybe you’ve noticed this. When Halloween comes around, the Headless Horseman and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow reemerge. There’s a reason for that, and I discuss it quite a bit in Sleepy Hollow as American Myth. Right now there seems to be quite an interest, or maybe I’m just noticing it more. For example, a local theater where we saw a Poe performance last year is offering a Headless Horseman show this year. Articles have recently been appearing on Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow movie, given that it was released 25 years ago—online discussion, however, is often eclipsed by the Fox television show by the same name. And before it switched over to Christmas decorations, Michaels had its share of Sleepy Hollow merchandise. Halloween and the Headless Horseman go together. (Read the book to find out why!)
One of the tchotchkes I picked up at Michaels was Ichabod Crane’s tombstone. In the many renditions of Washington Irving’s legend, Ichabod is treated as the protagonist of the story. Although Tim Burton’s movie wasn’t the first to have Crane survive, besting the Horseman, the old wives’ tales, according to Irving, had him spirited away by the Horseman. That’s why I found his gravestone so interesting. The dates on it (1787–1857) indicate, at least according to this recension, that he died at seventy, surely not the victim of the attack that took place around the turn of the century. If you’re not familiar with the original story, Irving set it “some thirty years since” the 1820 in which the tale was published, putting the events around 1790. Burton shifted this to 1799, partially, I suspect, because that was two centuries before the release of his movie.
I do wonder where the maker of the Michaels tombstone got their information. According to their reckoning, Crane would’ve been but three years old in 1790. Of course, the story never tells us his age. Since it is intimated that he relocated and became a judge after dabbling in politics, all of which would seem to indicate that he was a somewhat young man at the time of the tale. To make Sleepy Hollow scary, though, having Crane cut off in his youth would seem to be more in keeping with the spirit of the season. Of course, Sleepy Hollow is a legend that has become mythic through its many retellings. Enough of them that someone could write a book about it all (ahem). And this is the time of year to ponder it.