These two stories are classic legends and their consequences. They were supposedly found posthumously in the papers of one
Diedrich Knickerbocker, an old gentleman from New York. These two tales are actually taken from THE SKETCH BOOK by Mr. Irving, first published in 1819, when the American Revolution was still within the living memory of men in the rural New York area, as well as elsewhere in the former colonies. These stories are well known to most people in America. They have been celebrated in song and other stories, as well as in at least one major motion picture. Ichabod Crane was a long-limbed, gangly schoolteacher who was courting a fair young farmer''s daughter. On his way home one night, after a party at her house, he was confronted by the Headless Horseman and ran away, disappearing from the area from that time forward (whether by supernatural or ordinary means is never made totally clear in the story). Rip Van Winkel is squirrel hunting and wife-avoiding up in the Catskill Mountains, when he runs into a strange little man sporting a beard and carrying a cask of liquor. He sees some even stranger men bowling at ninepins and drinking the fine brew in the cask. Rip Van Winkel has more than his share of it, and wakes up after twenty years with no idea what has happened. The world he knew has vanished; everything is almost totally different (for one thing the Revolution has happened since he fell asleep). But he is accepted again, and now a village elder, lives happily on.
What makes these tales eminently worth reading is Washington Irving''s incredible skill at storytelling, and even more fabulous talent with words and language (something I didn''t really appreciate when I read this the first time as a young child). His descriptive language is very poetical, and amounts to poetry, even if not graced with rhyme or conventional rhythms. It''s beautiful. The book is also worth reading for the many local stories, legends, fairy tales and myths related here, as well as for the insight into and description of Dutch culture in early New York history.