readers theater play classic horror A scary story that stands the The test of time Legend of A HEADLESS HORSEMAN. A HAUNTED HOLLOW. THIS CLASSIC TALE IS STILL ONE Sleepy OF THE CREEPIEST GHOST STORIES YOU’LL EVER READ. BY WASHINGTON IRVING. RETOLD BY MACK LEWIS. Hollow ILLUSTRATIONS BY GARY HANNA. characters

*DieDrich KnicKerbocKer: *brom : Our storyteller The village brute

*stage Directors 1 & 2: baltus Van tassel: Narrators of the characters’ Katrina’s father actions Van ax olD women 1 & 2 Van ripper *: The VanDerblooD superstitious schoolmaster brouwer Katrina Van tassel:

The village beauty *indicates large speaking role Washington Irving got his idea for the Headless Horseman (above) from an old German folktale.

checK it out scene 1 AS YOU READ, LOOK FOR: enters, reading a book. As he comes the new schoolmaster. olD woman 1: Will you be attending KnicKerbocKer: Wary indeed! walks, he absentmindedly whistles olD woman 2: Good afternoon, the Van Tassels’ party tonight? It’s said the Hollow is bewitched. secret clues Authors often put clues in KnicKerbocKer: I was never one “Yankee Doodle.” Schoolmaster. ichaboD: That I will. I merely need to The people are given to all kinds their stories so readers can for ghost stories, not ’til I happened KnicKerbocKer: My name is ichaboD (startled): Why, good retrieve my horse for the ride home. of marvelous superstitions . . . predict what might happen upon a little village called Sleepy Diedrich Knickerbocker. The year afternoon, ladies. olD woman 2: Well, you enjoy including the Legend of the Headless later on. This technique is Hollow. Had I not seen it for myself, was 1790, and as I wandered the KnicKerbocKer: He was very tall, yourself, Schoolmaster. But be wary. Horseman of Sleepy Hollow. called “foreshadowing.” I would have dismissed it as a bit of drowsy shadows of the Hollow, with long arms and hands that There’s mischief in the air. Can you find two examples of superstition, but this . . . I shudder I encountered a man named dangled a mile out of his sleeves. stage Director 2: Ichabod bows, scene 2 foreshadowing? HINT: Look to think of it! Ichabod Crane. His small head had enormous ears then returns to his reading and closely at Knickerbocker’s lines. the Van tassels’ estate stage Director 1: A lanky fellow olD woman 1: Look there. Here and a long nose. whistling. KnicKerbocKer: Ichabod 

