The Headless Horseman.

 

 

 The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow..

 

( From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by name of Sleepy Hollow ... A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere....Washington Irving....

There are many versions of this apparition, In some he is a coachmen of the dead other's a dark Fay/Fairy.

 

But probably the most well known version is the one from  Washington Irving's story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" printed in 1820  featuring  a character known as the Headless Horseman believed to be a Hessian soldier who was decapitated by a cannonball in battle. Hessians were German soldiers who served as auxiliaries to the British Army during the American Revolutionary War.  The term is an American synecdoche for all Germans who fought on the British side, since 65% came from the German states of Hesse-Kassel and Hesse-Hanau.

 

 Sleepy Hollow legend ..

The story is set in 1790 in the countryside around the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town (historical Tarrytown, New York), in a secluded glen known as Sleepy Hollow. Sleepy Hollow is renowned for its ghosts and the haunting atmosphere that pervades the imaginations of its inhabitants and visitors. Some residents say this town was bewitched during the early days of the Dutch settlement, while others claim that the mysterious atmosphere was caused by an old Native American chief, the "wizard of his tribe ... before the country was discovered by Master Hendrik Hudson." Residents of the town are seemingly subjected to various supernatural and mysterious occurrences. They are subjected to trance-like visions and frequented by strange sights, music, and voices "in the air." The inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow are fascinated by the "local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions" on account of the mysterious occurrences and haunting atmosphere. The most infamous specter in the Hollow is the Headless Horseman, the "commander-in-chief of all the powers of the air," (an attribute also of the Devil, according to Ephesians 2:2). He is supposedly the restless ghost of a Hessian trooper whose head had been shot off by a stray cannonball during "some nameless battle" of the Revolution, and who "rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head".

The "Legend" relates the tale of Ichabod Crane, a lean, lanky and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut. Throughout his stay at Sleepy Hollow, Crane is able to make himself both "useful and agreeable" to the families that he lodges with. He occasionally assists with light farm work, helping to make hay, mending fences, caring for numerous farm animals, and cutting firewood. Besides his more dominant role as the schoolmaster, Ichabod Crane also assists the various mothers of the town by helping to take care of their young children, taking on a more "gentle and ingratiating" role. Crane is also quite popular among the women of the town for his education and his talent for "carrying the whole budget of local gossip," which makes him a welcomed sight within female circles. As a firm believer in witchcraft and the like, Crane has an unequaled "appetite for the marvelous," which is only increased by his stay in "the spell-bound region" of Sleepy Hollow. A source of "fearful pleasure" for Crane is to visit the Old Dutch wives and listen to their "marvelous tales of ghosts and goblins," haunted locations, and the tales of the Headless Horseman, or the "Galloping Hessian of the Hollow, as they sometimes called him."

Throughout the story, Ichabod Crane competes with Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, the town rowdy and local hero, for the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and sole child of wealthy farmer Baltus Van Tassel. Ichabod Crane, an outsider, sees marriage to Katrina as a means of procuring Van Tassel's extravagant wealth. Brom, unable to force Ichabod into a physical showdown to settle things, plays a series of pranks on the superstitious schoolmaster. The tension among the three continues for some time, and is soon brought to a head. On a placid autumn night, the ambitious Crane attends a harvest party at the Van Tassels' homestead. He dances, partakes in the feast, and listens to ghostly legends told by Brom and the locals, but his true aim is to propose to Katrina after the guests leave. His intentions, however, are ill-fated, as he fails to secure Katrina's hand.

