Without Benefit of Ghouls and Goblins: A Sleepy Hollow Blog

The following idea first presented itself to me last year while reading the novelization. After enough time had passed for me to forget the small details, I wondered if Ichabod, Katrina, and Mary Archer had all at one point lived in the same small cottage. This idea was encouraged by viewing the film and seeing, what is in my opinion, Ichabod's unsettled reaction after learning of the archer in the back of the fireplace, as well as Katrina reenacting a scene previously acted out by his mother. The windows and doors of the exterior dream cottage are similar in their placement to those in Katrina's childhood cottage. However, the layout of the former is confusing. From the exterior, shown in the background whilst Lady Crane blindly searches for her son, the dwelling is a small, if undersized cottage. When we see the interior it has a long hall which affixes to his father's church.

There are many parallels between Lady Crane and Katrina in the film which are also noted in the Peter Lerangis novelization and The Art of Sleepy Hollow . The novelization goes into the greatest depth, often mentioning details that are changed or cut from the final film/script draft. An interesting variation found in the novelization is of Ichabod's first dream, the one in which he sees his mother blindfolded just as Katrina was the first time they met. In this version, it seems as though young Ichabod is interacting with Katrina, who later turns into his mother. "They had left him there to stamp out the fire. Only Gunpowder had stayed with him. Now he is safe in his room at the Van Tassels'. Katrina is in the house too, sleeping in her room. Not far away. In his dream she is even closer. She's blindfolded, the way he'd first seen her in the parlor. But she isn't there or in the Van Tassel manor at all. She is standing in a kitchen doorway - his family'...

The practice of magic is a recurring theme in Sleepy Hollow. In the film, five* women are sisters of the dark and light arts; Lady Crane, Mary Archer, the Crone, Katrina, and her mother. However, there is another who was taught magic by their mother, one who was also conditioned to fear its ways: Ichabod Crane. Young Ichabod in the novel is able to mimic a spell his mother completes before him. From the novelization by Peter Lerangis (page 66) "Milkweed seedlings. Millions of them. Filling the air, swirling like a snowstorm in summer. In the dream, he is far from the Van Tassel house, far from the awful events that brought him there. He is home again, in the woods behind the house, with Mother. She opens the milkweed pod and blows. The seedlings burst out. So many. They couldn't all have come from such a small place. It must be magic. He is giggling. The sound is high-pitched, like the pealing of a small bell. Mother hands him a pod and shows how to open it. He does, an...