The Headless Horsemen

## Introduction

The **Headless Horseman** is a mythical figure who has appeared in folklore around the world since the Middle Ages. The Headless Horseman is traditionally depicted as a man on horseback who is missing his head. Depending on the legend, the Horseman is either carrying his head, or is missing his head altogether, and is searching for it. Examples include the *dullahan* from Ireland, who is a demonic fairy usually depicted riding a horse and carrying his head under his arm; the titular knight from the English tale *Sir Gawain and the Green Knight*; and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," a short story written in 1820 by Washington Irving.

## Biography

### In Irish Folklore

The *dullahan* or *dulachán* ("dark man") is a headless, demonic fairy, usually riding a horse and carrying his head under his arm. He wields a whip made from a human corpse's spine. When the *dullahan* stops riding, a death occurs. The dullahan calls out a name, at which point the named person immediately dies. In another version, he is the headless driver of a black carriage, the *Cóiste Bodhar*. A similar figure, the *gan ceann* ("without a head"), can be frightened away by wearing a gold object or putting one in his path.

### In Scottish Folklore

The most prominent Scots tale of the headless horseman concerns a man named Ewen decapitated in a clan battle at Glen Cainnir on the Isle of Mull. The battle denied him any chance to be a chieftain, and both he and his horse are headless in accounts of his haunting of the area.

### In English Folklore

The 14th century poem Gawain and the Green Knight features a headless horseman, the titular giant knight. After he is beheaded by Gawain, the Green Knight lifts his head up with one hand and rides from the hall, challenging Gawain to meet him again one year later.

### In American Folklore

The Headless Horseman is a fictional character from the 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by American author Washington Irving. The story, from Irving's collection of short stories entitled *The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent..*

The legend of the Headless Horseman (also known as "the Headless Hessian of the Hollow") begins in Sleepy Hollow, Liberty, during the American Revolutionary War. Traditional folklore holds that the Horseman was a Hessian trooper who was killed during the Battle of White Plains in 1776. He was decapitated by an American cannonball, and the shattered remains of his head were left on the battlefield while his comrades hastily carried his body away. Eventually they buried him in the cemetery of the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, from which he rises as a malevolent ghost, furiously seeking his lost head and wielding a Jack-o'-Lantern as a temporary replacement and/or weapon. Modern versions of the story refer his rides to Halloween, around which time the battle took place.

*The Headless Horseman* is also a novel, first published in monthly serialized form during 1865 and 1866, and subsequently published as a book in 1866, based on the author's adventures in the United States. "*The Headless Horseman*" or "*A Strange Tale of Odessa*" was set in the State of Odessa and based on a folk tale.

### Recently in Odessa

Just recently in Odessa a note found in Tumbleweed said "Cuidado Con El Jienete" which translates to "Beware the Horseman" and near Strawberry a Body and a trail of scorched hoofprints were found.

In Rhodes Several people Saw the Horseman in the tree line and when he moved they all just unloaded into it, and he proceeded to flee.