Washington Irving’s short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is one of the best-known works in the American literary canon. His characters—Katrina Van Tassel, Ichabod Crane, Brom Bones, and perhaps especially, the Headless Horseman—have traveled down through the centuries, and still make appearances in today’s popular culture, through movies, TV shows, cartoons, and more.
And, now, this novel.
I suppose I should have been intimidated when I sat down to write a feminist retelling of one of America’s most famous literary works—and I was, later on—but when I first started writing, all that mattered was Katrina’s voice and the story that she was urgently telling me. As a lover of all things spooky and creepy, especially Halloween, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” has always been one of my favorite stories. Yet Katrina, the one significant female character, is portrayed in a rather flat and, frankly, sexist way. There is a line where Irving’s narrator even laments, “Oh, these women, these women!” And so I wondered what Katrina’s side of the story was. And boy, did she tell me.
I have, of course, departed from Irving’s original tale in many ways; I have incorporated some aspects of the story while leaving out others, and added in much of my own invention. A retelling, to me, should be built on the bones of the original tale while bringing in something new and different to become a fulfilling story all its own. It is my hope that Katrina’s story will resonate with both those who love the original legend, as I do, and those who have not encountered it before.
One of my goals in this novel was to bring historical context to Irving’s tale; nowhere in the story is the year definitively stated, though it is certainly after the American Revolution. So I chose a span of a few years that seemed to suit the story best. I wanted to add historical texture and detail to the life of the people in the Hudson River Valley at that time and further flesh out Irving’s tale. So while historical accuracy was, of course, extremely important to me, my editor and I agreed early on that of equal importance was establishing Sleepy Hollow as something of an otherworldly place, much as Irving does in the original story. As such, I have taken a few liberties in creating this story and its world.
The area that I refer to as Sleepy Hollow in the novel includes what is today the actual village of Sleepy Hollow (yes, it is a real place), as well as parts of Tarrytown and Irvington. I chose to refer to the entire area that my characters inhabit as Sleepy Hollow, both to simplify things for the reader, and to help create the impression of Katrina’s Sleepy Hollow as a little world unto itself. I hope the residents of this portion of the Hudson River Valley, both past and present, will forgive me. The Albany Post Road, which connected Albany with New York City, did indeed run through this area as I have described; today Route 9 runs where this road once was.
The people of the Hudson River Valley in the late 1700s would not have carved jack-o’-lanterns as decorative pieces in the way that I describe the Van Tassels having done for their harvest feast; the first jack-o’-lantern as we know it today was still many years in the future. However, I could not resist adding in this anachronistic detail as a nod to the original legend’s association with and impact upon our modern holiday of Halloween. Indeed, in Irving’s original story, he does not state that the Horseman’s pumpkin is carved with a jack-o’-lantern face. Yet that has become the familiar image of the Headless Horseman, so of course in my version he had to carry a jack-o’-lantern.
I did a lot of research on herbal remedies over the course of my work on this novel as well, and those described within are remedies made with herbs that would likely have been available to Charlotte and her mother in this time and place. The exception, though, is the mixture Katrina takes to assist her with her visions. This is a potion completely of my own invention (though some of the herbs I included in it, including nutmeg, do have hallucinogenic properties), and I have no idea what its effect would be should it be ingested. This is the standard disclaimer not to try to make it at home!
While writing the scene in which the Death card is drawn, Katrina and I realized at the same time that the figure of Death is, in fact, a horseman. I’m honestly not certain if there were decks at that time that utilized this image—perhaps there were, as the imagery of “death on a pale horse” comes from the Book of Revelation in the Christian bible—but it was such a cool and perfect coincidence that I had to include it in that scene. The tarot deck I referenced while writing this novel is the famous Rider-Waite deck, perhaps one of the most well-known and recognizable tarot decks. That deck dates to the early 1900s, so Charlotte’s cards certainly would not have had that exact artwork. I did base my descriptions of her cards on this deck, though, to keep consistent with the Death card image, and since that is the deck and imagery likely most familiar to readers.
I based the Van Tassel farmhouse upon Washington Irving’s home of Sunnyside, nestled in a gorgeous spot on the banks of the Hudson (and open to the public!). Irving did not live in this house until many years after the writing of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” but the description of the Van Tassel farmhouse’s location in the original story seemed to fit with Sunnyside. And, furthermore, a woman named Eleanor Van Tassel—whom some have speculated was a possible model for Katrina Van Tassel—lived in that very house before Irving bought and remodeled it.
Dutch was indeed still heavily spoken in the Hudson River Valley into the 1800s, and remained the primary language for many, which I have reflected here, as well as the increasing influence of the English language and culture on the area.
In bringing this era to life, I have tried to be as accurate as possible, though I am certain I have made errors. I am so grateful to the wonderful staff, tour guides, and docents at Sunnyside, the Old Dutch Church, Philipsburg Manor, and the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery for the treasure trove of information they impart to visitors, for their commitment to keeping history alive, and for the wonderful local lore and legends they share. My visits to these sites and others really impressed upon me—as does Irving’s original tale—that the people of the Hudson River Valley are and always have been storytellers, and so assisted in my development of Katrina’s character as a writer and storyteller herself. I learned so much in the time I spent in Sleepy Hollow and the surrounding area while researching this novel, and I did my best to use this knowledge to bring the novel’s characters and setting to life.
I am indebted to two books in particular that were invaluable to me while writing this novel: Food, Drink, and Celebrations of the Hudson Valley Dutch by Peter G. Rose and Legends and Lore of Sleepy Hollow and the Hudson River Valley by Jonathan Kruk. The former helped me accurately portray what my characters would have been eating and drinking—something that Irving himself is rather concerned with in the original story—as well as providing me with great insight into the Dutch culture of the area. The latter provided me with the wonderful stories that Katrina tells to Ichabod and later writes down in her spellbook. I am extremely grateful to both authors for sharing their knowledge in these works.
For further reading, below are just some of the sources I consulted while writing the novel:
Benjamin, Vernon. The History of the Hudson River Valley from Wilderness to the Civil War. New York: The Overlook Press, 2014.
Chernow, Ron. Alexander Hamilton. New York: Penguin Books, 2004.
Ehrenreich, Barbara, and English, Deirdre. Witches, Midwives, & Nurses: A History of Women Healers. 2nd ed. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2010.
Irving, Washington. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Ed. Henry John Steiner. 1820. Sleepy Hollow: Millstone Productions, 2014.
Kruk, Jonathan. Legends and Lore of Sleepy Hollow and the Hudson River Valley. Charleston: The History Press, 2011.
Lewis, Tom. The Hudson: A History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.
Ott, Cindy. Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2012.
Rose, Peter G. Food, Drink, and Celebrations of the Hudson Valley Dutch. Charleston: The History Press, 2009.
White, Deborah Gray. Ar’n’t I A Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1985.