Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Legend of Sleepy Hollow

In this story, there's a sense of what seems to have happened but that perhaps something else did happen instead. Explain what you believe happened in your particular story. Then read over the other postings and participate in the discussion as we explore the possibilities and the evidence in each case.

Discussion platform 350 word minimum

2 Other post thus far.

Jered post -

I think what happened in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" was that Brom Bones was actually the Headless Horseman and scared of Ichabod Crane so that he could marry Katrina Van Tassel. Ichabod is known to be superstitious and ghosts and witchcraft, so Brom Bones likely knew that he could scare Ichabod away from Sleepy Hollow by dressing up and pretending to be the Headless Horsemen, who Brom told Ichabod about at the Van Tassels house party. Both Brom and Ichabod wanted to marry Katrina so he had the motivation to do it and I thought it was telling that every time the story of Ichabods disappearance was talked about, he smiled knowingly and laughed when he heard about the pumpkin head.

Carol response-

I have to wonder, do you think that Brom had always been the headless horseman having a bit of fun building up the local lore?

Carol post-

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow tells the story of Ichabod Crane who was the local school teacher but also taught singing psalms. Irving goes into beautiful detail describing the location and the main characters of Crane, his love interest Katrina Van Tassell and his romantic nemesis Brom Van Brunt. Irving builds the suspense speaking about the tradition of scary stories as a local pastime and eventually by relaying some of the stories told at a "quilting frolick" at the expansive home of Katrina's father. After a particularly scary evening Crane leaves sulking and upset after staying late to woo Katrina. Irving omits the reason for his demeanor (to allow for reader speculation?) but describes in fearsome detail the many misfortunes Crane encounters along his way, including a harrowing run-in with the headless horseman whom the evenings tales built to terrifying endings.

Ichabod Crane disappears that night. The horse he borrowed arrived home without its saddle and eventually folks set out to find Mr. Crane to no avail. Writing as Mr. Knickerbocker, Irving then brings the story forward in time where another story teller relays the story and a doubter speaks up. As they banter back and forth about the believability of the story, we are left to wonder if the "one in pepper and salt" is actually Mr. Crane who just learned that the headless horseman could have been is rival who used the story and a well-placed pumpkin to drive him away from the little town and fair Katrina.