Table of content introduction

Chapter ll. About the Rip Van Winkle story 
2.1 The plot of the story 
Rip Van Winkle, a short story by celebrated American author Washington Irving, 
was first published in 1819 without illustrations in “The Sketchbook of Geoffrey 
Crayon, Gent.” Best known for his popular stories of Rip Van Winkle and The 
Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Irving achieved acclaim in Europe and the U.S. over the 
course of his successful writing career. Rip Van Winkle was included in “The 
Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent” while Irving was living in Europe. Thus, he 
was one of the earliest American authors to survive merely on his writing. Irving’s 
stories have remained an emblem of American culture as they were some of the first 
short stories that aimed to entertain rather than educate. The two best known Irving 
stories- Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow have inspired artists to 
create beautiful illustrations like the one included in this print.The gothic story Rip 
Van Winkle tells of an ordinary 19th century man who lives in the Dutch Kaatskills 
(currently the Catskills of New York). He struggles with his nagging wife, Dame 
Van Winkle, and in an effort to escape her on an especially bad day, he flees to the 
woods with his dog and his gun. While in the woods, he meets a stranger who is a 
representation of the spirits of Hendrick Hudson, and is instructed to serve these 
spirits a precious drink. Tempted, he tries the drink as well and ultimately becomes 
7
Kammen, Michael. Colonial New York: A History. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1975. 

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so drunk that he falls into a deep sleep. When he wakes, he thinks that it is merely 
the next morning, but it becomes clear that 20 years have passed. He is now an old 
widow with Loyalist sentiments that show he is living in the past, prior to the 
American Revolution. The story ends with Rip Van Winkle living a peaceful life in 
the home of his daughter, finally free from his wife’s nagging.In this print, Rip Van 
Winkle has awakened from his deep slumber dazed, confused, and looking twenty 
years older. He treks through his old village with his long gray beard and shaggy 
clothes, ultimately making it to his house, which he sees is abandoned and aged. He 
notices a black dog that looks much like Wolf, but the dog snarls at him causing him 
to become sad at the thought of even his own dog forgetting about him. In the 
background of the print, one can see the Kaatskill Mountains, where Rip’s life was 
forever changed.Sarony, Major, & Knapp was one of the largest lithographic firms 
at the end of the 19th and the early of the 20th centuries. However, before it achieved 
this success it started out small in 1843 when Napoleon Sarony and James P. Major 
joined together to start a business. Later in 1857, Joseph F. Knapp joined the 
company making it Sarony, Major, & Knapp. At the time that this was printed, 
Knapp was not a part of the business, so it was just Sarony & Major.
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Felix O. C. Darley (1822-1888), the artist behind the twelve best-known illustrations 
for The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow, is considered one of America’s best 
illustrators. The publisher was the American Art Union, (1839-1857) a subscription 
organization created to educate the public about American art and artists while 
providing support for American artists. For $5.00 members would receive 
admissions to the gallery showing, a yearly report, and an engraving of an original 
work, as well as any benefits each chapter might provide. Two special editions of 
the story, each with a set of six of Darley’s illustrations were published; the special 
edition including this illustration was published in 1850. This print is bound with 
five others at the back of a rebound book. The cover is of the earlier Rip Van Winkle 
edition published for the American Art Union but the title page and text are of 
Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The location of New 
Netherland served as a wedge between English colonies to the north and south. This 
geographic factor, coupled with England’s commercial rivalry with Holland, 
combined to spur English efforts to gain possession of New Netherland. In 1664 
England succeeded in gaining control without bloodshed. When the English navy 
landed at New Amsterdam (present-day New York City), community members 
accepted the situation. They knew that their few soldiers were no match for the 
English and that their fort was too weak to put up serious resistance. The English 
8
Kenney, Alice P. Stubborn for Liberty: The Dutch in New York. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1975. 

