Cider and a headless horseman

DARCIE HENNARD/ Photo Edito

Children gathered around the stage as English professors and students read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow hosted by the English honor society, Sigma Tau Delta.

There was a brisk autumn wind blowing towards the Williams Center as a swirl of crisp leaves danced down the street. The English honor society, Sigma Tau Delta, hosted a collaborative reading of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

On Tuesday, Oct. 30, the moon shone high in the sky as English professors and young scholars gathered together in The Spot. This was the first event that Sigma Tau Delta has hosted this year.

Mulled cider soothed the throats of the attentive crowd. Pumpkin and ghost cookies whispered sweetly from their trays.

"I hope that a lot of professors and a lot of students [got] together and [had] fun reading collectively," said Jason Mellen, a junior English adolescence education major.

Members of the English Department, including Theodore Steinberg, Birger Vanwesenbeeck and Bruce Simon, took the stage together to read Washington Irving's classic eerie tale. Simon ended up chasing his toddlers around the stage most of the time which added to his performance.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, originally published in 1820, tells the story of the straitlaced schoolmaster Ichabod Crane. Ichabod competes with the town rowdy, Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, for the hand of marriage of 18-year-old Katrina Von Tassel.

One autumn night, as Crane is leaving a party at the Von Tassel home, he is pursued by the shadowy figure of a Headless Horseman. Supposedly a solider lost his head during the Revolutionary War and he continues to search for it on a nightly quest. Following the trauma, Crane escapes town, leaving Katrina to wed Brom Bones.

With each paragraph recited, the Sleepy Hollow characters became more alive. It was as if their spirits had been summoned and began to mingle and dance around with the night's guests.

As the final strains of Sleepy Hollow passed through the lips of the presenters, there was a faint rustling in the trees outside. It was as if the Headless Horseman himself could be heard galloping away on his steed.

--Reporting by Ann Marie Trietley, Special to The Leader