I can figure out that some of you recall the character from 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow', but there is more to it than meets the eye. While the story-within-a-story (more on that later) paints the character with Germanic origins, the overall design and behavior of the character comes from Ireland. Known as the Dullahan, it is a faerie, specifially from the Unseelie court. 'Unseelie' is a classification of faeries and the opposite of Seelie (dur hey), which is mostly considered 'light' or 'shining'. In contrast, 'unseelie' would be 'dark' or 'forboding'. These faeries aren't necessarily good or evil, just go about their business with different attitudes.
Dullahan are headless spirits (with a possible headless horse) that roams the roads. They carry their head under their arms and wield a human spine as a whip. They seek out a person to die, with those that see them on the hunt marked for death as well. The only way to stop them was gold, even so much as a gold pin can cast them away.
As mentioned before, you recognize the Headless Horseman from 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow', an old American story by Washington Irving. The story plays out like an old wives' tale, set in a Dutch settlement in New York called Sleepy Hollow. A new schoolmaster arrived named Ichabod Crane, who managed to gain the approval of most of the town (especially with the women). 'Brom Bones', a likely guy and merrymaker, was a town rowdy who played tricks on Crane for some amusement. Both tried to gain the affection of heiress Katrina Van Tassel, who had a large fortune thanks to her father. On an autumn night during a town party, Bones told the story the Headless Horseman, a Hessian (German) soldier during the American Revolution who lose his head due to a cannonball and roams the woods to find it again or a suitable replacement. Crane, the rather superstitious fellow, took the story too well as he journyed back home at night. The next day, many said that he was whisked away by the Horseman itself, all that was left were his horses' shoes, his hat and a smashed pumpkin (which is said to be the Horseman's replacement head). Some believed it was another one of Bones' pranks, leading to Crane skipping town. Others believed it was the real deal.
This story has been redone and remade into many different forms, from the live action TV series 'Sleepy Hollow' on Fox, to the Tim Burton movie 'Sleepy Hollow'. The roles of Ichabod Crane and 'Brom Bones' may seem like typical 'good hero' and 'bad villain', but its a bit more complicated. Crane was considered by many to be a symbolism of Greed and Gluttony, often pilfering other people's food with a voracious appetite (as schoolmasters didn't make much during that time). Bones, meanwhile, wasn't necessarily thought of as that bad of a guy, though certainly rough and tough as they come. The Headless Horseman himself has retained much of the original characteristics from the story, especially behaviors fit for a Dullahan. The major differences being the pumpkin head it carries and often wielding a sword instead of a spine whip. No surprise since Irving would've used such a creature as inspiration for the Horseman.
I could fill up this post with a lot more of the 'Headless Horseman' iterations, but that'd be easy. How about some more of the Dullahan?
Before you start asking, this is from the anime/light novel 'Durarara'. It features a modern taken on the Dullahan named Celty Sturluson, which takes place in Japan. It gets a bit confusing plot-wise, as it likes to jump from person to person, detailing certain events during an episode. I'm mostly going off of a wiki-walk and trope trooping, for lack of proper phrasing.
Celty is one of the main characters, with the epitaph 'Black Rider'. She's a lot more modernized than the usual Dullahan, especially after being around for several hundred years. Her horse is now a motorcycle and her main weapon is a katana instead. Given all the years existing amongst humans, she has more of a 'down to earth' behavior than one would expect for such a dark being. Indeed, she spends some time dishing out vigilante justice to those that deserve it, though has misplaced her head in all the commotion. She can't exactly talk (you know, lack of head) and can usually communicate through cell phone texts.
It is actually a nice revision of a classic, not really too much stretch of the imagination, though I kind of wish I knew more about the series than a quick glance. Will make note of that later on.
Looking into a more recent series featuring the Dullahan is 'Monster Musume', or 'Daily Life with Monster Girl'. Just going to put it out there: this is a harem series where the main male character has a lot of women going after him. As you can tell by the title, all these women are actually monsters (at the very least, mythological creatures). You've got a lamia, a harpy, a centaur, a sentient slime creature, a mermaid, a drider (known as an Arachne in story) and now the dullahan.
A quick recap: in this world an Interspecies law was enacted when it was revealed to humans that monsters actually existed. A cultural exchange program was started up that allowed monsters to live with humans and vice versa. Our male lead, Kimihito Kurosu, not only ends up with the lamia by accident, but later manages to get more over a short period of time. It doesn't help that it was resulted in him getting into several accidents (not of his own fault, really). So, how does our dullahan representative fit in?
Lala (her name) ended up tailing Kimihito due to his apparent survival. Those accidents from before? His monster girl roommates can be quite destructive on him, but he keeps trucking along. As someone who embodies death, Lala tried to make it final, but ended up losing her head in the process (literally). Kimihito ends up taking her in as well once revealed that she is also part of the program. Eventually, its shown that she is fine waiting for Kimihito to pass on instead of just pining for him in life like the rest of the girls. After all, she is still a spirit of death.
Like before, I'm just summarizing a lot of stuff through wiki walks and the like. Not to mention that Lala doesn't appear for a good while in the series, so a lot is skipped over. Harem series aren't for everyone, which is fine. Lala herself gets a lot of the look and behavior down, aside from just being prettier for the series and some small changes (like a scythe instead of a whip). However, considering she isn't pursuing an active relationship (at this moment in the story) helps make her stand out even more compared to the girls. Ironic, considering she has sort of developed into a background character.
So, that was our look into some different takes on the Dullahan, or 'Headless Horseman', in today's pop culture. As you can see, it still holds a lot of the original details and characteristics. Whether or not the actual story they are in is general dark or light, the rider of the Unseelie Court still lives on. At the very least in Sleepy Hollow, if not in other stories.
Until next time...
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