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peacefully extracted a surrender from the colony’s Dutch governor, Peter Stuyvesant. 
Under the terms of the surrender, the Dutch retained full property and inheritance 
rights in the region.Dutch language and customs remained strong in the Hudson 
Valley for many years, particularly in small villages that served as the model for the 
one inhabited by the fictional Rip Van Winkle. The English made no attempt to 
impose their language or their king’s Catholic religion on the Protestant Dutch 
settlers. Dutch remained the primary language for many years in some parts of the 
Hudson Valley, while the Reformed Dutch Church continued as the region’s 
dominant church for generations. The compact size and relative isolation of the 
Dutch communities and intermarriage among Dutch families further contributed to 
the enduring influence of Dutch culture. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries, New York was primarily rural. The vast majority of the population lived 
in villages or on small farms, close enough to their neighbors to be in frequent 
contact. A strong feeling of community existed. Since farming was hard, time-
consuming work, social activities often centered around accomplishing some 
constructive goal: cornhuskings, for example, would make the task of husking the 
harvested corn a village wide event. Activities such as fishing and hunting, while of 
a sometimes recreational nature, were primarily undertaken to provide food for one’s 
family.
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Life was slow-paced and peaceful. Inns or taverns were often regarded by the 
community as places to gather and spend time conversing. They were an important 
focal point for a town’s social life. In New York City in 1772, for example, there 
was one tavern for every fifty-five inhabitants. The best taverns had rooms for 
musical parties, political meetings, or dinners; some of the larger ones even served 
as information centers, supplying newspapers from other cities.In the small villages 
of the area, which were often fairly isolated from one another, politics above the 
local level rarely aroused much immediate concern. As depicted in “Rip Van 
Winkle,” villagers only occasionally saw even an outdated newspaper. Irving 
captures the atmosphere at Rip’s village inn: “Here they used to sit in the shade 
through a long, lazy summer’s day, talking listlessly over village gossip or telling 
endless sleepy stories about nothing” (Irving, “Rip Van Winkle,” p. 64)Relations 
between England and its American colonies deteriorated in the mid-eighteenth 
century. Tensions exploded into the Revolutionary War, which lasted from 1776 to 
1783. The United States emerged as a new, independent nation based on the idea of 
republicanism, a political system in which power is distributed among the citizenry 
rather than held by a supreme authority such as a king. The success of the new 
government, therefore, depended on the nature of its citizenry. A republic could 
survive only if the population consisted of individuals who had a great deal of civic 
9
Kenney, Alice P. Stubborn for Liberty: The Dutch in New York. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1975. 

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virtue. People were expected to be informed and active participants in the serious 
business of politics. This attitude is alluded to in Irving’s description of Rip’s return 
to his village in “Rip Van Winkle”: the first thing the villagers want to know about 
Rip are his political opinions.The Dutch colonists utilized their native language to 
refer to places in their new homeland. Many of these terms remain in use today. The 
name of the Catskill Mountains and one of its streams, for example, comes from the 
Dutch term Kaaterskil kaaters means “wildcat”; kil means “creek.” The reference to 
wild animals serves as a reminder that the Catskill mountain region was quite a 
wilderness when the early Dutch settlers first arrived.In the actual history of the 
nation, friction between New York and the adjoining New England areas existed for 
many years, with frequent boundary disputes. The situation was worsened by the 
increasing numbers of New England farmers who moved to the New York area, 
attracted by the fertile, less rocky soil. After 1783 the influx became a torrent that 
almost submerged the small Dutch settlements. At that time more people immigrated 
to New York from New England than from anywhere else in the world. By 1820 
people joked that New York was becoming a colony of New England.The New 
Englanders, also called Yankees, brought a great deal of change to Dutch New York. 
Towns became larger and more populous. Yankee woodsmen eventually cleared 
most of New York’s forests, and Yankee businessmen led the expansion of trade and 
industry in New York. Traditional settlements were stirred into feverish commercial 
activity. Old Dutch families “resented this invasion by upstarts who…had no 
manners and chased dollars too avidly” (Ellis, p. 191).As one approached New York, 
the Dutch note grew strong and dense . . . Communipaw and Bergen, with its little 
Dutch church, might almost have been villages in Holland, Many of the roofs were 
high-peaked, with gable-ends and weathercocks, and on holidays the taverns 
overflowed with merry-makers . . . broad-hatted burghers with oxlike frames strolled 
about their fields or listened, pipe in mouth, to their geese and their swine. Seating 
themselves on their stoops at the end of the day, they silently smoked, while their 
[wives] knitted beside them....One saw on every hand the drowsy ruminant Dutch 
face.Indian and Dutch legends surrounding the Hudson River Valley and the Catskill 
Mountains provided Washington Irving with a rich source of material and played an 
important part in many of his writings, including “Rip Van Winkle.” For example, 
the Catskill Indians (also called Mohicans) explained that the Catskills were formed 
from a giant named Onteora, who angered the Great Spirit (Manitou) by carrying 
out a great deal of destruction and being disrespectful of the land and the people. 
Manitou punished him by transforming him into a mountain. His eyes became lakes 
and his tears were transformed into the flowing waters of Lake Creek. Another 
Indian belief held that day and night, as well as the region’s weather, were stored in 
the Catskill Mountains. Indian legends explained that an old spirit who lived at the 
highest point of the mountains controlled the weather, forming clouds and new 
moons every month and creating sunshine, storms, and rain. Other legends told of 
mischievous spirits in the Catskills who took the shape of animals and played pranks 
on the Native American hunters who roamed the mountains.The Dutch created many 
legends about the region as well. Boat captains sailing on the Hudson often lowered 
their hats in deference to the Heer, the Dutch goblin who was the Keeper of 

