Along with "Rip Van Winkle", "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is among the
earliest examples of American fiction with enduring popularity,
especially because of a character known as the Headless Horseman
believed to be a Hessian soldier who was decapitated by a cannonball in
battle. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" relates the tale of Ichabod Crane,
a lean, lanky and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut,
who competes with Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, the town rowdy, for
the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and sole child
of wealthy farmer Baltus Van Tassel. Ichabod Crane, a Yankee and an
outsider, sees marriage to Katrina as a means of procuring Van Tassel's
extravagant wealth ...