• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
Wytchery: A Gothic Cabinet of Curiosities and Mysteries

Wytchery: A Gothic Cabinet of Curiosities and Mysteries

A collection of gothic horror stories, urban legends, ghosts, haunted houses & other curiosities

  • Curiosity Cabinet
    • Journal
    • The Witch’s Gardener
      • A Grimoire
      • Plants
      • What’s blooming?
    • Pagans & Witches
    • Gothic Horror
    • Real Ghost Stories
    • History
      • Daily Life
      • Towns and Villages
      • sites
      • Events and Celebrations
      • Issues
  • Travels
  • Author
  • Hello
  • Shop
    • Shirts & Hoodies
    • Mugs
    • Books
    • Art Prints
  • Cart
  • Show Search
Hide Search
Haunted Travels in Washington Irving's Hudson Valley

The roots of American folk horror stretch way back … Fine art prints from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving

American folk horror stretches back to the colonial era and beyond. Native American folklore blended with the tales brought by the colonists, which Washington Irving blended into two tales which destined him, and our early mythology immortality.

Haunting and beguiling landscapes from one of the most beautiful regions of the world, available as fine art prints, satisfaction guaranteed, starting at $25

ABOUT THE PRINTS: This is a selection of images from the book, Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving, volume one of the Wytchery sketchbooks. The book itself contains over a hundred images (black and white in paperback, color in the digital version). This selection of prints are available from Wytchery Art, and if you poke around that site you’ll likely find any images from the book not included here. Prints come in a variety of sizes, printed on a variety of materials, from lustre, to gallery quality paper prints – Breathing Color Elegance, as well as canvas and metal. All prints are guaranteed, no questions asked.

The folk horror checklist

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle are deceptive. People seldom list those two stories as horror, likely because of the lighthearted tone, and the fact that horror in the modern age has become synonymous with violence and gore, rather than the supernatural. In fact, much of the time horror films of the sixties and seventies are now listed as thrillers, rather than horror. Even modern folk horror movies tend to be far more gore prone than the classics of the genre from the past.

So Washington Irving’s two contributions to the genre are usually overlooked. There’s no gore and far too much humor.

Then again, take a look at The Wicker Man, which often tops the list of British folk horror, which is not only full of humor and contains no gore, it’s a musical for god’s sake.

Let’s look at the story with an eye towards folk horror, and in particular, American folk horror. There’s an outsider, Ichabod Crane moving to an isolated rural village. As the action is set up we hear about ghosts – the white lady of Raven Rock, Hulda the witch, as well as a host of unnamed ghouls and goblins, as well as a smattering of native American folklore. The entire region however, is under the spell of  a headless horseman, which the entire village knows about. Irving does a masterful job of describing the terrors of the night, the fear of the unknown forest. The climax of the story takes place the night of the harvest celebration.

By definition, the story is folk horror, and predates M.R. James and his ghostly tales of rural British life by nearly a century.

 

View of the Hudson River in the Fog from Anthony's Nose, folk horror in the Hudson Valley
View of the Hudson River in the Fog from Anthony’s Nose. There are many sources for the name, Anthony’s Nose, though which is correct is lost to time. One of the most popular held that there was a river captain by the name of Anthony, with a rather large proboscis. A member of his crew happened to look up and remark as they floated past that the peak looked like the captain’s nose. “They’re about the same size,” he uttered, and according to some traditions, the name stuck.

Order a Print

 

View of Iona Island from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
Iona Island from Goat Road. Though it shares a name with that mystical island and retreat for ancient religious scholars in Ireland, it was actually named Iona because of a particular strain of grape once grown on the island. Produce grown on the island helped feed the Union army in the civil war. Iona later became a tourist mecca, then an ammunition dump during the twentieth century. Today it is a national and natural landmark.

Order a Print

 

View of the Catskills from Olana, the cradle of American folk horror
View of the Catskills from Olana, the house of Hudson river school artist Frederic Edwin Church, just across the Hudson.