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Donderberg (Thunder) Mountain. The Heer carried a speaking trumpet (a kind of 
megaphone) that he used to give orders for the creation of sudden gusts of wind or 
claps of thunder when a storm was rising. Another Dutch legend, which Irving 
specifically drew on in “Rip Van Winkle,” attributed the thunder that came from the 
mountains to the noise of the late Henry Hudson and his crew bowling.The story 
opens with a description of the Catskill Mountain region and the pre-revolutionary 
Dutch village where Rip Van Winkle lives. An easygoing man with a wife and two 
children, Rip is well-liked throughout his village. He puts a great deal of energy into 
social and leisure activities such as fishing, hunting, and the village’s cornhusking 
and fence-building events and is always willing to lend a hand to neighbors who 
need help with odd jobs. The one flaw in his character is his “insuperable aversion 
to all kinds of profitable labor” (“Rip Van Winkle,” p. 61). He is unambitious and 
lazy and avoids the hard work necessary to keep up his own farm.Unhappily for him, 
this passive man is married to an industrious woman who is his complete opposite. 
His laziness and seeming inability to contribute to his family’s well-being upsets her 
tremendously. She berates and nags him constantly, and is described as a “shrew” 
who certainly is the dominating force in their marriage. Rip, the “henpecked” 
husband constantly under assault by his wife, finds life at home utterly miserable.Rip 
seeks to escape his unhappy home life on occasion by dropping by an inn where 
many of the village men frequently gather and talk. Dame Van Winkle sometimes 
catches him idling his time away at the inn. In such instances, she invariably orders 
him to leave. His last refuge in these cases is the woods, where he either rambles 
idly through the countryside or brings along his dog and gun for squirrel or wild 
pigeon hunting.One day, Rip wanders into the woods to escape his domineering 
wife. By the time he stops to rest, he is far into the Catskill Mountains and the sun 
is beginning to set. He is about to start back for home when he meets a strange man 
lugging a keg of liquor up the mountain. The man, who is dressed in the fashion of 
the old Dutchsettlers, gestures to Rip to help him; he agrees. After a long hike, they 
finally make it to a clearing where a number of other odd-looking men dressed 
similarly to the stranger are congregated. They are playing the game of ninepins 
(bowling), but the mood is very still and somber. The man whom Rip had helped 
earlier gestures for him to start serving the ale. Rip starts drinking himself and 
quickly passes out.It is morning when Rip awakens. His dog is gone and an old, 
rusty gun is in the spot where his clean and shiny one had been. Reasoning that the 
strangers must have stolen his things, he goes looking for them but finds no hint of 
their whereabouts. Returning to his village, he is surprised to find that he does not 
recognize anyone. The village seems larger, busier, and more populous, and he is 
astounded to discover that the village inn has become the Union Hotel and that a 
political election is taking place.Though Dame Van Winkle may be a “shrew,” her 
feelings about her husband’s reluctance to contribute to the upkeep of his farm and 
his family are understandable. Farming entailed a great deal of hard work, and a 
husband’s labor was essential to the success of the farm. Men typically spent their 
time working in the fields and were responsible for the overall care and concerns of 
the farm. Women were responsible for domestic tasks in and around the house, such 
as caring for children, cleaning, cooking, and gardening. If either member proved 

