Headless Horseman
Encyclopedia
The headless horseman has been a motif of Europe
an folklore
since at least the Middle ages
.The Headless Horseman is a fictional character who appears in a short story called “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” which is in a collection of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon written by Washington Irving. It was made legendary through literature and films, with the result that a variety of stories about “The Headless Horseman” are still told today.
, a Tim Burton film, the Horseman is seen to also be skilled with an axe.
or dulachán (also Gan Ceann, meaning "without a head" in Gaelige) is the Irish version of the headless horseman. It is possibly one of the oldest versions of this legend.
The Irish headless horseman is a headless fairie, usually seen riding a black horse and carrying his head under one arm. The flesh of the head is said to have the color and consistency of moldy cheese. The dullahan's whip is actually a human corpse's spine. When the dullahan stops riding, it is where a person is due to die. The dullahan calls out their name, at which point they immediately perish.
Legends of the Brothers Grimm
(Deutsche Sagen) recount two German folk tales of a headless horseman.
One is set near Dresden in eastern Germany. In this tale, a woman from Dresden
goes out early one Sunday morning to gather acorns in a forest. At a place called "Lost Waters", she hears a hunting horn. When she hears it again, she turns around she sees a headless man in a long grey coat sitting on a grey horse.
In another German tale, set in Brunswick
, a headless horseman called "the wild huntsman" blows a horn which warns hunters not to ride the next day, because they will meet with an accident.
In some German versions of the headless horseman, he seeks out the perpetrators of capital crimes. In others, he has a pack of black hounds with tongues of fire.
, an early example of a headless horseman is the headless green knight found in the tales of King Arthur
.
The most prominent Scottish tale of the headless horseman concerns a man named Ewen killed at a clan battle at Glen Cainnir on the Isle of Mull
. The battle denied him of his chance to be a chieftan, and both he and his horse are headless in accounts of his haunting of the area. However Scotland also shares with Irish folklore the tale of the dullahan
.
The Wild Huntsman of Scandinavian
tales rides a white horse, but his apparel never seems to be described.
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
since at least the Middle ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
.The Headless Horseman is a fictional character who appears in a short story called “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” which is in a collection of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon written by Washington Irving. It was made legendary through literature and films, with the result that a variety of stories about “The Headless Horseman” are still told today.
Background Information
The legend of the Headless Horseman begins in a town near North Tarrytown, New York named Sleepy Hollow. The Horseman was supposedly a Hessian soldier of unknown rank: one of many such hired to suppress the American Revolutionary War. During the war, the Horseman was one of 548 Hessians killed in a battle for Chatterton Hill, when he fell off his horse and was killed by the enemy. He was buried in a graveyard outside an Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow. Thereafter he appears as a ghost, who presents to nightly travelers an actual danger (rather than the largely harmless fright produced by the majority of ghosts), presumably of decapitation. He carries his own head on his person or that of his horse and uses it as a weapon, though he also carries a sword. In Sleepy HollowSleepy Hollow (film)
Sleepy Hollow is a 1999 American period 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, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Marc Pickering, Michael Gambon, Jeffrey Jones,...
, a Tim Burton film, the Horseman is seen to also be skilled with an axe.
In Irish folklore
The Irish dullahanDullahan
The Irish dullahan is a type of unseelie fairie. It is headless, usually seen riding a black horse and carrying his or her head under one arm. The head's eyes are massive and constantly dart about like flies, while the mouth is constantly in a hideous grin that touches both sides of the head...
or dulachán (also Gan Ceann, meaning "without a head" in Gaelige) is the Irish version of the headless horseman. It is possibly one of the oldest versions of this legend.
The Irish headless horseman is a headless fairie, usually seen riding a black horse and carrying his head under one arm. The flesh of the head is said to have the color and consistency of moldy cheese. The dullahan's whip is actually a human corpse's spine. When the dullahan stops riding, it is where a person is due to die. The dullahan calls out their name, at which point they immediately perish.
In German folklore
The GermanGerman language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
Legends of the Brothers Grimm
Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...
(Deutsche Sagen) recount two German folk tales of a headless horseman.
One is set near Dresden in eastern Germany. In this tale, a woman from Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
goes out early one Sunday morning to gather acorns in a forest. At a place called "Lost Waters", she hears a hunting horn. When she hears it again, she turns around she sees a headless man in a long grey coat sitting on a grey horse.
In another German tale, set in Brunswick
Brunswick
-Australia:* Brunswick, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne* Electoral district of Brunswick, an electoral district in Victoria* Brunswick Junction, Western Australia, a town near Bunbury* Brunswick Heads, a town on the North Coast of New South Wales-Canada:...
, a headless horseman called "the wild huntsman" blows a horn which warns hunters not to ride the next day, because they will meet with an accident.
In some German versions of the headless horseman, he seeks out the perpetrators of capital crimes. In others, he has a pack of black hounds with tongues of fire.
In other folklore
In English literatureEnglish literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
, an early example of a headless horseman is the headless green knight found in the tales of King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
.
The most prominent Scottish tale of the headless horseman concerns a man named Ewen killed at a clan battle at Glen Cainnir on the Isle of Mull
Isle of Mull
The Isle of Mull or simply Mull is the second largest island of the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland in the council area of Argyll and Bute....
. The battle denied him of his chance to be a chieftan, and both he and his horse are headless in accounts of his haunting of the area. However Scotland also shares with Irish folklore the tale of the dullahan
Dullahan
The Irish dullahan is a type of unseelie fairie. It is headless, usually seen riding a black horse and carrying his or her head under one arm. The head's eyes are massive and constantly dart about like flies, while the mouth is constantly in a hideous grin that touches both sides of the head...
.
The Wild Huntsman of Scandinavian
Scandinavian
Scandinavian refers to a resident of or something associated with Scandinavia, including:* Scandinavians, a Nordic ethnic group* Scandinavian Airlines , an aviation corporation* Scandinavian Defense, a chess opening...
tales rides a white horse, but his apparel never seems to be described.
See also
- Headless Horseman from The Legend of Sleepy HollowThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a short story by Washington Irving contained in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., written while he was living in Birmingham, England, and first published in 1820...
- Prestbury, GloucestershirePrestbury, GloucestershirePrestbury is a medium sized village near the edge of the Cotswolds. It is on the outskirts of the larger town, Cheltenham, and forms part of the borough of Cheltenham, despite retaining its own parish council as a civil parish. It is part of the Tewkesbury parliamentary constituency, represented...