Order a Print

 

View of the Pocantico River from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
The Pocantico River winds through Sleepy Hollow, and was the body of water bridged at the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow which Ichabod Crane was frantically trying to reach, believing as was common at the time, that a ghost can’t cross water. Here it is seen across the road from the bridge, as it makes its way past Philipsburg Manor.

Order a Print

 

Philipsburg Manor, in the center of the American folk horror landscape of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Ichabod Crane would take his dates for a stroll around the mill pond at Philipsburg manor after church on Sundays. Conveniently located just across the road from The Old Dutch Church, today it’s a living history park, which gives the visitor unique insights into life in the colonial era of the Hudson valley.

Order a Print

 

Traveling around the cradle of American folklore

Folklore traveled along the highways for most of history. From the bards of Ireland to Irving and Mark Twain, the traveler was the source of the news, as well as entertainment. It’s well known that Washington Irving had very little, if any experience traveling in the Catskills at the time he wrote Rip Van Winkle. His source for the folklore of the Catskills came from traveling up the Hudson by boat, in the company of among others, a trader who worked up and down the river. He had a wealth of native American lore which found its way into Irving’s writing.

Though New York had long been British in his time, he would still find echoes of its Dutch past, particularly in the more isolated villages and towns of the Hudson valley. Change comes slowly in those areas, where there is less of an outside influence, and families work the same land generation after generation. It’s this isolation, a clinging to the old ways which is an essential ingredient of folk horror, and American folk horror in particular.

To an outsider, who comes into an area where the people adapt to change slowly, the rules are different. Ichabod Crane brought a cosmopolitan air to Sleepy Hollow, which wasn’t particularly endearing to the locals. His altercations with Brom Bones could be seen as indicative of the struggle between the more cerebral urban life, versus the more earthy rural. Who comes ahead tends to be decided by if you’re more rural or city in your approach to life. Rural life was and in some cases still is, more susceptible to superstition and folklore. Fear is more likely to be contagious in a rural setting, and also more likely to evoke a quick and decisive response.

View of Washington Irving's home, Sunnyside from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
Sunnyside, The Home of Washington Irving, Irvington, New York. Irving bought the house several years after writing The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, though ironically, it was the family home of the Van Tassel’s which figure prominently in the story. Irving wrote that it was believed to be haunted in his time, and today it is believed to be haunted by Irving himself, as well as at least one of his nieces.

Order a Print

 

The Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, c. 1685, in the Fall. The church was the social center of the community, as well as the ultimate goal of Ichabod Crane as he was pursued by the headless horseman. Built by the lord of Philipsburg manor, its walls are about two foot thick.

Order a Print

 

Old Dutch Church of Kingston from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
The Old Dutch Church of Kingston. Kingston, at the southern most point of the Catskill mountains still retains several examples of Dutch colonial architecture, as well as most other other prominent architectural styles common to the east coast throughout American history. The archetypal architecture found in this region gives a similar ambiance to that found in rural European towns, connecting American folk horror, in particular with its British version.

Order a Print

 

Barn at Philipsburg Manor in Sleepy Hollow, a perfect setting for American folk horror.
Barn and Pumpkin Patch at Philipsburg Manor. Today the manor is still a working farm, with crops as well as livestock chosen for historical accuracy.

Order a Print

 

The mill at Philipsburg Manor, where an African American worker allegedly gave Washington Irving the folklore of Sleepy Hollow
“His greatest treasure of historic lore, however, was discovered in an old goblin-looking mill, situated among rocks and water-falls, with clanking wheels, and rushing streams, and all kinds of uncouth noises. A horse-shoe, nailed to the door to keep off witches and evil spirits, showed that this mill was subject to awful visitations.” Philipsburg Manor in Sleepy Hollow plays a part in Washington Irving’s writings. Irving wrote that one of the sources of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow was an African American worker in the mill, who was well versed in local folklore.

