Il racconto è ambientato in una colonia olandese dello Stato di New York. Dietro la storia fantastica si cela, però, la rappresentazione della vita dei coloni americani e delle loro difficoltà di adattamento, personificate proprio dal famigerato cavaliere senza testa.
E ora un breve assaggio dell’atmosfera che si respira a Sleepy Hollow…

'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow', and 'Rip Van Winkle' by Washington Irving, are contained in the publication 'The Sketch Book'.
'The stories are both set in rural New York State and are Irving's adaptation of German Fairy Tales. Irving satirically credits the stories as being written by Diedrich Knickerbocker, a beloved character
Irving invented early in his career.
The story takes place in post-revolutionary days amongst the Dutch citizens of Sleepy Hollow, on the Hudson in New York. Ichabod Crane, a tall lanky Yankee school master, has fallen in love with a local girl, Katrina Van Tassel. Katrina is the daughter of a rich farmer and Ichabod falls victim to many jokes by the friends of his rivals for her affection, Brom Van Brunt, alias Brom Bones. Bones is a reckless horseman and a neighborhood hero. At an autumn party thrown by the Van Tassels, the guests are entertaining themselves with ghost stories. Bones tells a tale of a headless horseman that is said to haunt Sleepy Hollow.While returning home that night, feeling disappointed with his progress with Katrina, Ichabod is frightened by a headless apparition that rides after him and throws a round object at him.
Ichabod is never seen again in Sleepy Hollow. It turns out that the round object is only a pumpkin. Curiously enough, Bones marries Katrina and the tale of Ichabod becomes a legend of the countryside.
The following extract is taken from the beginning of the tale and describes the town of Sleepy Hollow.

Found among the papers of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker.
A pleasing land of drowsy head it was, Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye; And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, Forever flushing round a summer sky.

•  Castle of Indolence.

In the bosom of one of the spacious coves which indent the eastern shore of the Hudson, at that broad expansion of the river denominated by the ancient Dutch navigators the Tappaan Zee, and where they always prudently shortened sail, and implored the protection of St. Nicholas when they crossed, there lies a small market town or rural port, which by some is called Greensburgh, but which is more universally and properly known by the name of Tarry Town. This name was given it, we are told, in former days, by the good housewives of the adjacent country, from the inveterate propensity of their husbands to linger about the village tavern on market days. Be that as it may, I do not vouch for the fact, but merely advert to it, for the sake of being precise and authentic. Not far from this village, perhaps about three miles, there is a little valley or rather lap of land among high hills, which is one of the quietest places in the whole world. A small brook glides through it, with just murmur enough to lull you to repose; and the occasional whistle of a quail, or tapping of a woodpecker, is almost the only sound that ever breaks in upon the uniform tranquillity.
I recollect that, when a stripling, my first exploit in squirrel-shooting was in a grove of tall walnut trees that shades one side of the valley. I had wandered into it at noon time, when all nature is peculiarly quiet, and was startled by the roar of my own gun, as it broke the sabbath stillness around and was prolonged and reverberated by the angry echoes. If ever I should wish for a retreat, whither I might steal from the world and its distractions, and dream quietly away the remnant of a troubled life, I know of none more promising than this little valley. 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 the name of SLEEPY HOLLOW, and its rustic lads are called the Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighboring country. A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and pervade the very atmosphere. Some say that the place was bewitched by a high German doctor, during the early days of the settlement; others, that an old Indian chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe, held his powwows there before the country was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudson. Certain it is, the place still continues under the sway of some witching power, that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to walk in a continual reverie. They are given to all kinds of marvelous beliefs; have trances and visions, and see strange sights, and hear music and voices in the air. The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions; stars shoot and meteors glare oftener across the valley than in any other part of the country, and the nightmare, with her whole nine fold, seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols.
The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted region, and seems to be commander of all the powers of the air, is the apparition of a figure on horseback, without a head. It is said by some to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head had been carried away by a cannon-ball, in some nameless battle during the Revolutionary War, and who is ever and anon seen by various of the country people, hurrying along in the gloom of night, as if on the wings of the wind. His haunts are not confined to the valley, but extend at times to the adjacent roads, and especially to the vicinity of a church at no great distance. Indeed, certain of the most authentic historians of those parts, who have been careful in collecting and collating the floating facts concerning this spectre, allege that the body of the trooper having been buried in the church-yard, the ghost rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head, and the rushing speed with which he sometimes passes along the hollow, like a midnight blast, is owing to his being belated, and in a hurry to get back to the church-yard before day-break.
Such is the general purport of this legendary superstition, which has furnished materials for many a wild story in that region of shadows; and the spectre is known at all the country firesides, by the name of The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow.
It is remarkable that the visionary turn I have mentioned is not confined to the native inhabitants of the valley, but is imperceptibly acquired by every one who resides there for a time. However wide awake they may have been before they entered that sleepy region, they are sure, in a little time, to imbibe the witching influence of the air, and begin to grow imaginative — to dream dreams, and see apparitions.
I mention this peaceful spot with all possible laud; for it is in such little retired Dutch valleys, found here and there embosomed in the great State of New York, that population, manners, and customs, remain fixed, while the great torrent of emigration and improvement, which is making such  incessant changes in other parts of this restless country, sweeps by them unobserved. They are like those little nooks of still water, which border a rapid stream, where we may see the straw and bubble riding quietly at anchor, or slowly revolving in their mimic harbor, undisturbed by the rush of the passing current.
Though many years have elapsed since I trod the drowsy shades of Sleepy Hollow, yet I question whether I should not still find the same trees and the same families vegetating in its sheltered bosom.
In this by-place of nature there abode, in a remote period of American history, that is to say, some thirty years since, a worthy wight of the name of Ichabod Crane, who sojourned, or, as he expressed it, "tarried," in Sleepy Hollow, for the purpose of instructing the children of the vicinity. He was a native of Connecticut, a state which supplies the Union with pioneers for the mind as well as for the forest, and sends forth yearly its legions of frontier woodmen and country schoolmasters. The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it might have been mistaken for a weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck to tell which way the wind blew. To see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him, one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield.

tarry v [ME tarien] - delay, procrastinate
linger v [ME lengeren, frequentative of lengen (to prolong) from OE [lengan] - pass a period of time in a leisurely or aimless manner, tarry
advert v [ME adverten from OF advertir (to notice) from Latin advertere (to turn toward)] - call attention, refer
stripling n [late ME possibly from strip (strip)] - adolescent youth
powwow n [Narragansett powwaw (shaman)] - council or meeting of Native Americans. Because trances were so important to the Native American shaman as a means of getting in touch with
spiritual forces the title powwaw, literally meaning "one who has visions," was accorded him.The word whose spelling was eventually settled in English as powwow was also used as the name for
ceremonies and councils, probably because of the important role played by the shaman in both.
nine fold adj. [nine ME from OE nigon + suffix -fold ME from OE - feald, -fald ] - multiplied by nine
gambols n - capers, romps
ever and anon idiom - now and then, occasionally
purport n [ME purporten (to set forth) from Anglo-Norman purporter : pur-, forth (from Latin pro- + portare)] – intended meaning
laud n [ME lauden from OF laude from Latin laudem, laus (praise)] - praise
embosomed v - embraced, enfolded, envelopped
wight n [obsolete ME, from OE wiht] - creature, human being
lank adj. [ME lanc from OE hlanc] - lean, gaunt, thin
weather-cock n - [ME from OE weder + cocc] - weather vane in the form of a rooster whose head turns to the wind
snipe n [ME probably from Old Norse -snipa as in mýrisnipa (marsh snipe)] - a shore bird with a long bill