Welcome to Sleepy Hollow

 Not too far north of New York City, along the Hudson River, lies Tarrytown. It was while American writer Washington Irving was visiting an inn in Tarrytown, that he first heard the folk lore of the region - which included a certain headless horseman. Not long after Irving would publish the famous short story "Sleepy Hollow". 

The Sleepy Hollow town in New York today actually got its name about 30 years ago when the town of Tarrytown expanded to include the the area known as Slapershaven in the earliest years of Dutch colonialism in America. This name literally translates to "Sleeper's Haven" (according the village history page). 

When I lived in New Jersey, I lived about a half an hour from Sleepy Hollow, New York and spent some time enjoying the small town. It really takes it's legacy as the home Bram Bones, Katrina van Tassel, Ichabod Crain, and the Headless Horseman seriously. My personal favorite event was the annual pumpkin festival that included hundreds, if not thousands, of carved pumpkins lit up in festive displays. 

What Sleepy Hollow is not, is anything like the 1999 Tim Burton movie. 

Instead of a dark rural area with a forest to the west. Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown are bright urban areas with a giant river to the west. It's also really close to Manhattan Island - even on the commuter trainline. It might have taken the average New Yorker in the 1790s half a day to get to.

Also, that movie is a terrible adaptation of the original short story.

The original "Sleepy Hollow" story is considered an American classic. However, the legends of headless horseman go back to Europe such as the Irish dullahan - which is actually an evil fairy. Irving may have been influenced by the folklore of his Scottish family (which also have headless horseman legends) along with stories about the Revolutionary War and other folklorists that were his contemporary.

The interesting thing about the story of "Sleepy Hollow" is that Ichabod isn't really a hero - his more of our modern day "nice guy". In fact, Irving doesn't seems to even like his main character - often portraying his motivations and actions as being less than honorable. The object of his affection, Katrina van Tassel, is just that - an object. Whereas Ichabod's rival, Brom Bones, actually seems to care about the person Katrina is. Ichabod is more interested in Katrina's beauty and her father's property.

In fact, it's heavily suggested that the headless horseman ghost of the story is less of a ghost and is instead Brom Bones playing another prank on Ichabod (he does several throughout the story). Ichabod is well known for being superstitious, despite his claims that his education makes him superior to the "simple" people of the rural town. Ichabod believes that he brings culture to the sleepy little village...with some success with the ladies, while really annoying everyone else.

The Disney version (which can be viewed on Disney+ with Mr. Toad) comes the closest in the adaptations I've seen to getting the spirit of the story across. It's also got some great musical numbers. However, the Wishbone episode "The Legend of Creepy Collars" is probably the best direct adaptation of the story I've seen.

This weekend, my sibling and I went to a ballet adaptation of "Sleepy Hollow" at one of my local theater productions. It was a lot of fun - though I don't remember any witches in the original story. There were plenty of beats from the original story along with a few additions that were clearly influenced by the 1999 Tim Burton film - like a tree with skulls on it. 

The ballet was about an hour and half long with beautiful dancing. The ending of the story was also slightly changed to make the headless horseman real rather than a prank by Brom Bones and Katrina feel bad about Ichabod's prank - honestly I was a little confused by this choice. Otherwise, I enjoyed the performances (especially when the little kids came on stage).

"Sleepy Hollow" is a fun story that is often misinterpreted and has some language that raises eyebrows in the modern day (specifically around Native Americans and Black people). I'd love to see a reinterpretation or adaptation that centers around Katrina and Brom's relationship rather than Ichabod's creepy obsession with Katrina. 

If you have an adaptation of "Sleep Hollow" you enjoy or have been to the town of Sleepy Hollow, let me know in the comments. 

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y'all like hearing from me.

Until next week.

Welcome to Monsters Part 1: Evil Predators Under the Bed

So I wanted to get a few things out of the way before really diving into this week's post. First, everything that I am writing is my opinion which is based on my own experiences and (occasional) research. How I interpret something could be entirely different from how someone else does. Second, I am aware that there are people out there who have done a much better analysis than I am about to do on this topic. That's not going to stop me. Third, I enjoy writing and (to a lesser extent) reading horror. This series has been buzzing in my brain for a while and I'm not entirely sure how long it will go for. You've been warned.

An image from my sketch book... 

The monsters of my childhood were simple. They hid in the darkest shadows of my bedroom, waiting for me to peak out from under the safety of my covers and spirit me away. Only my army of stuffed animals kept the evil creatures at bay.

