How old is the headless horseman

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We ask that you report content that you in good faith believe violates the above rules by clicking the Flag link next to the offending comment or by filling out this form. New comments are only accepted for 3 days from the date of publication. It exists in that hazy space between history and folk-tale. The beheading of King Charles I still haunts the English imagination — the act of severing a head can be read as an assault on reason, control and power Credit: Getty Images.

At the Battle of White Plains, the British commanders sent forward their Hessian horsemen — merciless German mercenaries with a fearful reputation. On virtually the first cannon fusillade, one of these mercenaries had his head shot off.

He was hastily buried in the churchyard of Sleepy Hollow, since the Dutch church had a feel of the homeland. Irving named Ichabod Crane, the character spirited away by the headless horseman, after a real-life US army colonel who lived from to Credit: Wikipedia. This tale is merely one of many folkloric stories of headless horsemen that stretch from the Teutonic tales of the Brothers Grimm to Scandanavian myth to the Irish Celtic legend of the dullahan, the headless demon careening around on a black horse.

The current US TV series also sets about multiplying the horrors. This time, the myth is fused with the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and the headless horseman is a portent of the US entering the End of Days, as foretold in the weird visions of the Book of Revelation. Just as the mass hordes of gormless zombies build up at the gates, so now do the horsemen. Our dread and fascination with the headless does seem to have become much more explicit.

In the second series of Fargo , released in , both of these boxes are recalled with the postal delivery of a head: this time, the box is opened.

At the end of this tradition lies the robot Ash in Alien. Forum Blog posts. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Headless Horseman. Edit source History Talk 0. Headless Horseman in Scooby-Doo! Mythical Creatures Guide. We are haunted by the past which stalks us so that we never forget it. Ichabod B. Crane was a contemporary of Irving who enlisted in the Marines in , serving 45 years.

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