A Brief History of the Headless Horseman & a Ginger Cake

It’s almost that time of year again when we all re-read and re-watch different versions of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

While the book has endured for over two centuries, the myth of the headless horseman has been around for centuries, since the Middle Ages, long before Washington Irving wrote his classic ghost story. English professors have surmised that Irving based his fearsome antagonist on a famous Celtic legend of a headless horseman who holds his head as he rides through the night forest. Since Irving’s father came from Scotland, there’s a good chance Irving was familiar with the myth of the demonic Celtic fairy known as the Dullahan.

According to old Celtic folklore, The Dullahan is a demonic fairy who rides an enormous black horse around with his head beneath one arm. He’s also referred to as Gan Ceann which, in old Irish, means “without a head”, and some believed he was the embodiment of the Celtic god Crom Dubh aka Black Crom. That name means dark, crooked one. Black Crom was an ancient Irish fertility god who required yearly human sacrifices in the fall, after the harvests were taken in. He was especially fond of beheadings because the ancient Celts believed that the head was the home or a person’s soul. If one fought another warrior, and believed him to be a worthy opponent, the winning soldier would take the other’s head as a sign of prestige. They might also attach that head to a pole near the warrior’s camp because of the belief that the head would scream when the enemy (the friends of the severed head) neared. Druid priests also believed that severed heads of worthy warriors were a source of spiritual power.

Anyway, after the Christians came and the old pagan and druid ways disappeared around the 5th century (thank goodness!), Black Crom came up with another way to get his sacrifices. Since he wasn’t allowed to inhabit a living person, he possessed the body of a soldier who had lost his head in battle. It was easy to do since Death, who’d been scouring the battlefield for souls, didn’t recognize the soldier without his head. (these myths always have logic issues), Now Black Crom as the Headless Horseman rides around at night until he finds the house he’s looking for. He stops his snorting horse by a door and calls out the name of the person about to die, drawing forth the soul. Sometimes he even waits at the point of death if it’s not in a home. He appointed himself death’s herald.

But there are rules the Headless Horseman must abide by. His head that he carries has limited powers to speak and only does so when he’s calling a soul. His head also has supernatural sight. He can lift his head to see across miles of fields until he finds the home of a dying soul. As one would expect, his appearance is as terrifying as the news he carries. He rides a huge black horse that snorts sparks and the head he carries has a twisted, rotted face that glows with the iridescence of decaying matter–almost like a rotting jack-o-lantern. He uses the head as a lantern to guide his way along dark wooded pathways. Some say he even carries a human spine as a whip (although I’m not sure how he can ride a horse while carrying a head and a spine).

There’s even a story that in certain parts of Ireland he drives a coiste bodhar, a silent carriage drawn by six horses that flies by so quickly, the friction from the wheels sets the brush along the sides of the road on fire. Because Black Crom’s sacrifices took place between the very end of July and early November (to coincide with different harvests being collected), he’s become associated with late summer through autumn. So it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Irving’s story was inspired by this demonic Celtic fairy.

Luckily, there are three countermeasures one can take to avoid meeting the Headless Horseman. First, on Irish feast days (especially those in the fall like Samhain/Halloween) stay inside with the curtains drawn. Second, if you must leave your house, carry something gold with you. For some unknown reason the Headless Horseman has an irrational fear of anything made of gold. Third, you could make him a ginger cake. I guess if you don’t have any gold, don’t know how to bake, and can’t stay inside, you’re out of luck.

While no one knows for sure if Washington Irving based his famous ghost story on this old myth, it’s certainly possible. And as a prize for reading to the end of this disturbing post, I’m attaching a recipe for a Ginger Cake. Irving went into great detail about the Van Tassel feast that Ichabod Crane attended with the hope of seeing the fair Katrina, the woman he loved. Included in that description was a ginger-cake (like the one that keeps the Headless Horseman away) that was popular during that time after the Revolutionary War. Here’s a brief description from the book:

There was the doughty dough-nut, the tenderer oly koek, and the crisp and crumbling kruller; sweet-cakes and short-cakes, ginger-cakes and honey-cakes, and the whole family of cakes.

~ The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

So to end this post on a happier note, here is my favorite recipe for Ginger Cake. I hope you enjoy it!

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