Following his rejected suit, Ichabod rides home on his temperamental plough horse named Gunpowder, "heavy-hearted and crestfallen" through the woods between Van Tassel's farmstead and the farmhouse in Sleepy Hollow where he is quartered at the time. As he passes several purportedly haunted spots, his active imagination is engorged by the ghost stories told at Baltus' harvest party. After nervously passing a lightning-stricken tulip tree purportedly haunted by the ghost of British spy Major André, Ichabod encounters a cloaked rider at an intersection in a menacing swamp. Unsettled by his fellow traveler's eerie size and silence, the teacher is horrified to discover that his companion's head is not on his shoulders, but on his saddle. In a frenzied race to the bridge adjacent to the Old Dutch Burying Ground, where the Hessian is said to "vanish, according to rule, in a flash of fire and brimstone" before crossing it, Ichabod rides for his life, desperately goading Gunpowder down the Hollow. However, while Crane and Gunpowder are able to cross the bridge ahead of the ghoul, Ichabod turns back in horror to see the monster rear his horse and hurl his severed head directly at him with a fierce motion. The schoolmaster attempts to dodge, but is too late; the missile strikes his head and sends him tumbling headlong into the dust from his horse. 

 

 

The next morning, Gunpowder is found eating the grass at his master's gate, but Ichabod has mysteriously disappeared from the area, leaving Katrina to later marry Brom Bones, who was said "to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related". Indeed, the only relics of the schoolmaster's flight are his discarded hat, Gunpowder's trampled saddle, and a mysterious shattered pumpkin. Although the true nature of both the Headless Horseman and Ichabod's disappearance that night are left open to interpretation, the story implies that the Horseman was really Brom (an extremely agile rider) in disguise, using a Jack-o'-lantern as a false head, and suggests that Crane survived the fall from Gunpowder and immediately fled Sleepy Hollow in horror of both the legends and having to deal with his landlord, never to return but to prosper elsewhere, or was killed by Brom (which may be unlikely, since Brom was said to have "more mischief than ill-will in his composition"). Irving's narrator concludes the story, however, by stating that the old Dutch wives continue to promote the belief that Ichabod was "spirited away by supernatural means", and a legend develops around his disappearance and sightings of his melancholy spirit.

 

 

 

.................................

Germany

...............................

 In Germany, headless-horseman stories come mostly from the Rhineland. Rather than using decapitation, the headless horsemen killed their victims simply by touching them. They were revenants who had to wander the earth until they had atoned for their sins, sometimes by doing a good deed for a stranger, but instead of showing their gratitude by shaking hands, the stranger and the horseman held a tree branch between them and the branch would wither and die rather than the stranger.

 Irving traveled in Germany in 1821 and had become familiar with Dutch and German folklore.

In particular the last of the "Legenden von Rübezahl" ('Legends of Rübezahl') from Johann Karl August Musäus's literary retellings of German folktales (Volksmärchen der Deutschen, 1783) is said to have inspired The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

 

......................

Ireland 

.......................

The dullahan or dulachán  is a headless, dark fay, usually riding a horse and carrying his head under his arm.

He wields a whip made from a human's spine. When the dullahan stops riding, a death occurs. The dullahan calls out a name, at which point the named person immediately dies. All doors open for the dullahan, no lock will stop him.

 In another version, he is the headless driver of a black carriage, the Cóiste Bodhar.

 A similar figure, the gan ceann ("without a head"), can be frightened away by wearing a gold object or putting one in his path.

Dullahan post 

http://theparanormal411.blogspot.com/2019/09/fairy-myths-dullahan.html?m=1

............................

Scotland

..........................

The most prominent Scots tale of the headless horseman concerns a man named Ewen decapitated in a clan battle at Glen Cainnir on the Isle of Mull. The battle denied him any chance to be a chieftain, and both he and his horse are headless in accounts of his haunting of the area.

 Among the Highland Scottish diaspora in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, seeing the image or hearing the sound of a horse or headless rider is traditionally regarded as an omen of an imminent death within the family.

 

 

One need not be a chamber to be haunted

🎃👻🎃

One need not be a chamber to be haunted Emily Dickinson

One need not be a chamber—to be haunted—
One need not be a House—
The Brain—has Corridors surpassing 
Material Place—

Far safer, of a Midnight—meeting 
External Ghost—
Than an Interior—confronting—
That cooler—Host—

Far safer, through an Abbey—gallop—
The Stones a’chase—
Than moonless—One’s A’self encounter—
In lonesome place—

Ourself—behind Ourself—Concealed—
Should startle—most—
Assassin—hid in Our Apartment—
Be Horror’s least—

The Prudent—carries a Revolver—
He bolts the Door, 
O’erlooking a Superior Spectre
More near—

Wolfman in Wisconsin .

