The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving - Summary

The story is set in the small market town or rural port Tarry Town. Two miles of the village is a little valley called Sleepy Hollow, inhabited by peculiar people of Dutch descent. It has a drowsy, dreamy quality to it. There is much speculation about a spell of some sort that was cast over it. Strange things happen there; its inhabitants behave strangely and see strange things.

Visitors of the Hollow too soon acquire a dreamy quality. The Hollow seems not to change with time. The dominant spirit is the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow, said to be seeking his head.

Thirty years before, Ichabod Crane, a Connecticut man, comes to the Hollow to be a schoolmaster. He is gangly and odd-looking. His schoolhouse is patchily constructed and in a secluded location. Crane employs the rod and is a strict but just teacher, sparing the weak and disciplining the strong. He lives at the houses of the children whom he teaches, and is on good terms with them, for his salary is low and he needs their aid. He helps them with chores around the farm, abandoning the dignified behavior of the classroom. Crane sings and earns money by teaching it as well. In this way he gets along.

Since the schoolmaster is considered extremely smart, he receives the favor and attention of the young women and generally treated with respect. He is an envoy of gossip and thus well received. He believes and revels in stories of the supernatural, an appetite that is whetted by his stay at Sleepy Hollow. He enjoys reading them as well as listening to old Dutch wives' tales. He takes pleasure in walking in the dark, imagining the dangerous things that lurk.

More perplexing than ghosts however are women. Katrina Van Tassel, beautiful, high-aspiring young daughter of an affluent farmer, sets her sights on Crane. Ichabod is enraptured by the wealth of her father as well as by Katrina. He decides to woo her, a task that proves difficult. He has many competitors, most notably Brom, an athletic, confident, good-humored and intelligent man- "a formidable rival". He is a little bumbling but this does not repel Katrina. While Brom would have preferred to settle the argument over Katrina physically, modern codes forbid this, so he resorts to playing practical jokes on Ichabod.

Ichabod is invited to a party at Van Tassel's. He lets school out early, and spends the time primping. He dons his only suit and borrows a gaunt old plow horse, Gunpowder. The effect is very strange. As he rides there he notes the plenty everywhere, the result of the harvest. He pictures all the food that must await him at the Van Tassel's. He arrives there and notes the guests in their festive attire. He partakes of all the food, and is more taken by that than by the ladies. Bones is there as well.

Ichabod dances with Katrina and Bones is jealous. At the end of the evening Ichabod joins a group of old men who are telling war stories, each more embellished than the next. Soon afterwards they began exchanging stories about the supernatural, in particular the Headless Horseman, who has lately been seen wandering in the graveyard. Bones too tells a story.

At the end of the night, for a reason the narrator doesn't know, Katrina rejects Ichabod, perhaps indicating that her attentions to Ichabod had been a ruse to get to Bones. He returns sadly homeward. On his way he repeatedly mistakes natural noises and sights for supernatural ones. He sees a frightening shadow. He bravely but fearfully calls out to it, and finally- it reveals itself to be the Headless Horeseman! He tries to outride it, losing the saddle on the way and clinging to Gunpowder, somewhat comically, for dear life. The Horseman flings his head at Ichabod, throwing him off his horse. Gunpowder and the Horseman ride off.

The next morning the horse is found unsaddled, and Ichabod has disappeared. A search is conducted and traces of a furious chase on horseback are found, and Ichabod's hat, with a pumpkin shattered next to it. His belongings are found, but his body is not. A new schoolhouse is established in a different location. It is speculated that he must have been done away with by the Headless Horseman, and is soon forgotten.

A visitor to New York reports that Ichabod had escaped Tarry Town in shame at being rejected by Katrina as well as in fear of Hans Van Ripper. He becomes a politician, a lawyer and then a justice of a small court. Bones marries Katrina, and it is implied he flung the pumpkin at Ichabod to scare the latter off. The wives however maintain that Ichabod disappeared by supernatural means, and his voice can still be heard singing a sad tune in the peaceful quiet of Sleepy Hollow.

The Washington Irving Monument in Alhambra