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unwilling or unable to meaningfully contribute, the farm could easily succumb to 
the many challenges of frontier life.Amazed, he realizes that he slept for twenty 
years up in the mountains, oblivious to the changing world around him. He learns 
that during his absence he became a citizen of a republic rather than a subject of a 
king. A crowd gathers around him, and he asks after his old acquaintances, most of 
whom are dead or gone. He discovers that his wife has recently passed away. His 
reaction to this news suggests that Rip cares less about his freedom from monarchy 
than his personal freedom from his domineering wife.Rip proceeds to tell the 
townspeople the story of what happened to him in the woods. Some dismiss him as 
a crazy person, but the older, more traditional villagers believe his tale, for according 
to legend, Henry Hudson and his crew gather in the Catskills every twenty years to 
check on the river and the region they discovered.Rip soon finds that his new life is 
in many ways preferable to his previous one. Old enough now to be idle without 
being criticized, Rip becomes an admired village elder and spends his time talking 
and telling stories in front of the new hotel.Rip Van Winkle and the Yankee 
invasionThe village Rip left was a small, isolated, sleepy, and tranquil place. The 
one to which he returns after his twenty-year absence is much larger, louder, and 
busier. The nature of these changes seems to reflect the influence New Englanders 
were having on the old Dutch settlements after the Revolutionary War. The negative 
way Irving depicts these developments shows his attitude toward them, for the 
village is portrayed as a less attractive place after the passage of the years.Old New 
Yorkers tended to resent the continuous influx of New Englanders into the Hudson 
Valley. A negative stereotype of the Yankees had already developed by the time 
Irving wrote “Rip Van Winkle.” The typical Yankee was tall and thin, with a 
tendency to be nosy, talkative, cunning, and argumentative.Certainly, New 
Englanders held rules and laws in high regard and took politics very seriously. 
Ambitious and industrious, many New Englanders showed a deep concern for 
acquiring money and its attendant security. They were regarded as people who had 
an insatiable desire for change and improvement, of themselves and everyone 
around them. It was their constant restlessness, their search for something better, 
that brought them in great numbers to settle in New York and the Hudson 
Valley.These characteristics were seen by many of the Dutch New Yorkers as a 
threat to their stable social order. Traditional Dutch society was much more firmly 
rooted and conservative, easygoing and tolerant. In his description of Rip Van 
Winkle’s pre-revolutionary village, Irving interprets these qualities as positive ones 
and implies that the Dutch atmosphere had been peaceful and orderly before the 
post-revolutionary influx of New Englanders began destroying it. With regretful 
words, Irving describes “all turnpikes, railroads, and steamboats (as) those 
abominable inventions by which the usurping Yankees are strengthening themselves 
in the land, and subduing everything to utility and commonplace” (Myers, p. 410).In 
“Rip Van Winkle,” Irving brings out the contrast between pre- and post-
revolutionary society. The hero, Rip, is the antithesis of the industrious Yankee. He 
has a definite aversion to any kind of profitable work, preferring to spend his slow-
paced days talking, fishing, or hunting. Upon his return to the village, Rip is 
unconcerned about his new political status or the modern clamor of the elections 

