The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a short story by American author Washington Irving, contained in his collection of 34 essays and short stories entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Written while Irving was living abroad in Birmingham, England, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" was first published in 1820. Along with Irving's companion piece "Rip Van Winkle", "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is among the earliest examples of American fiction with enduring popularity.

The story

From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by the name of Sleepy Hollow ... A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere.The story is set in 1790 in the countryside around the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town (historical Tarrytown, New York), in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. Sleepy Hollow is renowned for its ghosts and the haunting atmosphere that pervades the imaginations of its inhabitants and visitors. The most infamous spectre in the Hollow is the Headless Horseman, said to be theghost of a Hessian trooper who had his head shot off by a stray cannonball during "some nameless battle" of the American Revolutionary War, and who "rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head".The "Legend" relates the tale of Ichabod Crane, a lean, lanky and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, the town rowdy, for the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and sole child of a wealthy farmer, Baltus Van Tassel. Crane, a Yankee and an outsider, sees marriage to Katrina as a means of procuring Van Tassel's extravagant wealth. Bones, the local hero, vies with Ichabod for Katrina's hand, exacting a series of pranks on the jittery schoolmaster, and the fate of Sleepy Hollow's fortune weighs in the balance for some time. The tension between the three is soon brought to a head. On a placid autumn night, the ambitious Crane attends a harvest party at the Van Tassels' homestead. He dances, partakes in the feast, and listens to ghostly legends told by Brom and the locals, but his true aim is to propose to Katrina after the guests leave. His intentions, however, are ill-fated.After having failed to secure Katrina's hand, Ichabod rides home "heavy-hearted and crestfallen" through the woods between Van Tassel's farmstead and the Sleepy Hollow settlement. As he passes several purportedly haunted spots, his active imagination is engorged by the ghost stories told at Baltus' harvest party. After nervously passing under a lightning-stricken tulip tree purportedly haunted by the ghost of British spy Major André, Ichabod encounters a cloaked rider at an intersection in a menacing swamp. Unsettled by his fellow traveler's eerie size and silence, the teacher is horrified to discover that his companion's head is not on his shoulders, but on his saddle. In a frenzied race to the bridge adjacent to the Old Dutch Burying Ground, where the Hessian is said to "vanish, according to rule, in a flash of fire and brimstone" upon crossing it, Ichabod rides for his life, desperately goading his temperamental plow horse down the Hollow. However, to the pedagogue's horror, the ghoul clambers over the bridge, rears his horse, and hurls his decapitated head into Ichabod's terrified face.The next morning, Ichabod has mysteriously disappeared from town, leaving Katrina to marry Brom Bones, who was said "to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related". Indeed, the only relics of the schoolmaster's flight are his wandering horse, trampled saddle, discarded hat, and a mysterious shattered pumpkin. Although the nature of the Headless Horseman is left open to interpretation, the story implies that the ghost was really Brom (an agile stunt rider) in disguise. Irving's narrator concludes, however, by stating that the old Dutch wives continue to promote the belief that Ichabod was "spirited away by supernatural means," and a legend develops around hisdisappearance and sightings of his melancholy spirit. In reality, Crane returned to Connecticut without his horse after the headless horseman frightened him away.

Sleepy Hollow Disney Movie



The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a segment on The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, a 1949 animated adaptation by Walt Disney, and narrated by Bing Crosby. It is an animated cartoon adaptation of the story, paired with a similar treatment of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. It was reissued as a stand-alone short on November 26,1958.

Story 

The story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman, based on Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (narrated by Bing Crosby). The gangly and lanky Ichabod Crane was the new schoolmaster in Sleepy Hollow. His somewhat odd behavior made him the ridicule of the rambunctious and robust town bully Brom Bones. Despite his odd appearance, Ichabod quickly proved to be a ladies' man charming all the eligible local ladies. Finally, however, Ichabod discovered the local town beauty, Katrina Van Tassel. Katrina was the beautiful young daughter of Baltus Van Tassel, the wealthiest farmer in the area, and Brom's intended. Katrina was a coquette by nature, but saw Ichabod as an opportunity to break from the monotony of Brom scaring away every other potential suitor. Ichabod had his eye on the Van Tassel wealth, and was infatuated by Katrina's beauty and grace as well. After a number of comically unsuccessful efforts by Brom to dispose of Ichabod, including a scene at the Van Tassel's Halloween party where he tried to switch his short overweight dance partner Tilda with Katrina, the situation changed when Brom decided to take advantage of Ichabod's strong belief in superstitions. Brom musically told the tale of the Headless Horseman to frighten the teacher. That Halloween night, Crane's lonely ride home became exceedingly frightening because of his exposure to the possibility of encountering the ghost. The atmosphere of fear increased in intensity, until it broke the tension at a false alarm, whereupon Ichabod and his horse laughed hysterically in relief. Immediately, the true (?) Headless Horseman appeared, laughing maniacally, riding a large black horse that bore a strong resemblance to the one owned by Brom. Then followed a spectacular chase scene wherein the visually impressive Horseman pursued Ichabod with wild abandon, only to be deterred when Ichabod crossed a bridge near the local Dutch graveyard (the bridge being the point beyond which the horseman couldn't go, according to the tale). The Horseman then hurls his own severed head (shown to actually be a fiery Jack-o-lantern), at Ichabod. The jack-o-lantern is seemingly hurled right at the audience , bursts into flames as it collides, and everything fades to black. The next morning, the only things found by the bridge were a shattered pumpkin and Ichabod's hat. Brom shortly thereafter married Katrina. It was later rumored that Ichabod married a rich, plump widow with many children (who all resemble Ichabod to an amazing degree), in the next county. But the simple, common denizens of Sleepy Hollow firmly denied this; they all knew that Ichabod was spirited away on Halloween Night by the ghoulish Headless Horseman.

