The Legend of Sleepy Hollow [Classic Tales Edition] characters

Appears from the start

A lean Connecticut schoolmaster who teaches the children of Sleepy Hollow and supplements his small income by singing lessons and helping the families who lodge him. Learned, ambitious, and highly credulous, he relishes local supernatural tales even though they leave him easily frightened. His interest in Katrina Van Tassel combines romantic hopes with an intense admiration for her prosperous father's farm.

Appears from the start

The only child of the wealthy farmer Baltus Van Tassel. Eighteen, attractive, and conscious of the attention she receives, she becomes the focus of Ichabod's hopes as well as the established object of Brom Bones's courtship.

Also known as Brom Bones

Appears from the start

A powerful, mischievous local horseman whose feats of strength and practical jokes have made him the leader of the neighborhood's young men. He is Katrina's chief suitor and treats the scholarly, awkward Ichabod as a rival to be mocked and discouraged.

Appears from the start

Katrina's prosperous, hospitable father, a contented farmer whose fertile land, well-stocked barns, and comfortable household strongly attract Ichabod. He entertains the neighborhood at a harvest gathering attended by both of Katrina's principal suitors.

Appears from the start

The farmer with whom Ichabod is lodging when he attends the Van Tassels' gathering. He lends the schoolmaster Gunpowder, an old and ungraceful plow horse, for the evening journey.

Appears from the start

Hans Van Ripper's aging horse, borrowed by Ichabod for his visit to the Van Tassel farm. Lean, stubborn, and formerly spirited, Gunpowder is an ill-matched mount for a nervous rider traveling the valley after dark.

Also known as The Galloping Hessian

Appears from the start

Sleepy Hollow's most feared apparition, said to be the ghost of a Hessian soldier whose head was carried away by a cannonball during the Revolutionary War. Local tradition holds that the rider races nightly toward the churchyard in search of what he lost.

Appears from the start

The antiquarian narrator credited with recording the tale from an older storyteller. His account preserves both the neighborhood's supernatural explanation and more ordinary evidence, leaving the final interpretation unsettled.