A-Z: Classic Monsters: H is for the Headless Horseman

The A-Z Challenge's letter is "H" and there is only one classic monster that comes to mind.... the Headless Horseman.  If you know anything about my blog, than you know how head-over-heels I am about this mystical monster.  In order to honor an classic like the Headless Horseman and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, I am reposting a snippet of my first creepy classic review.

Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

The first book on my Creepy Classics review list is Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Since written in the 1800s, Irving is considered one of celebrated early American writers. My curious nature led me to read this one first. It’s been too long since I cracked this book open and I was pleased I did.

Irving skillfully depicts an early American rural setting of a small Dutch town as the beginnings of his legendary story of the Headless Horseman.  A master at fiction, Irving had me laughing several times when describing the classical character of Ichabod Crane. He’s the gangly nerdy schoolmaster who loves to sing and study about witches, legends and other mystical folklore.

Read the complete post here.

From Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow...

I also wanted to share a snippet of Irving's words on the Horseman.  There was amazing build-up before this, but I really liked this singular sentence!

On mounting a rising ground, which brought the figure of his fellow-traveller in relief against the sky, gigantic in height, and muffled in a cloak, Ichabod was horror-struck on perceiving that he was headless!--but his horror was still more increased on observing that the head, which should have rested on his shoulders, was carried before him on the pommel of his saddle! 

Source

Fox's Office prank using the Headless Horseman

Last Halloween, Fox unleashed the classic monster to walk their corporate halls and scare their poor employees to near death.  Check out this cute video Fox did.  Why is it such fun to scare people?

I've posted a few times on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod Crane and of course the Headless Horseman.  He's a favorite of mine.  Do you like him too?  Did you have a better classic monster for the letter "H" in mind?

Mina B.

Fox's SLEEPY HOLLOW Starts Tonight!

Well, as you might imagine nothing gets me more excited than reminiscing about a creepy classic.  Although I haven't posted any classic literature reviews since my Chaucer reviews, I still long for the haunting uniqueness that comes from timeless lit like Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleep Hollow.

Can you recall the last time you've read it?  (For those interested, check out my review.)  If not, you're in luck.  At a mere 70+ pages, this short story has enough clout to last a lifetime and inspire Hollywood and other media monsters to reinvent it for our pleasure.  This time Fox has bitten into Irving's classic and created a television series called, Sleepy Hollow.  And oh what an interesting take, indeed.  As the trailer states...from the writers and producers of Star Trek, take a look...

What do you think?  Do you think it holds much promise for those fans who are obsessed with the original?  If you're like me than you enjoyed Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow the film when it debuted in 1999 with Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci.  

See more wicked #SleepyHollow gifs here

But I have to ask this: Ichabod Crane is a once-in-a-lifetime character--classic to the core.  From The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, here is but a glimpse of him that aptly describes him in a way that makes me envy Irving for his skill:

The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock, perched upon his spindle neck, to tell which way the wind blew. To see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield.

Now...I ask you: With the many versions of Ichabod Crane's character we've seen over the last several decades, which on equals the original?

Ah, well.  It matters little now.  Tonight we shall see.  I for one am crossing my fingers that this will be a hit.  I know some people don't like when others remake a classic, but I love anything that reinvigorates the original.  

Let's hope this one doesn't disappoint.  Fox's Sleepy Hollow Series Premiere MON 9/8c SEP 16

Mina B