4 ScholaStic Scope • OCTOBER 25, 2010 ScholaStic.coM/Scope • OCTOBER 25, 2010 5 rode a broken-down plow horse. Stage Director 1: The dance ends. Van Ripper: He can’t rest until he bowl of punch. That’s right, a bowl This horse was all skin and bones, Ichabod bows to Katrina, then finds it. He rides at such a speed— of punch! And I would have won it and his tail was knotted with burrs. makes his way toward a group of like a midnight blast, it is—because too, but just as we came to the old Still, he must have had some spark older guests. They are sitting by the he’s in a hurry to get back to the church bridge, the Horseman in his day, for he went by the name fire, telling chilling tales of ghosts churchyard before the light of day. vanished in a flash of fire. Gunpowder. and goblins. Vanderblood: He’s been seen Knickerbocker: Aye, it was true. Stage Director 1: Ichabod Van Ax: Many a ghost haunts the several times of late, patrolling the The old church bridge was dismounts in front of a huge estate. Hollow. There’s the old Dutchman hills. I myself have seen his horse surrounded by overhanging trees, Knickerbocker: It was nearly who walks the docks, shouting for a tethered among the graves in the which cast a gloom even in the evening when Ichabod arrived at the musket and a sword. churchyard. daytime. It was the place the Van Tassels’. Katrina Van Tassel was Van Ripper: And there’s the woman Brouwer: I didn’t believe in the Headless Horseman was most as rosy-cheeked as one of her father’s in white who haunts the dark glen at Horseman until one night last year. frequently encountered, but it was peaches. From the moment Ichabod Raven Rock. To hear her shriek on a I met him on the road near the Old also the place he could not pass. laid eyes upon her, his only thought winter night before a storm is a bad Tree. I suspect he was returning Brom: If ever the Horseman was how to gain her affections. omen. from his search, but I didn’t know comes after you, head for the bridge. Katrina: Good evening, Master Old Woman 1: In these parts, Mr. who he was. I called to him: “Show If you can but reach that bridge, Crane. Welcome to our home. Crane, you must take care to live a me your face, good man.” He didn’t you are safe. Ichabod (clearing his throat): Why, decent life. Those who don’t do so answer, and when he turned, there Stage Director 1: One by one, thank you, Miss Katrina. run the risk of being carried away in was nothing there—just the stump the guests depart, but hoping Knickerbocker: But Ichabod wasn’t the dead of night! of a neck. Before I could react, he for a moment alone with Katrina, the only one interested in Katrina. Knickerbocker: All these tales, told grabbed me by the shoulder and Ichabod is the last to leave. Another was a burly, roaring hero in those drowsy whispers with which forced me to get up behind him. of the countryside known as Brom It is believed that Irving based the characters of people talk in the dark, sank deep in Stage Director 2: The room is SCENE 4 Brom (left), Ichabod (center), and Katrina (right) Bones. Whenever a prank or brawl the mind of Ichabod and, in turn, silent. The old man takes a bite out on real people from the Sleepy Hollow area. The Ride Home flustered the town, the simple folk caught the attention of Brom. of his apple and chews it slowly. Knickerbocker: It was midnight of Sleepy Hollow always shook their Vanderblood: But, my friend, Ichabod: Wh-what happened next? when Ichabod finally departed, heads and guessed Brom Bones was such a gentleman in our midst. Baltus: Welcome! Welcome to the nothing that we’ve told you rivals Brouwer: How we galloped! Over and all those stories of ghosts and at the bottom of it. Brom: I don’t know what you see in party, everyone! Let the music and the Headless Horseman. bush and brake, over hill and goblins now came crowding upon Stage Director 2: Brom Bones him. He’s got dinner plates where his dancing begin! Ichabod: The Headless Horseman? swamp . . . Then we reached the his thoughts. enters, strutting and puffing out ears should be and shovels for feet. Ichabod: Dear Katrina, may I have Old Woman 2: Yes, dear man. He is bridge. That’s when the Horseman Stage Director 2: Ichabod trots his chest. Katrina: You’re just jealous. this dance? said to be the ghost of a soldier, suddenly turned into a skeleton, along, flinching at every sound and Brom (loudly): Here I am, Katrina! Brom: Of him? Why, he looks like Stage Director 2: Katrina glances whose head was carried away by a threw me into the brook, and sprang shape. Let’s go take a ride on my horse, a scarecrow that has escaped the slyly at Brom. cannonball during the Revolutionary away over the treetops with a clap Knickerbocker: He remembered Daredevil! cornfield! Katrina: Why certainly, Master War. His ghost is often seen hurrying of thunder! all too clearly the warnings of the Katrina (giggling): Don’t be silly. Knickerbocker: Poor Ichabod. Crane. along in the darkness. Ichabod: Oh my! townspeople. Put Daredevil in the barn and come He would have had a pleasant life, Knickerbocker: Ichabod prided Van Ax: With the Horseman about, Brouwer: Oh my, indeed. I will Van Ax: One doesn’t dare to be in the house. And don’t act like such if only his path and young Katrina’s himself on his dancing. Not a limb of one doesn’t dare to be caught upon never forget it! caught upon the roadway during a brute! had never crossed. his loosely hung body was still. And the roadway during the witching Brom: I’m not afraid of the the witching hour. Brom: Say, is that the schoolmaster’s as he went clattering about the room hour. Horseman. Aye, I too have seen him. Knickerbocker: The wind’s howl horse? What’s he doing here? Come SCENE 3 with the beautiful Katrina, he was Vanderblood: His body is buried I was returning one night from a became the woman in white. to give you singin’ lessons? The Party unaware that Brom Bones sat in the churchyard, and every neighboring village when he Van Ripper: To hear her shriek on Katrina: The schoolmaster is an Stage Director 1: The guests gather brooding in one corner. night the ghost rides forth . . . overtook me. Rather than give in to a winter night before a storm honored guest. What fun it is to have in the great parlor. Brom: I don’t like this one bit. in search of his head. his terror, I offered to race him for a is a bad omen. 

6 Scholastic Scope • OCTOBER 25, 2010 scholastic.com/scope • OCTOBER 25, 2010 7 Meet the Author washington irVing

American writer Washington Irving was born in 1783. He is most famous for his short stories “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle,” both published in 1819. We recently traveled to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Tarrytown, New York, to chat with Irving’s ghost.

