The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a short story of horror and romance, written by Washington Irving in 1820, in his collection of essays and short stories The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon. The story is set in 1784, around the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town (Tarrytown, New York), in a secluded valley called Sleepy Hollow known for its ghost stories and the haunted atmosphere that permeates the imagination of its inhabitants and visitors. The most infamous specter of the place is the Headless Horseman, said to be the ghost of a former Hessian soldier who was struck in the head by a cannonball during "some nameless battle" of the American Revolutionary War.