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swirling around him. He is much more affected by news of his own personal freedom 
from his recently deceased wife. Further, the villagers he meets upon his return have 
a Yankee quality about them: in place of the old village patriarchs is a thin, mean-
looking man who speaks vehemently about political issues. The whole village seems 
busier, more industrious, more political. “The very character of the people seemed 
changed. There was a busy, bustling, disputatious tone about it, instead of the 
accustomed phlegm and drowsy tranquillity” (“Rip Van Winkle,” p. 74).Irving 
suggests, though, that while the past may be irrevocably gone, it is still important 
for people to keep a connection to it. Irving concludes the story by describing Rip as 
an important figure in the town, a patriarch and well-respected story teller armed 
with knowledge about the old days before the war.SourcesWashington Irving grew 
up in New York City immediately after the end of the Revolutionary War. There 
were a great number of residents of Dutch origin in the city and throughout the 
Hudson Valley. A number of living’s friends during his childhood were Dutch 
descendants who spoke the Dutch language fluently. Irving had a tremendous 
interest in history and legend, particularly about the Hudson River Valley, and he 
spent much of his childhood exploring the region. He was fond of visiting new 
scenes, and observing strange characters and manners. As he grew up, Irving would 
ramble around the valley, familiarizing himself with all its places famous in history 
or fable. He claimed to know every spot where a murder or robbery had been 
committed, or a ghost had supposedly been seen.In writing “Rip Van Winkle,” 
Irving drew on his intimate knowledge of the Hudson Valley Dutch and the legends 
of the region. His descriptions of the Catskill Mountains and Rip’s village were 
based on firsthand observations he had made. Elements of the plot—such as Henry 
Hudson’s appearances in the mountains every twenty years—were drawn from 
legends he had heard. The main outline of the story, though, seems to come from a 
German folktale that was published in 1800. According to the tale, a goatherd named 
Peter Klaus one day met a young man who silently beckoned for him to follow. He 
led him to a secluded spot in the Harz Mountains, where twelve knights silently 
played the game of skittles (a variation of ninepins). Peter came across wine there 
and drank some of it. Afterwards, he fell into a deep sleep and didn’t wake up for 
twenty years. Irving took this tale, placed it in an American setting, and used it to 
explore a uniquely American theme—the contrast between pre- and post-
revolutionary Hudson Valley society.Under various names (skittles, quills, ninepins, 
half-bowl), bowling has been played for centuries in many parts of the world. The 
earliest evidence for the game comes from an Egyptian tomb dating to about 5200 
b.c., when stone pins and balls were used. In Germany, records of 300 a.d. indicate 
that it was performed as part of a religious ritual. Priests there informed their peasant 
population that the clubs everyone normally carried for self-protection or sport could 
represent the heathen, the devil, or evil in general. A practice soon emerged wherein 
a club was stood in a corner. Its owner would then roll a large ball or stone at it. If 
the stone managed to topple the club, then the individual was cleansed of sin. Over 
the years various forms of the game developed that featured anywhere from three to 
fifteen pins. “Ninepins” became the most popular among the Germans and the 
Dutch, who introduced the game to America.Events in History at the Time the Short 

---

Story Was WrittenThe growth of American literatureAfter the Revolutionary War, 
the desire for a distinctly national literary culture grew in America. Even though 
the United States had gained its political independence from England, its cultural 
life was still dominated by British elements. The vast majority of literature in 
America, for example, continued to be imported from Europe.With the publication 
of The Sketch Book, a collection of short works that included “Rip Van Winkle,” 
Washington Irving became the first American author to gain both national and 
international literary acclaim. The Sketch Book was originally published in the 
United States in seven installments between June 1819 and September 1820. Within 
a month of the first installment, which included “Rip Van Winkle,” Irving’s work 
received high praise. In the American Analectic Magazine of July 1819, G. C. 
Verplanck wrote the following: “It will be needless to inform any who have read the 
book, that it is from the pen of Mr. Irving. His rich, and sometimes extravagant 
humor, his gay and graceful fancy, his peculiar choice and felicity of original 
expression, as well as the pure and fine moral feelings which imperceptibly pervade 
every thought and image... betray the author in every page....” Before long 
the Sketch Book was the object of praise in England as well. In a February 1820 
review that appeared in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, John Gibson Lockhard 
called Irving’s work the most graceful American writing he had yet seen and 
compared it favorably to English work of the time. English writers still set the 
literary standard, but Irving’s Sketch Book was the first American work that was 
regarded as comparable.Irving was already somewhat well-known for the work he 
had published ten years earlier in 1809: A History of New York by Diedrich 
Knickerbocker. The book’s fictional narrator, Diedrich Knickerbocker, is even 
referred to in “Rip Van Winkle.” The Sketch Book, however, became even more 
popular than the earlier work and firmly established Irving’s fame and literary 
reputation. The book was reprinted ten times between 1828 and 1848, in large part 
because of the enduring popularity of the “Rip Van Winkle” tale. Over time, the 
character Rip Van Winkle became one of the most well-known figures in American 
folklore. Joseph Jefferson staged a popular play about his story, and the French 
composer Robert Planquette even turned it into an operetta.The changing world of 
Washington IrvingThe Hudson Valley changed a great deal during Irving’s lifetime. 
Cities and villages experienced tremendous growth. New York’s population, for 
instance, quadrupled between 1800 and 1820. The Northeast also felt the effects of 
the Industrial Revolution. Power-driven machines began to replace hand-operated 
tools, a development that permitted the production of greater quantities of goods at 
faster speeds. Advances in textile machinery led to the building of the first modern 
factory by Samuel Slater in 1790; other facilities followed. The arrival of the 
steamboat, perfected by Robert Fulton in the Hudson Valley, and the construction 
of a number of major turnpikes helped promote the efficient movement of raw 
materials to factories and finished goods to markets. American inventions such as Eli 
Whitney’s cotton gin in 1793 also contributed to the growth of industry in the 
Hudson River region. The War of 1812 against Great Britain further fostered the 
development of native manufacturing since imports were effectively blocked by the 
British navy during the war.Although the Hudson Valley remained overwhelmingly 

