The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

    

              “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is a short story that is popular because of the mixture of mysterious and comical. Washington Irving tells of Ichabod Crane, who was a school teacher. The town was full of supernatural stories, tales and rumors. Ichabod enjoys hearing the tales and his job as a teacher allows him to spend a lot of time in the various households. Ichabod falls in love with Katrina Van Tassel, who happens to be the only daughter of one of the wealthier farmers in the town. Ichabod ends up in competition with Brom Van Brunt, who is also in love with Katrina. 

              Before reading the story, I had a pleasure to enjoy the movie by Tim Burton, featuring Johny Depp as Ichabod Crane. But the original story and the one, presented by Burton are absolutely different. 

               In the movie young policeman Ichabod Crane is sent to from New York to the fledgling settlement of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of ghoulish murders. On his arrival, the town council informs him that the three victims were killed in open ground, and the heads had disappeared - taken by a headless ghost that is supposedly responsible. Ichabod is unconvinced of this, but learns more about the ghostly horseman - it is the ghost of a Hessian sent by the British during the revolutionary war, and he was caught by redcoats and decapitated with his own sword. When Ichabod sees the ghost kill one of the town council members, his skepticism evaporates - and he soon discovers that the horseman's ghost has an unholy connection to Balthus Van Tassel, a wealthy farmer - and whose daughter Ichabod is falling in love with.

             Therefore, after reading the original story, I was surprised, because I did not have the feeling of horror, but was laughing, like insane. On the contrary, after I watched the movie, I was frightened a little bit =). But definitely I was satisfied with the story, even though it hadn’t met my expectations, what were set by the movie.

And for your attention, I would like to present the movie trailer of The Legend of  Sleepy Hollow: 

http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Washington_Irving/The_Legend_of_Sleepy_Hollow/The_Legend_Of_Sleepy_Hollow_p1.html Here you can read the full story! Enjoy =)