The Headless Horseman is a legend about a ghostly decapitated rider

on a gray horse. He is closely related to The Dullahan from Irish folklore

and Washington Irving’s
The Headless Horseman is a strange figure. He stands astride several
categories at once; phantom, urban legend, folklore character, and film
icon. Comentado [LM1]: El jinete sin cabeza es una f igura
extraña. Él se encuentra a horcajadas en v arias
categorías a la v ez; Fantasma, ley enda urbana,
personaje del f olklore e ícono de la película.

eeuu
Every year around Halloween, the American myth of the headless
horseman makes its annual return – though it’s a story in people’s
imaginations the whole year now because of the US TV program Sleepy
Hollow.
It draws very loosely from Washington Irving’s 1820 story The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow, which reads as an oral tale collected and re-told in print a
generation after the events unfolded. Comentado [LM2]: Cada año, alrededor de Halloween,
el mito estadounidense del jinete sin cabeza hace su
regreso anual, aunque es una historia en la imaginación
Irving’s sheltered and long settled retreat was in a small village on the de las personas durante todo el año gracias al
banks of the Hudson River in Westchester County, New York, and therein programa telev isivo estadounidense Sleepy Hollow. Se
basa muy libremente en la historia de 1820 de
thrived the legend of a Hessian trooper whose head was taken off by a Washington Irv ing, La ley enda de Sleepy Hollow, que
se lee como una historia oral recopilada y reescrita
cannonball during the Revolutionary War. Beheaded and buried headless impresa una generación después de los
in Sleepy Hollow’s churchyard, he was believed to hunt the premises at acontecimientos. Existe en ese espacio nebuloso entre
la historia y el cuento popular.
night, desperately searching for his missing head. It was a local favorite
superstition. The legend had it that those unfortunate enough to met him
were never heard from again.

This wasn’t the first recorded story in the world of a headless horseman.
There are a number of these tales in ghost lore;
Irland
In Irish folklore, this creature is a type of unseelie (dark) faerie and by
description, goals, work ethic and ambition, he seems to be the Celtic
equivalent of the Grim Reaper or death personified. Only instead of a
scythe, he carries a whip made out of a human spine in one of his hands
and his rotting head with a huge jack-o’-lantern grimace in the other.
 For some, he is the headless rider on a headless black horse, and to
others, he rides on a carriage made out of bones, coffins, and tombstones
pulled by six fire-breathing headless horses who serve to take death to
the poor souls whose time on earth has come to an end. The legend says
that if you hear him speak, then he is speaking your name, and
unfortunately your time has come to meet him.
Once a name is spoken by the Dullahan, that person could do nothing to
stop it and avoid the inevitable. The creature is said was able to overcome
any obstacle. Locks and doors open on their own in front of him. Nothing
could stand between him and the soul he was after.
Well, according to the legend, the death bringer couldn’t do a thing if the
soul he was after simply tossed gold at his feet. Even a small amount, a
few coins. For some inexplicable reason, a gold coin was enough to turn
death away from his path.
The Dullahan is properly recognized as a Celtic fairy, although very
different from the Tinkerbelle type commonly represented in Disney films.
To the contrary, many of the Celtic fairies are large, monstrous and
malevolent beings; most of this sort, like the Dullahan, belong to the class
of "solitary" fairies, since they typically travel alone and are quite distinct
from the more gregarious "trooping" or "sociable" fairies, who reside in
social groups.

The Headless Horseman in Britain

In Scotland, a man named Ewen became a headless horseman after
being decapitated in a clan battle. He lost his chance to be chieftain, as
well as his head, and accounts state both he and his horse are headless.

Davies notes the existence of a single English headless horseman, who

haunted a track in Wiltshire every New Year’s Eve. According to a local
legend, he made a wager to make it home in Stourton from Wincanton
market in 7 minutes. He broke his neck during the race, which apparently
explains the headless state of his phantom (2007).
The Headless Horseman in Germany
German folklore is slightly different. Locals blamed windstorms on the
appearances of these spectral hunters and they were accompanied by
mysterious noises.

The Grimm Brothers collected two folk tales, both set in Saxony. On one,
a woman goes out to gather acorns early one morning. After hearing a
hunting horn, she sees a headless man astride a grey horse. He speaks
to her, identifying himself as Hans Jagenteufel, telling her a tale of his
former life of wickedness.

In another, the Wild Huntsman was a man named Hackelberg in life. On

his deathbed, he begged God to allow him to continue riding in the Hunt
until Judgment Day. God granted this strange request. Yet the sounds
from Hackelberg’s Wild Huntsman provide a form of warning to others.

Appearances

From tradition to tradition, the appearance of the horseman changes

slightly:

- The Wild Huntsman of Germany wears a grey coat and rides a grey
horse.

- The Wild Huntsman of Scandinavian rides a white horse, but his apparel
never seems to be described.

- The Celtic Dullahan is most often represented as dressed entirely in

black, and riding an equally black horse; however, a more colorful
character, wearing a scarlet hunting coat and riding a white horse, is also
known from this part of the world. Curiously, the Celtic horsemen are the
only ones that I've encountered whose own horses are often likewise
headless.
- The Horseman of "Sleepy Hollow" is typically represented as riding a
black horse, and dressed in dark attire, although his clothing is highly
variable from one source to another; an 1859 painting by John Quidor
quite accurately depicts the horseman wearing the green of a Hessian
mercenary's uniform, but with the addition of a reddish-brown cape, while
Tim Burton's 1999 film depiction presents the character in a black leather
outfit with a cape that's black on the outside and red within.