The Headless Horseman

10/27/24 • 18 min

Join Kelli as she goes over the mythology of the Headless Horseman. Most of us associate the headless horseman with Washington Irving's book, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. But the idea of a ghostly rider looking for his head, or perhaps a decapitated ghost haunting local villages, goes all the way back to medieval Europe, perhaps even deeper into ancient Celtic mythology.
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Intro and Outro music credit: @nedricmusic
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Previous Episode

The Pendle Witches

Join Kelli as she goes over the Pendle Witch Trial of 1612, England's most infamous trial. 12 people from the Pendle Hill Area in Lancashire were accused of witchcraft in James I's England, a monarch who hated all-things witches and demons. Of the 12, eleven were put on trial, and ten were hanged.
But, like we saw with Salem, two of the main sources of evidence came from hearsay and children's testimonies. Worse still, a nine-year-old girl helped get most of her family convicted!
What happened at Pendle helped pave the way for the Salem Witch Trials. So for the 2024 spooky APHOUT season, let's take a look at one of the most well-known witch trials in English history.
Support me on my Patreon - your support helps keep this podcast going!
http://www.patreon.com/APHOUT
Follow the APHOUT YouTube channel!
Intro and Outro music credit: @nedricmusic
Find him on all streaming services and YouTube!
http://www.nedricmusic.com

Support the show

Next Episode

The Jersey Devil

Join Kelli as she goes over New Jersey's most famous cryptozoological son - the Jersey Devil. Though the Jersey Devil was the devil-born son of the Leeds Family, not much is known about it; it lives in the Pine Barrens, it looks like a weird, winged amalgamation of animals, and it was once "caught" and put in a Philly museum in 1909 (spoiler: they painted a kangaroo with stripes).
But beneath the myth is a real history - who were the Leeds family, and why is there a story about them birthing a devil? What did they do - and who did they annoy enough - to warrant this story?
So let's dive back into colonial-era New Jersey history to hear how what politics, the Quakers, almanacs, and Ben Franklin have to do with the myth of the Jersey Devil.
Support me on my Patreon - your support helps keep this podcast going!
http://www.patreon.com/APHOUT
Follow the APHOUT YouTube channel!
Intro and Outro music credit: @nedricmusic
Find him on all streaming services and YouTube!
http://www.nedricmusic.com

Support the show

A Popular History of Unpopular Things - The Headless Horseman

Transcript

The Headless Horseman
Intro
Welcome to A Popular History of Unpopular Things, a mostly scripted podcast that makes history more fun and accessible. My kind of history is the unpopular stuff - disease, death, and destruction. I like learning about all things bloody, gross, mysterious, and weird.
We’re continuing on with our 2024 spooky APHOUT season where the episodes are about all things Halloween - ghouls, vampires, demons, witches, and ghosts.
And for those of you watching th