Order a Print

 

Though it’s seldom spoke of in the same breath of its British counterpart, American folk horror still lives on the surface

American folk horror didn’t end with Washington Irving. Instead, it’s grown more sinister over the generations. My introduction to it, in the 1970s was a tv movie, The Dark Secret of Harvest Home, based on a book by Thomas Tryon. This wasn’t a drive in B movie affair, but shown on national TV, over multiple nights, when most films filled a two hour time slot. This was the same era that brought us Children of the Corn, and even Satan’s School For Girls, all of which were set in isolated areas. The inspiration of Harvest Home might have been Fraser’s The Golden Bough, and the inspiration for Children of the Corn is warped Biblical, but both show a diversion from any traditional belief systems, reflecting something more local, intimately tied to the land.

This too hearkens back to Washington Irving and his two supernatural tales from the Sketchbook. In Irving’s stories, the folklore is quite often tied to specific places in the landscape. The white lady is found at Raven’s Rock. Hilda the witch lives near the spring. Council Rock is not only the place where native American’s met, but is imbued with it’s own folklore from that time as well

This could partly be a holdover from European customs, where stories are attached to locations, which help give the location a pedigree, a backstory if you will, which increases its importance over other locations nearby. Through these stories, a pile of rocks, a copse of trees can become a landmark. American folk horror takes advantage of these places in the same way as it does in Britain and elsewhere.

The flax maiden from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
Young lady demonstrating the production of flax in the barn at Philipsburg Manor.

Order a Print

 

Statue of Washington Irving, the first writer of American folk horror at Sunnyside, from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
Statue of Washington Irving at Sunnyside, formerly Wolfert’s Roost, Home of Washington Irving in Irvington, New York

Order a Print

 

American folk horror is celebrated each year at Horseman's Hollow in Sleepy Hollow, New York
Horseman’s Hollow, a seasonal theme park takes over Philipsburg Manor in the month of October. It’s the ideal setting for a rather fanciful interpretation of the dark American folk horror  and the mythology of Sleepy Hollow.

Order a Print

 

 

Plein air painter at Bastion Falls from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
Plein air painter at Bastion Falls in the Catskills. The Hudson River School of the nineteenth century was the first art school in the United States. Working throughout the Hudson Valley, the artists loved the rugged landscapes and waterfalls of the Catskills.

Order a Print

 

Folk horror belongs to all ages, but was kept alive by the older generation

Some years ago I was in Ireland, collecting folklore and stories about local musicians. I noticed a lot of the tunes had titles and stories which deal with Irish folklore, like that involving the little people. I asked Caohmhin Mac Aiodh, an expert on Donegal fiddle history if there were still people who believed in all of that. He was a few years older than myself, and said people of his grandparents generation and before quite often believed in them. I’m paraphrasing here, but by his parent’s generation is was less common, though it still held on with some of the rural folk. But by his generation it was rare, and usually accompanied by a wink if someone spoke of such things. This is something I saw myself growing up here in the states, which has more of a direct impact on American folk horror.

The more educated we became, the more urban versus rural, the more scientific minded our scholars became, the less we believed. The generations where he told me it was dying in Ireland, it was dying here as well. You can see that in horror films, where the source of the fear stops becoming something supernatural, and essentially became something violent. Till with films like Halloween and other slasher films, the only thing separating it from a crime/drama is the amount of gore. Even by the time of The Dark Secret of Harvest Home, the horror isn’t supernatural, but sociological.

It’s easier to be afraid or affected by a horror film or novel, if you were exposed to such things as a child, It’s easier to believe when we’re kids, and easier to find that dark fear instilled in us. Even if we stop believing as we get older, we can still conjure up that fear and remember.

 

Overlook Mountain near Woodstock, New York, in the Catskills, from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
Overlook Mountain was considered a sacred spot in native American lore, and its shadow hangs over the town of Woodstock. When musicians fled the craziness of New York City in the sixties and seventies and made for Woodstock, it was to enjoy a simpler, less hectic lifestyle. Overlook mountain was a source of inspiration to them, as well as previous artists who came to the Catskills.