Sleepy Hollow Movie Film

Sleepy Hollow is a 1999 American-German horror film directed by Tim Burton. It is a film adaptation loosely inspired by the 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving and stars Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci, with Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Casper Van Dien, and Jeffrey Jones in supporting roles. The plot follows police constable Ichabod Crane (Depp) sent from New York City to investigate a series of murders in the village of Sleepy Hollow by a mysterious Headless Horseman.

It is the first film by Mandalay Pictures. Development began in 1993 at Paramount Pictures with Kevin Yagher originally set to directAndrew Kevin Walker's script as a low-budget slasher film. Disagreements with Paramount resulted in Yagher being demoted toprosthetic makeup designer, and Burton was hired to direct in June 1998. Filming took place from November 1998 to May 1999, andSleepy Hollow was released to generally favorable reviews from critics, and grossed approximately $207 million worldwide. Production designer Rick Heinrichs and set decorator Peter Young won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction. Though the film's screenplay is credited to Andrew Kevin Walker, the majority of it was actually ghostwritten by Tom Stoppard.

Story

Ichabod Crane (Depp) is a 24-year-old New York City police officer in 1799. Facing imprisonment for going against traditional methods and favoring forensic investigation techniques such as finger-printing and autopsies not considered to be orthodox at that time and considered unimportant, Ichabod submits to deployment with his bag of tools to the Westchester County hamlet of Sleepy Hollow, New York, which has been plagued by a series of brutal slayings in which the victims have been found decapitated: Peter Van Garrett (Martin Landau), wealthy farmer and landowner; his son Dirk; and the widow Emily Winship. Arriving in Sleepy Hollow, Crane is informed by the town's elders that the killer is not of flesh and blood, but rather an undead headless Hessian mercenary from theAmerican Revolutionary War who rides at night on a massive black steed in search of his missing head.

Crane begins his investigation, remaining highly skeptical about the supernatural elements in the case until he actually encounters the Headless Horseman himself, who kills the Magistrate Samuel Phillipse (Richard Griffiths) on sight. Boarding in a room at the home of the town's richest family and the Van Garretts' next of kin, the Van Tassels, Crane develops an attraction to their daughter Katrina (Christina Ricci), while he is plagued by nightmares of his mother's horrific torture when he was a child. This attraction deeply is resented by Brom van Brunt (Casper Van Dien), a suitor to Katrina, who attempts to frighten Crane away by posing as the Headless Horseman. Riding into the Western Woods with the orphaned Young Masbath, son of the Horseman's fifth victim, Crane and Katrina come across the cave dwelling of a reclusive sorceress. She reveals the location of the gnarled Tree of the Dead, which marks the Horseman's grave, as well as his portal into the natural world from the supernatural.

Crane discovers that the ground is freshly disturbed and, digging through, discovers the Horseman's skeleton and that the skull is missing. He realizes that whomever dug up and stole the skull is the person controlling the Horseman. Just then, the Horseman's ghost bursts out of the tree and gallops towards Sleepy Hollow. Crane attempts to follow but winds up lost. The Killian family are taken by the Horseman and Brom is killed when trying to stop the Horsemen. Crane starts to believe that a conspiracy links all the deaths together, so he goes to the town Notary Hardenbrook to look into Van Garrett's Last Will. Hardenbrook confesses Van Garrett had made a new will just before he died, leaving all his possessions to his new bride, Emily Winship, who Crane had found was pregnant at the time of her death. Crane deduces that all who knew about the new will were the victims of Horseman and that Baltus Van Tassel (Michael Gambon), who would have inherited the fortune, is the person holding the skull. Katrina, finding out that Crane suspects her father, burns the evidence that Crane has accumulated tells him that she doesn't love him anymore. In fear of the Horseman, Hardenbrook hangs himself and a town council is held in the town church. The Horseman seemingly kills Lady Van Tassel and heads off to the church to get Katrina's father Baltus (Michael Gambon), with the townspeople filing in just as the Horseman arrives. With the men firing muskets at the Horseman as he circles the church, Crane realizes the Horseman can't enter the church grounds due to some protective supernatural force. A massive fight breaks out in the church when Dr. Thomas Lancaster (Ian McDiarmid) suggests confessing for forgiveness, and then Lancaster is killed by Reverend Steenwyck, who is in turn shot by a frightened Baltus. The chaos ends only when the Horseman harpoons Baltus through a church window using a pointed church fence post attached to a rope, dragging him out and acquiring his head.

As Crane is leaving Sleepy Hollow, he becomes suspicious when the hand of the corpse of Lady Van Tassel has a wound which shows signs of having been caused post-mortem. His suspicions are confirmed to be right when the Lady Van Tassel (Miranda Richardson) emerges, alive, from the dark and shocks her step-daughter Katrina into a faint. Katrina awakens and eventually uncovers a plot revolving around revenge on the Van Garretts and land rights with the Horseman controlled by Katrina's stepmother Lady Van Tassel, who sends the supernatural killer after Katrina now to solidify her hold on what she considers her property, a piece of land unjustly claimed by Baltus.

Following a fight in the local windmill and a stagecoach chase through the woods, Crane eventually thwarts Lady Van Tassel by throwing the skull to the Horseman, breaking the curse. The Horseman, no longer under Lady Van Tassel's control, hoists her up on his horse, then rides to Hell taking her with him, fulfilling her end of the deal with the Devil. With the Headless Horseman menace eradicated, Crane returns home to New York with Katrina and young Masbath, just in time for Christmas and the new century.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Movie Disney Cartoon



                          

 

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - (Brent Carver) 1999 , English

Movie 

                   

Sleepy Hollow (Disney)