Or at least that was what my childish logic told me.

They are the predators and we are the prey.

Humans have it pretty good right now from an evolutionary stand point. We've somehow managed to populate every continent on Earth and it's only a matter of time before we start looking at colonizing the moon or building underwater dwellings deep on the ocean floor. There isn't anything on our planet that uses us as a primary food source (bacteria don't count). We are the dominate species.

But we weren't always the top dog and I think a part of our instinct subconscious remembers that.

Many of the scariest and most evil of monsters in our classic and popular culture (at least the western  culture which I am most familiar with) are terrifying because they prey on humans or want to cause serious harm. Manticores are known for consuming their victims whole, leaving no shred of evidence behind. Vampires want to suck the life right out of you. Zombies will tear out your throat and start eating you, while you're still alive. 

All pleasant images right?

Here there be monsters!

Explorers used to write on maps "here there be monsters" to indicate unexplored or extremely dangerous areas. It would be far from civilization where a lot of things that were unknown about these places. Those who went there, sometimes didn't come back. 

Creatures such as the kraken, manticore, siren, and harpy supposedly inhabited these area. They were blamed for shipwrecks, strange disappearances, and unexplained deaths. They preyed on humans in the same way that humans preyed on other animals.

Off the edge of the map, we weren't special anymore. 

I think the ones that can talk and easily mimic human speech are the scariest. They trick their victims into thinking they're in distress, but when the hopeless sap gets too close, it's too late. Human is eaten. The creepiest example that I have come across while doing research is from the Philippines's mythology. The tiyanak is sometimes depicted as a vampire like creature that makes the same sounds as a baby in distress to lure its victims to their deaths. 

I feel that is one monster I would easily tricked by.

The Odyssey had a lot of anthropomorphize creatures that tried to lead our heroes astray. The sirens in particular stand out. Their beautiful voices enchanting anyone who gets too close to their island, leading them to a horrible shipwreck. I was never certain if they did this to amuse themselves or if they ate their drowned victims too. Either way, they are hunting humans with hypnotic singing.

They were human once...

I've always thought that the most tragic monsters are the ones who started out as human. They are twisted into the evil creatures that haunt our nightmares instead of just being born to cause us harm. Vampires, werewolves, wendigos, and zombies are all creatures that (depending on source material) started out as perfectly ordinary people. 

And they need to eat us to survive.

There are different degrees to these types of stories. There's sometimes a shred of humanity still in them. But the need to survive nearly always wins. Dracula might have at one point been a human, but by the time he makes his way to London, he is perfectly fine eating an entire ship's crew. 

Zombies probably scare me the most in this category. Zombies were really popular when I was in middle school and I read a couple books and saw a few movies starring them. The heroes in these films were always under threat of being eaten or turned. Inevitably, one of the members of their party would get bitten and a morality crisis ensued. Did the group kill the infected individual before they could become the zombie or did they wait and hope the person didn't actually turn? Could they look into the face of their family/friend and kill them while they were still human? Could they do it after their family/friend became a zombie?

I don't know which is a worse feeling, the idea that I'm about to be eaten by a monster or that I might become the evil monster. Knowing that you're about to die is one thing. Knowing that you might be the cause of your friends and family's death is another. Would you rather die or become the monster?

Of heroes and monsters.

Monsters are typically vanquished by a hero. 

In the western classics, we are taught about how Hercules slayed the hydra (as part of his penitence for murdering his family) and how St. George saved a princess from being eaten by a vengeful dragon (and perpetuating a horrible cliche). The hero is either tasked to kill the evil monster to prove his worth or redeem himself from some horrible sin. It's not a matter of who will win the fight, but how the hero will succeed.

It is the classic good versus evil narrative. 

These types of stories continue exist in our modern culture. Tolkien told us about how a hobbit along with thirteen dwarves traveled to The Lonely Mountain to reclaim a treasure from a dragon (Hobbit). Buffy and her friends (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) protected us from the vampire apocalypse. The Winchester brothers (Supernatural) are still "saving people, hunting things" (you all knew I was going to work this in eventually).

The monsters are the evil that need to be destroyed and the hero is the good we root for. Good always wins the day.

We humans might be food monsters prey upon, but we are also the hope that keeps their evil at bay.

Alright that last line is a little sappy, even for me. 

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Let's see what kinds of monsters we'll meet next week.