---

rural and agricultural during Irving’s lifetime, he was witness to the beginning of an 
irreversible process of modernization. Many people were excited about America’s 
present and future. The traditional Dutch culture of the region began to fade, 
however, and Washington Irving was one New Yorker who felt a sense of loss at 
those developments, a feeling he expressed in “Rip Van Winkle.” In the tenth 
chapter of his book Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, the third-century 
AD Greek historian Diogenes Laërtius relates the story of the legendary 
sage Epimenides of Knossos, who was said to have been a shepherd on the island 
of Crete.
[9][10]
 One day, Epimenides followed after a sheep that had wandered off 
and, after becoming tired, went into a cave under Mount Ida and fell asleep. When 
he awoke, he continued searching for the sheep, but could not find it, so he returned 
to his father's farm, only to discover that it was under new ownership. He went home, 
only to discover that the people there did not know him. Finally, he encountered his 
younger brother, who had become an old man, and learned that he had been asleep 
in the cave for fifty-seven years According to the different sources that Diogenes 
relates, Epimenides lived to be 154, 157, or 299 years old.
[11]
 Multiple sources have 
identified the story of Epimenides as the earliest known variant of the "Rip Van 
Winkle" fairy tale. 
10
In Christian tradition, there is a similar, well-known story of "The Seven 
Sleepers of Ephesus", which recounts a group of early Christians who hid in a cave 
circa 250 AD, to escape the persecution of Christians during the reign of 
the Roman emperor Decius. They fell into a miraculous sleep and woke some 200 
years later during the reign of Theodosius II, to discover that the city and the whole 
Empire had become Christian.
[13]
 This Christian story is recounted by Islam and 
appears in a famous Sura of the Quran, Sura Al-Kahf.
[15]
 The version recalls a group 
of young monotheists escaping from persecution within a cave and emerging 
hundreds of years later.
[16]
 
Another similar story in the Islamic tradition is of Uzair (usually identified with the 
Biblical Ezra) whose grief at the Destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians was 
so great that God took his soul and brought him back to life after Jerusalem was 
reconstructed. He rode on his revived donkey and entered his native place. But the 
people did not recognize him, nor did his household, except the maid, who was now 
an old blind woman. He prayed to God to cure her blindness and she could see again. 
He meets his son who recognized him by a mole between his shoulders and was 
older than he was.
11
In Judaism, there is the story of Honi ha-M'agel, a miracle-working sage of the 1st 
century BC, who was a historical character but to whom various myths were 
attached. One of them recounts that Honi was journeying on the road and he saw a 
man planting a carob tree. He asked him: How long does it take to bear fruit? The 
10
Myers, Andrew B., ed. 1860-1974: A Century of Commentary on the Works of Washington Irving. Tarry-town, 
NY: Sleepy Hollow Restorations, 1976. 
11
Ainslie, Susan. (1994).