As a fantasy and paranormal romance author, I am fascinated by folklore, fairytales, myths, monsters, and Halloween!
For several years, I’ve been on a fact-finding mission focused on the history of traditional Halloween “monsters” including their origins and evolution in folklore, literature, and pop culture.
Today, let’s take a look at THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN.
You would think that, similar to Frankenstein, the Headless Horseman didn’t evolve from myths and folklore first, but finds his origin in literature. Washington Irving popularized the figure in his story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, considered to be one of the first American ghost stories.
But…where did the Headless Horseman really originate?
According to History.com, tales of headless horsemen have been around since the Middle Ages. The Irish have “Dullahan”, a demonic fairy from Celtic folklore who carries his own head and rides a horse or carriage. The Dullahan is said to call out the name of the person whose soul he takes, and if he stops riding, someone will die. There are also figures in Welsh, Scottish, Dutch, Germanic, and Scandinavian folklore that all predate Irving. The Brothers Grimm also include one among their fairy tales.
It is likely that at least one of those folkloric elements influenced Irving’s writing. Meanwhile, scholars seem to debate what other sources may have inspired Irvings iconic version of the Horseman. In Irving’s story, the Headless Horseman is said to be the ghost of a German mercenary who was decapitated by a cannonball during the Battle of White Plains in 1776. The soldier was buried in the Sleepy Hollow churchyard, and is said to ride out at night to find his head or take another’s.
Some cite Irving’s writer friend, Sir Walter Scott’s poem “The Chase” which is a translation of “The Wild Huntsman” by Gottfried Bürger and likely based on Norse mythology. The poem is about a wicked hunter who is doomed to be hunted forever by the devil and the ‘dogs of hell’ as punishment for his crimes. Others believe Irving was inspired by a real-life Hessian soldier who was decapitated by a cannonball during the American Revolutionary War. All of these feed into the origin in interesting ways.
My next question, though, is why has this story remained a Halloween-time favorite? What is it about it that we love?
While we see this “monster” pop up most around the Halloween time frame, , the Headless Horseman has appeared up in many places in pop culture. This includes comics like Martin Shapiro’s Chopper, movies like Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow, Ghost Rider, based on the Marvel comic character of the same name, which seems to blend the horseman with the western tune “Riders in the Sky”, and The Hollow, a teen horror movie, as well as the popular TV show Sleepy Hollow and a character in Once Upon a Time.
Franz Potter, a professor at National University who specializes in Gothic studies, says the headless horseman, as a supernatural entity, represents a past that never dies, but always haunts the living. The Grim Reaper-like aspect of the Headless Horseman, I believe, certainly plays into the fear of and fascination with him. After all, he’s the embodiment of the fact that death is coming for us all, and is inevitable.
None of us can escape.
I would also argue that there is a prevalent and historical fear of decapitation and/or a head without a body. According to the BBC, ancient Greek lore tells of ‘brazen heads’ that had future-seeing powers, speaking unspeakable truths. Decapitation also shows up in many myths– Medusa from the Greeks again, Mirmir from Norse mythology, the Aztec have multiple gods and goddess who lose their heads. In the Icelandic Sveins rímur Múkssonar, the Grey Carle challenges the members of the King of the Greeks’ court to a beheading game.
Frued is famous for relating decapitation to castration. But personally, the reason to fear decapitation seems pretty obvious and simple… Removing the head for most creatures results in instant death.
Yes, you have some creatures like the cockroach that can live for a period of time without it, but even they die eventually. Even zombies are killed by removing their head or injury to the brain. So all creatures, with our ingrained senses of self-preservation, know the dire consequences. No matter what, decapitation is an injury that that can’t be fixed or healed.
Therefore, in the case of the Headless Horseman, a creature riding around without their head–and especially one who still able to consciously choose their victims–goes against nature. He is indefeatable (I know this isn’t a word, but it should be) and unkillable (also not a word, but I’m claiming artistic license as an author today). This all brings us back to an ingrained fear of death–something that can never be stopped.
And maybe that is why this Halloween “monster” unlike many of the others, more often than not remains a monster rather than becoming a romanticized hero. (Also it would be hard to kiss him since he has no head.)
As far as Halloween is concerned…the tradition of dressing up started as a way to ward off evil, and the Horseman could definitely be depicted as evil or even demonic. So there is that. But as far as I can tell in researching this, the association of the Horseman with Halloween has two primary sources. The first is that, in ye olden days prior to the modern age, as the first American ghost story, the story itself was, in many places, read around Halloween.
But honestly, I think the more prevalent and modern association can be traced straight to…Disney. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is the second half of Disney’s 1949 animated feature film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. Their depiction of Irving’s story added in several visual elements that directly associated the story with Halloween. The Van Tassel’s party is a Halloween party. At the party the characters talk of ghost stories and spooky things that happen at Halloween. And, perhaps the most iconic and remembered, the “head” that the horsemen carries and eventually hurls at Ichabod is a carved and flaming jack-o-lantern. It also helps that the film was shown on TV every Halloween for decades.
So…thank you Disney, and Happy Halloween everybody!
Looking for some headless horseman-related paranormal romance and fantasy books to consume? Check these out…
- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (might as well start with the original)
- The Hollow by Jessica Verday
- Horseman: A Tale of Sleepy Hollow by Christina Henry
- Spirited by Nancy Holder
- Hollow’s End by Marianne Morea
Interested in the history and evolution of other traditional Halloween “monsters” in folklore, literature, and pop culture? Check out my other posts…
TRADITIONAL HALLOWEEN “MONSTERS”
RESOURCES
- https://www.history.com/news/legend-sleepy-hollow-headless-horseman
- https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20161118-the-horror-of-the-headless-horseman
- https://wheatonarthiverevue.com/essay/why-aztec-goddesses-lose-their-heads/
- https://hudsonvalley.org/article/irvings-legend-the-story-behind-the-story/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headless_Horseman
Please note that I am NOT a historian, literature professor, or expert on these subjects.
I am just having fun spending a few hours researching them to share what I find with you.
Love the headless horseman, was always a fan fav bedtime story when spooky season was around as a child 🙂