The headless horseman

Humans have used animals as vehicles and as truck beds for thousands of years, and among the examples offered by Mother Nature's agency was the horse, which over time found another side job: fighting. A field in which the most important thing was a head on the shoulders (especially on the back of a horse), except for one group, whose name in this field was associated with decapitation.

This group, known as the "Headless Horsemen," was like the Nokia phones of folk culture, as there was no real culture behind them. They were a character who, although lacking heads, had many faces and names.

One of them, known by the stage name "The Gael Sean" (or the Irish Gaelic name), originates from medieval times and was described as a brutal figure who took souls, with most of his activity occurring in the evening hours.

People would often lose their heads without keeping them, probably because, around the sixth century, the inhabitants stopped offering sacrifices in honor of the divine meat-loving cousin. But the cousin, who may have been among the first descendants of two fathers who were also brothers, apparently also used their last name as a first name. These were the Brothers Grimm, who used their imagination and a perfectly unwarped world view, similar to test-tube fertilization for their stories. And so, according to them, if a person committed an act deserving of decapitation, like leaving vegetables unfinished on the plate or committing murder, they would remain headless forever in the afterlife.

This doesn't exactly sound like a family from the neighboring house, but there is some good in it, since these figures in Indian folklore are considered heroes, as they represent the souls of those whose illness changed their expiration and serve to protect the helpless.

One might think that they are the race of this family tree, but the central root and proof is that there is no need to recite texts or a head that tried to do so to be a good actor. This figure, who was the central head and neck of the movie Sleepy Hollow, was based on Washington Irving's story, which was probably inspired by a German soldier who forgot that in battles one must always keep their head, which likely led to him losing his own during one of the battles of the American Revolution. Ironically, this happened during Halloween.

This battle, known as the Battle of White Plains, took place about 8 kilometers from Sleepy Hollow, a town that likely inspired the scenery of the story, such as the "Dead Tree," which, according to sources, was the place where Joe Armada, accused of treason, was killed by local farmers, or the old church that, during the Revolutionary War, served as the resting place for many of its fighters. The jubilant assistant of the Headless Horseman was taken when the piles of dead horses from the battles were gathered.

As for the American cartoon character of Dr. Frankenstein as Sherlock Holmes, according to some claims, it was based on the name of Colonel Ichabod Crane, who fought in the War of 1812 and remained in the army for 45 years, unlike other claims that said it was based on two school teachers, one of whom was buried in the church of that town, and the other taught at a local school named Ichabod.

The stories of the Headless Horseman, although varied and different in nature, all teach the same thing: that history will never disappear and will always repeat itself in different forms, even if there is no head to wear them.