 

 

             

                                   

                                     Wolfman  Sighting on  Bray Rd. in 2004

A Wisconsin woman and her daughter may have had a close encounter with the Beast of Bray Rd.

 

One night in 2004, a 45 year old nurse from Greendale, her 14 year old daughter and 14 year old friend saw what was definitely the wolfman while driving down Bray Road about 8:30 p.m. October 30, 2004, for the sole purpose of trying to scare the daughter's friend, Kevin. The woman is trained in anatomy, physiology, and kinesiology, and they estimate the creature was no farther than 9 feet away from them and illuminated in the headlights of their car. "We had been looking for it for years," said the woman.

Kevin had never been to Bray Road so her daughter wanted to scare him, they arrived about 8:30, drove up and down the road a few times, drove around Bowers Road and back onto Bray Road, driving slowly and under the speed limit, when something popped out of the corn about two miles down the road, heading toward Elkhorn.

It stepped right out of the corn and it looked aggressive. We all screamed very loud, she put her foot on the gas, and went away as fast as she could and did not go back. What she saw doesn't make sense. 

A quadruped has its legs "backward' for speed and agility. But this creature had large powerful thigh muscles and its knee was backward. It was covered in fur, with heavier fur on its back. It was dark in color but tipped silvery gray. It was in the oncoming lane of traffic so they were less than nine feet away from the creature. It was not a person in a suit, it was way too tall (about seven feet) and way too muscular, and its eyes were glittery and dark, it had no whites like a human's eyes in a mask would have. It's head was big, almost too big for its body. It had an elongated snout, but pointy, not rounded like a dog.

It stood there, and then it hunched over into an aggressive stance. It's arms were bent at the elbow and forward. Its ears were pointed, shaped like a German shepherd's, but laid back. It was looking right at them and they all felt it was aggressive and would defend itself viciously.

This wasn't a dog. Or a wolf. It had canine features but it was something else something different, yet the same. It was a Wolf man. They all had the feeling they were not safe. And didn't get a picture although they had cameras all over the car, video camera, digital camera, and a disposable camera, they were prepared. But when they saw it, they all just screamed and then the mother floored the gas.

The woman said she was not drinking any alcohol and does not do drugs. She has had a few incidents in her life she considers "somewhat" paranormal, but has never seen anything definite like that. All three witnesses saw the creature at the same time and agreed on its appearance.

 

 

 

A Dream Within A Dream By Edgar Allan Poe.

 

A church grim

 

 I have pre scheduled updates for every week this month Have an awesome Spooky Season 🎃 ...

        The Church Grim: Guardian of the dead

 

 A church grim is a guardian spirit from  English and Nordic/Scandinavian  folklore.

 

 

 Nordic Church Grim....

A Nordic church grim gose by different names depending on where its located .. the Kyrkogrim (Swedish), Kirkonväki (Finnish), and Kirkegrim (Danish) and likewise defined as the protective spirit of an animal buried alive in the church foundation. 

In Sweden this tradition  was  mainly found in the formerly Danish areas in the south (Scania, Halland, and Blekinge). It'is also connected with a creature called the "natteramm" in Scanian or, in English, "night raven".

 

 

 It usually lives in the church tower but will live any place on church grounds thsat it can stay hidden within., it also wanders the grounds at night, it's job is to with protect the sacred grounds and building. 

A church grim maintains  order in the church and punishes those  sinners that enters the hallowed grounds.

It 's said that the first founders of Christian churches would bury a lamb ("church-lamb") under the altar. When a person enters the church when services are not being held, he may see the lamb, and if it appears in the graveyard (especially to the gravedigger) then it portends the death of a child.

 In some older versions a lamb is said to have only three legs.

The lamb is meant to represent Christ (the Lamb of God) as the sacred cornerstone of the church, imparting security and longevity to the physical edifice and congregation.

