THE HISTORY OF THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN
The headless horseman is a well-known figure today – one that instantly conjures Christopher Walken’s grim severed head from the 1999 American gothic horror film Sleepy Hollow. Yet the trope has a much longer history than many imagine, and headless ghosts are a worldwide phenomena, populating folkloric tales from Europe and beyond.
Many tales tell that such ghosts are set to roam the Earth for eternity, searching in vain for their lost heads. Yet others carry their head with them, with a darker motive: to wreak vengeance for their own deaths on any who cross their path. In other lore they are harbingers of doom. Whatever their motivations for their endless quest, the motif is a dark one that leaves anger, vengeance and death in his wake.
by Washington Irving was first published in 1820, in his collection . The tale begins by setting the scene, telling
