Depending on the legend, the Horseman is either carrying his head, or is missing his head altogether, and may be searching for it. Famous examples include the
dullahan from
Ireland, who is a demonic fairy usually depicted riding a horse and carrying his head under his arm, and "
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," a short story written in 1820 by American writer
Washington Irving, which has been adapted into several other works of literature and film including the 1949
Disney animated film
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and the 1999
Tim Burton film
Sleepy Hollow.
In Irish folklore The
dullahan or
dulachán ("dark man") is a headless, demonic fairy, usually riding a horse and carrying his head under his arm. Some versions of the story claim the
dullahan is the spirit of
Crom Dubh, a
Celtic god worshipped in Ireland until the arrival of Christian missionaries in the 6th century. He wields a whip made from a human corpse's spine. When the
dullahan stops riding, a death occurs. The
dullahan calls out a name, at which point the named person immediately dies. A similar figure, the
gan ceann ("without a head"), can be frightened away by wearing a gold object or putting one in his path.
In Scottish folklore The most prominent
Scottish tale of the headless horseman concerns a man named Ewen decapitated in a clan battle at Glen Cainnir on the
Isle of Mull. The battle denied him any chance to be a
chieftain, and both he and his horse are headless in accounts of his haunting of the area. Among the Highland
Scottish diaspora in
Cape Breton,
Nova Scotia, seeing the image or hearing the sound of a horse or headless rider is traditionally regarded as an omen of an imminent death within the family.
In Welsh folklore A number of stories of headless horsemen and women are also found in
Welsh folklore. The "Fenyw heb un pen" (English: The headless woman) who rides a "Ceffyl heb un pen" (English: horse without a head). Bryn Hall in
Llanymawddwy is said to have been haunted by a headless horseman which only came to an end when one of the Hall's servants discerned a message from the horseman identifying the location of a buried body. The body was said to be that of an illegitimate child fathered by the Lord of Bryn Hall. As Wales shares cultural similarities with Cornwall, it is possible that a version of the Welsh horsemen (or a Cornish equivalent) may have been what was known to the parents of Washington Irving, who originated in Cornwall.
In German folklore In Germany, headless-horseman stories come mostly from the
Rhineland. Rather than using decapitation, the headless horsemen killed their victims simply by touching them. They were
revenants who had to wander the earth until they had atoned for their sins, sometimes by doing a good deed for a stranger, but instead of showing their gratitude by shaking hands, the stranger and the horseman held a tree branch between them and the branch would wither and die rather than the stranger. Another version of the legend spoke of
Der Kopflose Reiter (the headless horseman), who would warn the living of impending danger and chase down and punish the wicked. note from the town of Berga, 1921, depicting the German headless horseman
In English folklore Dartmoor, an area in
England's ceremonial county
Devon, is said to be haunted by a headless rider. In
Arthurian legend, a figure known as the
Green Knight appeared before
King Arthur's court and challenged one man to come forward and strike him with his axe, warning them that he will strike them the same blow in a year.
Gawain, Arthur's nephew, accepted the challenge and beheaded the knight, who proceeded to retrieve his head and remind Gawain to meet him at the Green Chapel to fulfill his half of the challenge.
In American folklore In southern
Texas, stories of a figure known as "El Muerto" have circulated since the mid-1800s. El Muerto is said to dangle his head from his saddle, and his horse is variably said to produce lightning from its hooves as they strike the ground. It has been speculated that this particular iteration of the headless horseman was based on another legend in which a man was captured and beheaded for stealing horses. The man was then "made an example" when his killers tied his decapitated body to a
wild horse, tied the head to the pommel of the saddle, and sent the horse on its way. ==In popular culture==