Order a Print

 

Croton Point Park from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
Croton Point Park in the town of Croton on Hudson juts into the river and provides woody trails for recreation. A series of wine cellars at the park once held up to 30,000 gallons, and are the oldest cellars in New York, and quite possibly the United States. Eventually wine production ceased in favor of the more lucrative brickworks.

Order a Print

 

A Catskill stream from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
The trail up to Kaaterskill Falls traditionally follows the route Rip Van Winkle took into the mountains, where he met with a strange group of supernatural mountain folk, who provided the draught which made him sleep for thirty years.

Order a Print

 

Cascade in the Catskills from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
Kaaterskill Creek flows through the mountains which are named for it, falling in rushing cascades through the wilderness.

Order a Print

 

Kaaterskill Falls from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
Kaaterskill Falls drop 260 feet in two sections, making it one of the tallest waterfalls in New York and along the east coast. Tradition holds that it was here that Rip Van Winkle awoke from his long nap. Today the falls can be reached by a somewhat easy hike of less than a mile, uphill.

Order a Print

 

Bastion Falls from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
Bastion Falls lay at the foot of the trail up to Kaaterskill Falls, fed by the same water source. When rain is scarce it can slow to a trickle, but following a rain it becomes a series of small cascades, fanning out to create one larger one.

Order a Print

 

View from Rip's Lookout Point in the Catskills from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
View from Rip’s Lookout Point in the Catskill Mountains. Once a roadside tourist attraction, it now serves as the parking lot for the trail leading to Kaaterskill Falls.

Order a Print

 

Sunlight on the Catskills from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
The Catskills are known for mysterious light, mist and fog, shown hear near Tannersville on the Rip Van Winkle Trail.

Order a Print

 

Into Mink Hollow, a region besotted with American folk horror from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
Mink Hollow, near Woodstock, New York. The dense forest here was believed to be the home of an escaped mental patient, known as the Hermit of Mink Hollow. Later, Todd Rundgren was to take that name as the title for one of his most successful albums, recorded there.

Order a Print

 

Mist descending on the Catskills from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
Catskill Mountains, near Palenville seen from the Rip Van Winkle Trail.

Order a Print

 

American folk horror began in rural regions such as this farm with the Catskills beyond from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
A view of the Catskill mountains from across the Hudson, after crossing the Rip Van Winkle Bridge. Though the completion of the American canal systems brought in cheaper produce from the west, the countryside is still dotted with farms, a continuous tradition since colonial times.

Order a Print

 

Trail to Kaaterskill Falls from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving, an exploration of the roots of American folk horror
The trail to Kaaterskill falls is in places carved into the very rock itself.

Order a Print

 

The role of nature in folk horror of the Hudson Valley

By the time literature takes hold in Britain and Ireland, the landscape is well known, and fairly well tamed. While life might be hard, you at least had some idea what was over the next river, hill or mountain.

That wasn’t the case over here. At the time he wrote The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle, most of the continent remained explored. When he wrote of a band of ancient dwarves in the Catskills in Rip Van Winkle, those mountains were still shrouded in mystery. For some time after, in most cases, people know more about the Catskills of legend which he wrote about, than the actual region, even though it quickly became our country’s first tourist region.

One of the strokes of brilliance in the recent film The Witch, an excellent example of American folk horror, was to make the forest almost a character unto itself. To those early settlers, the forest must have seemed endless, both in distance and foreboding. Getting lost there could easily mean your life. Not only was it possibly to find yourself hopelessly lost, but there were plenty of wild animals, and native Americans who could spell your doom. And you didn’t have to wander into the forest, merely be close by. There was plenty in the forest to come into civilized areas and drag you back with it.

In a real sense, much of what folk horror is, are those same fears the earliest settlers had, which in some cases proved to be justified. In others, there were supernatural elements to those fears, which though harder to quantify, certainly remained with us well into the twentieth century. The recent rise in popularity means that those fears are safe for now, as a new generation of writers, filmmakers, artists and musicians are discovering and exploring these themes. It’s been written that in modern folk horror, there’s more of an emphasis on conservation of the land. Even where the land fights back against man.

