Headless Horsmen

Headless Horsemen

Scene taken from Tim Burton’s 1999 film The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Headless Horsemen

   The first time I came across the ‘Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ was as a child, way back in the early 1970’s. It was, of all things, a Disney cartoon- one that held my attention rather well despite my being no fan of them even at that tender age. Ichabod Crane and the Headless- Horseman- a tale of a schoolteacher and his “face-to-face” rendezvous with a headless horseman was set in a small village on the banks of the Hudson River in Westchester County, New York, and told of a Hessian trooper whose head was taken off by a cannonball during the Revolutionary War. Buried without his head in Sleepy Hollow’s churchyard, he was believed to hunt the premises at night, desperately searching for his missing head.

  A tale that has endured many different versions, especially in the film world, the latest version (1999) starred Jonny Depp, and most people think it started with Washington Irving’s 1820 work without realising his tale had its foundations laid in tales far older.

Scene from Disney’s 1949 two part film- The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad

   The Brothers Grimm had published their versions of folk tales on this subject some years before Irving and, considering the parallels to be seen in their stories, may well have influenced him no small amount. In the tale of Hans Jagendteufel (sometimes Hagen-Teufel ) , set near Dresden, a woman gathering acorns in a place called “Lost Waters” hears a hunting horn and turns around to see the headless “hunting devil” riding by. To her joy it ignores her and continues its hunt for ‘evil-doers’ and the like. In their tale ‘Brunswick’, a “Wild Huntsman” warns hunters not to hunt without dire results- those that decided to go against his advice and entered the woods find themselves to be the prey instead.

Scene taken from tapestry at British Museum showing Arthurian tales

   Travelling further back in time the tale can be seen to have roots in the Arthurian romances, if not even in the far older Celtic legends too. In the 14^th century tale of Gawain and the Green Knight, a mysterious ‘Green knight’ appears at Camelot with the intention of testing the king’s knights’ loyalty and honour. Daring Arthur, or any of his knights, to behead him on condition that whoever took up the challenge would swear to meet him a year and a day after the event to receive the same treatment in return. Although Arthur was first to rise and offer to accept his nephew Gawain, the youngest knight present, argued for the right to perform the deed himself and promptly carried out the decapitation with one blow. The Green Knight, however, instead of dying on the spot merely retrieved his head and reminded all present of the conditions of the challenge before leaving.

    Depending, again on the version told, Gawain rode out the Green Knight’s castle to fulfil his obligation and, without knowing it, was tested 3 times for his honesty and of these tests he passed 2 which was reflected in his treatment by the Knight who takes the same number of swings with his axe at Gawain’s neck with only the third stroke making contact, Honour thus satisfied the tales ends with the usual happy ending as Gawain returns to Camelot.

    The photo above  is of the location where the Headless Horseman  purportedly lost his head - somewhere near this field on the slope of Merrit Hill in White Plains, New York, about nine miles from Sleepy Hollow.  During the last week of October, 1776, this property was the site of hostilities between American and British forces during the American War for Independence.  Today, a small monument topped with an antique cannon marks the site of these events, and a sign nearby describes the historic significance of the location.    The old Celtic legend of the Dullahan, or Gan Ceann, the headless harbinger of death, is thought to possibly be the first ever reference to a headless horseman found in history books, albeit it’s impossible to know where or by whom the Dullahan is first mentioned, but he appears to be tied to the ancient Celtic god, Crom Cruach, the Dark God of the Burial Mound.
   Legend has it that about 15 centuries ago Ireland was ruled by the sacred High Kings. They were god-given rulers, and King Tighermas considered himself to be a direct descendant of this dark lord who demanded human sacrifices to be made in his name each year in order that both the land and women would ‘bear fruit’ and Crom Cruach’s preferred method of sacrifice just happened to be decapitation.
  St. Patrick, in his own legends, is said to have found this stone, sometime during the 6^th century, and smashed part of it to pieces thereby banishing the ‘God’ to hell and ended this ruthless pagan practice, along with the sacrificial religion. The worshiping stone, known as the Killycluggin Stone, actually exists and can be found within the precincts of  the museum of Cavan County .   A collection of ancient texts, known as The Metrical Dindshenchas, tells us that people from Ireland upon their king’s request were duty bound to give up their firstborn in return for a rich harvest the next year- the unfortunate children’s heads would be smashed on a stone representing Crom Cruach.

Replica of Killycluggin Stone

    Even as Christianity replaced the indigenous religion the old fears never completely died out for a god so dark could never perish and would still harvest souls one way or another- if not by a willing sacrifice, then with wrath and fury. Thus rose , in Irish folklore,  the legend of the Dullahan.

     A type of ‘Unseelie’, or dark faery, it appears to be the Celtic equivalent of the Grim Reaper, carrying a whip made out of a human spine in one hand and his rotting head in the other. Some describe him as a headless rider on a headless black horse, whilst others claim he rides on a carriage made out of bones, coffins, and tombstones pulled by six fire-breathing headless horses. Both versions agree on one thing - if you hear him speak, then he is speaking your name, and your time has come.

   Sleepy Hollow, German forests, or Irish fields, the legend persists, Maybe it has its roots in tales far earlier than those I’ve managed to dig up and if you know of any please let us know here – who knows what we could uncover between us all ?

D W Storer 2018/2019