Irving foreshadows Ichabod’s encounter with the Headless Horseman by introducing the Horseman’s story early on. Irving describes the apparition and the effect he has on the populace:
The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted region and seems to be commander-in-chief of all the powers of the air is the apparition of a figure on horseback without a head. It is said by some to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper […] Such is the general purport of this legendary superstition, which has furnished materials for many a wild story in that region of shadows.
Hearing the story of the Horseman at the beginning of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” prepares readers to meet him once again, during Ichabod’s late-night ride. This passage also suggests that the Horseman is the subject of many local legends, a much-mythologized figure who stars in the area’s “wild stories.” By the time readers arrive at the story’s postscript, the tale of Ichabod’s race against the Horseman has become one such “wild story,” and Ichabod’s entrance into the local folklore is foreshadowed during the introduction of the Horseman.