But even in that, the theme is old. For isolated rural societies, adhering to the old ways quite often did so, because they feared change could upset the natural order. And that’s a modern concept, as well as ancient.

 

The Old Dutch Church and burial ground of Sleepy Hollow, legendary in American folk horror from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
The Old Dutch Church and Burial Ground in the snow. The folk horror of Sleepy Hollow centered around this church where several characters were named for Sleepy Hollow residents, some of whom are buried here in the churchyard.

Order a Print

 

Philipsburg Manor in the snow from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving, an exploration of American folk horror
Philipsburg Manor in the winter, viewed from across the frozen mill pond.

Order a Print

 

View of old New York City architecture from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
Though Washington Irving is best remembered now for a pair of stories with rural settings, his early writing career took place in New York City. The term Gotham was first applied to the city by Irving, who also started the tradition of calling New Yorkers knickerbockers.

Order a Print

 

NYC architecture from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
Much of old New York can still be seen by looking up when walking the streets of the city.

Order a Print

 

Statue of George Washington in New York City from Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving
On this spot stood the old city hall of New York city, notable for such events as the formation of the first Congress, Supreme Court, and Executive Branch and the enactment of the Bill of Rights. George Washington’s inauguration took place here, and he gave a speech from the balcony of the building. The original building was brought down in 1812 and replaced with the current structure. Today the building houses a museum dedicated to Washington and New York’s place in the early history of our nation.

Order a Print

 

Available now from Blurb! Coming December 1st on Amazon in book and digital format

Haunted Travels in Washington Irving's Hudson Valley

Order by November 30 from Blurb and save $3.00

Learn More

You might find these interesting

  • Haunted Travels in Washington Irving's Hudson Valley
    Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving ... The Sketch Books Volume One

    Journey from Sleepy Hollow to the Catskills, exploring the folklore, hauntings and magic of this…

  • Tip your hat to the Imp of Donder-Berg mountain, who still haunts the highlands of the Hudson River

    Donderberg Mountain overlooks the Hudson River just a bit above Sleepy Hollow and is in…

  • Daily Life of the American Colonies: Spoons

    We don't give a lot of thought to our silverware, a part of our daily…

  • Daily Life of the 19th Century: Patent Medications and Homeopathic cures at Washington Irving's Sunnyside

    Top: Medicine box beside Washington Irving's deathbed When you're touring a historic home museum, keep…

Tweet
Share2
2 Shares

November 3, 2019 By Todd Atteberry 1 Comment

Filed Under: Journal, Wytchery, Wytchery Fine Art Prints

About the author and artist

The haunted, macabre, the downright peculiar ….the curiously gothic world of Todd Atteberry

 

Gothic horror stories, haunted travelogues, a healthy dose of witchcraft, paganism, stone circles and ancient trackways.

Meet Todd

The Witch’s Gardener …

A look at witch’s garden plants, ideas, resources, moon gardens, folklore, herbalism and life with the witch’s gardener.

Enter The Garden

Gothic Travels …

Haunted travelogues, where to visit, where to stay, the history and truth behind the legends

Explore

Memento Mori

Remember you are mortal. T-shirts, hoodies and gaiters, Premium fabrics and fit, eco friendly and ethically sourced.
Wear Memento Mori

Visit the shop …

Offering Wyrd and Wanton T-Shirts, Long Sleeve Tees and Hoodies, Books and Fine Art Prints … Literary love tokens for children of the night.


Lets go shopping!

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. Haunted Travels in the Hudson River Valley of Washington Irving ... The Sketch Books Volume One - Wytchery: A Gothic Cabinet of Curiosities and Mysteries says:
    November 4, 2019 at 1:49 am

    […] Color Images and Prints […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Discover more

Haunted Travels A witch's garden Get Connected

Footer

Copyright © 2021

Keep In Touch

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Thank you for visiting

Want curiosities in your inbox?

Sign up to receive emails from A Gothic Curiosity Cabinet.