Scope: how did you come up with the idea for “sleepy hollow”? wi: I got the basic idea from an old German folktale, and Sleepy Hollow seemed like the perfect setting. It’s a real place, you know, about 20 miles from New York City. Its high school sports teams are called the Horsemen.

Scope: what’s this i’ve heard about you and new york’s The bridge to which Ichabod flees (above) really existed in Sleepy basketball team, the Knicks? Hollow. It crossed the Pocantico River. wi: My first book was a satire about New York history. I wrote it under the pen name Diedrich Knickerbocker. As time went by, people started using the word “Knickerbocker” to mean “New Yorker.” KnicKerbocKer: A bullfrog croaking Ichabod’s head stood on end. ichaboD: Fly, Gunpowder, fly! expecting the goblin to vanish “Knicks” is short for Knickerbocker. became the ghost of the Old ichaboD: Wh-who-who . . . are you? KnicKerbocKer: Away they dashed, in a clap of thunder . . . but, Dutchman. I-I-I say there, wh-who are y-y-you? stones flying and sparks flashing. instead, he saw it rise up and Scope: would you mind telling us about your olD woman 1: Take care to live KnicKerbocKer: The shadowy Ichabod’s flimsy garments fluttered hurl its head . . . at him! death and how things have been since then? a decent life. Those who don’t do creature put itself in motion and in the air as he stretched his long, ichaboD: Ahhhhhhhhhh! wi: I’m afraid my death is a rather dull story. I was at so risk being carried away in the stood at once in the middle of the lank body over his horse’s head, home, I had a heart attack, and that was that. Since dead of night. road. and suddenly, he remembered what epilogue then things have been good. I like to hover over stage Director 1: Ichabod ichaboD: I s-s-say, sir, wh-wh-what Brom Bones had said. KnicKerbocKer (calmly now): people as they read my work. I see all the movies and TV clutches tightly at Gunpowder’s is it you w-w-want with me? brom (from offstage): If you can The next morning, Ichabod’s shows based on “Sleepy Hollow.” There have been at least reins. To calm his nerves, he KnicKerbocKer: When there came but reach that bridge, you are safe. old horse wandered home, but a dozen! My favorite was a movie starring Johnny Depp. begins to whistle. no reply, Ichabod rained a shower KnicKerbocKer: Thundering Ichabod himself did not return. KnicKerbocKer: His normally of kicks upon Gunpowder. The forward, he heard the black steed A search led to the bridge. Along cheerful version of “Yankee Doodle” stranger whirled his horse to give close behind him. the bank of the brook, where the contest sounded like a funeral hymn. It chase. ichaboD: There it is, Gunpowder. water ran dark and deep, Ichabod’s was then that he saw it: In the ichaboD: R-r-run, Gunpowder! The old church bridge! hat was found, and close beside it, what happened to ichabod? shadows on the edge of the road, KnicKerbocKer (voice growing KnicKerbocKer: He cracked his a shattered pumpkin. The brook The ending of this story is disturbing. Is the Headless something huge and misshapen in intensity): As poor Ichabod whip wildly in the air, spurring his was searched, but the body of Horseman a real ghoul, or just someone playing dress-up? towered above them. glanced over his shoulder, he was steed onward. the schoolmaster was nowhere Did Ichabod Crane run away, or did VanDerblooD (from offstage): Every horror-struck, for the man behind ichaboD: Hyaw, hyaw! Come on, to be found, leaving the good something much, much worse happen to night, the ghost rides forth in search him was headless, and the head, Gunpowder! people to shake their heads him? Write a paragraph explaining what you of his head. which should have rested on his KnicKerbocKer (most intensely): and conclude that Ichabod think happened. Send it to SCOPE sleepy ichaboD (gulping): What’s to be shoulders, was hanging from the Gunpowder’s hooves pounded Crane had been carried off . . . hollow contest by December 1, 2010. Ten done, Gunpowder? pommel of the saddle in the form upon the planks of the bridge. by the Headless Horseman winners will receive a copy of Neil Gaiman’s

KnicKerbocKer: Every hair upon of a fiery jack-o’-lantern! Ichabod cast a look behind, WASHINGTON IRVING: ©BETTMANN/CORBIS; TOMBSTONE: ©NINA LEEN/PIX INC./TIME LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES of Sleepy Hollow. • The Graveyard Book. See page 2 for details.

8 ScholaStic Scope • OCTOBER 25, 2010 scholastic.com/scope • OCTOBER 25, 2010 9