 

 

Dogs are loyal faithful protectors which is why they where more commonly used as Church Grim's, but several other animals have been used  as well, the  most often used alternatives where a lamb, boar, pig and horse.

A grave-sow (or "graysow"), the ghost of a sow that was buried alive, was often seen in the streets of Kroskjoberg where it was regarded as an omen of death. 

 

 

There are tales of the Danish Kirkegrim and its battles with the Strand-varsler that tried to enter the churchyard. Strand-varsler are the spirits of those who die at sea, are washed up on the shore, and remain unburied.

In Swedish tradition, a person attempting the Årsgång, or year walk, a divination ritual that involved circling a churchyard on New Year's Eve, would have to contend with the church grim, which was the natural enemy of the year walker.

 ...........

 

                                                                The English Version.

 

 

England's  church grim is usually  a large black dog with red eyes that guards churchyards from  thieves, vandals, witches, warlocks, and even the Devil himself. 

 

In the 19th century, folklorists believed that it had once been the custom to bury a dog alive under the cornerstone of a church as a foundation sacrifice so that its ghost might serve as a guardian.

Like many spectral black dogs, the grim, according to Yorkshire tradition, is also an ominous portent and is known to toll the church bell at midnight before a death takes place. 

 

During funerals the presiding clergyman may see the grim looking out from the churchtower and determine from its aspect whether the soul of the deceased is destined for Heaven or Hell. 

 

The grim inhabits the churchyard day and night and is associated with dark stormy weather.

When a new churchyard was opened it was believed that the first person buried there had to guard it against the Devil. In order to prevent a human soul from having to perform such a duty a black dog was buried in the north part of the churchyard as a substitute.

 

 According to a related belief in Scotland the spirit of the person most recently buried in a churchyard had to protect it until the next funeral provided a new guardian to replace them.

This churchyard vigil was known as the faire chlaidh or "graveyard watch^.

 

A folktale of the Devil's Bridge type is also an example of the motif of a dog (in this case a dog also named Grim) being sacrificed in place of a human being. In the North Riding of Yorkshire attempts were made to build a bridge that could withstand the fury of the floods but none were successful. 

 

The Devil promised to build one on condition that the first living creature that crossed it should serve as a sacrifice. When the bridge was complete the people gave long consideration as to who should be the victim. A shepherd who owned a dog named Grim swam across the river then whistled for Grim to follow, who went over the bridge and became the Devil's sacrifice.

 

 

The bridge then became known as Kilgrim Bridge  and was later renamed Kilgram Bridge, which today crosses the River Ure in North Yorkshire

 

 

 

Spooky Month Updates 🎃

 

Just a quick update today, i have several new posts finished and pre scheduled to post every week in October 🙂 

So look forward to a month of cryptids, ghost's and monsters..

Also Happy early Halloween 🎃🦇👻🦇🎃

 Have a nice day.

🦉.

The New Hampshire Wood Devil.

 A short post today, more coming soon ! :)

 

 

 

                         The New Hampshire Wood Devil

 

The Woods Devil, or more likely  Woods Devils, is a  Bigfoot like cryptid  that has been sighted in the woodlands and hills of Coos County, New Hampshire since at least the 1930s. 

 They may be a  subspecies of Bigfoot.or they may be a separate species all together.

 

 

According to eye witness accounts it resembles a  skinny Sasquatch-like creatures standing as  tall as around 7-9 feet and has shaggy tan-gray hair. 

 

 

One unusual trait, slightly similar to  behavior of the Hidebehind, or even the Whirling Whimpus, is that this cryptid uses the trees to hide. 

It's said that these creatures will hide behind a tree when a human is coming, and stay behind that tree until they leave. If there is no cover to hide in, the Woods Devil will stand perfectly still. 

 

 

Woodsmen, hikers, and others have described hearing screams of these creatures echoing the hollows of Coos County. 

 Tales of the Woods Devils were told old lumberjack and can be found is  the tales of fearsome critters.