The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

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Professor Michael S. Hart

Originator of the Project Gutenberg concept, who produced and distributed its eBooks for forty years.

Diedrich Knickerbocker

Also known as Mr. Knickerbocker · D. K.

The purported recorder of the tale, whose papers contain it; he adds a postscript describing how he heard the story at a Manhattan meeting.

St. Nicholas

A saint whom Dutch navigators were said to invoke for protection while crossing the Tappan Zee.

High German doctor

An unnamed doctor whom local legend blames for bewitching Sleepy Hollow in its early settlement days.

old Indian chief

Also known as prophet or wizard of his tribe

An unnamed Indigenous chief whom local legend says held powwows in Sleepy Hollow before the country was discovered by Hendrick Hudson.

Headless Horseman

Also known as Galloping Hessian · Hessian trooper · the goblin · the spectre

The spectral horseman said to be a Hessian soldier whose head was shot off during the Revolutionary War. Local stories claim he rides between the churchyard and the battlefield in search of his head; a headless rider pursues Ichabod, though the tale later hints Brom Bones may have staged the encounter.

Ichabod Crane

Also known as the schoolmaster · the pedagogue · the preceptor of Sleepy Hollow

A lanky Connecticut schoolmaster and singing teacher who boards with local farming families. He courts Katrina Van Tassel, vanishes after a nighttime ride, and is later reported to have survived, left the area, studied law, and become a politician, newspaper writer, and justice.

Yost Van Houten

The unnamed schoolhouse’s architect, whom the narrator credits with its peculiar door and window fastenings.

Cotton Mather

The author of a history of New England witchcraft that Ichabod reads and believes; Ichabod also draws on Mather’s work when telling supernatural stories.

Katrina Van Tassel

Also known as the heiress · the blooming Katrina

The eighteen-year-old only child of Baltus Van Tassel, famed for her beauty and inheritance. A coquette, she attracts both Ichabod Crane and Brom Bones, and later marries Brom.

Baltus Van Tassel

Also known as Old Baltus Van Tassel · Balt Van Tassel · honest Balt · Old Van Tassel · Heer Van Tassel

A prosperous, genial Dutch farmer and Katrina’s indulgent father. He welcomes guests to his home and allows his daughter to choose her own course.

Abraham Van Brunt

Also known as Brom Van Brunt · Brom Bones · Bones

A powerful, mischievous local horseman and Ichabod’s rival for Katrina. He marries Katrina after Ichabod disappears, and his knowing laughter at the pumpkin leads people to suspect he staged the scare.

Achilles

The stormy lover invoked in a comparison to Brom Bones’s determination in courtship.

Katrina’s mother

Also known as Van Tassel’s wife · the notable little wife

An unnamed busy housewife and mother of Katrina who manages the household and poultry, and leaves her daughter to make her own choices.

Mynheer Van Tassel’s messenger

Also known as the negro messenger

An unnamed Black man who rides a ragged colt to invite Ichabod to the Van Tassel quilting frolic.

Hans Van Ripper

Also known as Van Ripper · the choleric Van Ripper

A choleric Dutch farmer who lends Ichabod his horse and Sunday saddle. After Ichabod vanishes, he acts as executor of Ichabod’s estate and burns his books.

Gunpowder

Also known as old Gunpowder

Hans Van Ripper’s old, vicious plow-horse, borrowed by Ichabod for the Van Tassel gathering. He carries Ichabod on the night he disappears.

Daredevil

Brom Bones’s favorite, unruly horse, known for its speed and tricks; Brom claims it outran the Headless Horseman’s horse.

Doffue Martling

A large, blue-bearded Dutchman whose story claims he nearly captured a British frigate with a cannon that burst.

unnamed wealthy gentleman

Also known as old gentleman

A rich local man, left unnamed, who claims he parried a musket ball with his small sword at the Battle of White Plains.

Major André

Also known as André · the unfortunate André

A British officer captured near the tulip tree and stream later associated with his name; local tales connect the sites with ghostly sounds and apparitions.

woman in white

An unnamed ghost said to haunt the glen at Raven Rock, where she perished in the snow, and to shriek before winter storms.

Brouwer

Also known as old Brouwer

A heretical disbeliever in ghosts who, according to a local tale, met the Headless Horseman and was thrown into a brook.

old farmer

Also known as the storyteller’s informant

An unnamed farmer who later visited New York and reported that Ichabod had survived and built a career elsewhere.

pleasant shabby storyteller

Also known as the narrator at the Corporation meeting

An unnamed, poor-looking gentleman who recounts the Ichabod Crane story at a Manhattan Corporation meeting and offers its comic moral.

tall, dry-looking old gentleman

Also known as the cautious old gentleman

An unnamed, skeptical attendee at the Corporation meeting who asks what the story proves and doubts parts of it.