by of Tarrytown and its shadowy vales. Here we have a location of deep natural beauty and peace: "a little valley ... one of the quietest places in the whole world. A small brook glides through it, with just murmur enough to lull you into repose ... A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and pervade the very atmosphere." But, in Irving, surface appearances can be deceiving, as tragic hero Ichabod Crane soon discovers. The beauty of Sleepy Hollow is surpassed by the legends and folktales of haunted woods and ghostly apparitions; when the sun sets, the inviting valley becomes a mysterious womb filled with the unknown. As Ichabod leaves an evening party to trod the path home, he discovers: "The night grew darker and darker; the stars seemed to sink deeper in the sky ... In the center of the road stood an enormous tulip tree, which towered like a giant above all the other trees ... Its limbs were vast, gnarled and fantastic, twisting down almost to the earth ..."
             Ichabod Crane journeys through the well-lit vales of Sleepy Hollow by daylight like a true Romantic wanderer: Irving uses words like "tarried," "sauntering,"
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