The topic of this week’s The History Twins podcast is “Hulda: The Other Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, and storytelling duo Carla and Keyes discuss Hulda of Bohemia, the sharpshooting witch who is said to have saved Sleepy Hollow, New York during the Revolutionary War.
Each fall, tens of thousands of people from around the world flock to Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County, New York to visit the burial ground made famous in Washington Irving’s 1819 tale, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” In Irving’s tale of the Headless Horseman, a German soldier is said to return to the gravesite, in search of his head that was lost during America’s Revolutionary War.
The famous graveyard was also known for another resident, Hulda of Bohemia, a woman who lived in Sleepy Hollow during the 1770s. In Edgar Mayhew Bacon’s 1897 book Chronicles of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, he mentioned the woman whose basket weaving and healing abilities led to her being shunned as witch, while her skills as a sharpshooter made her a Revolutionary War hero.
Carla and Keyes also discuss the research and creative process that went into their presentation of Hulda: The Other Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which is performed throughout October at The Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow. This presentation is also being presented at various locations of the Westchester Public Library System under the name Hulda: The Witch of the Revolution, thanks to a grant from Revolutionary Westchester 250.
You can listen to the podcast on Anchor.fm here.
You can watch the conversation on YouTube here.
The History Twins podcast teaches that New York history is more than just dates and dead people. It’s for people interested in history, and the creative process involved in bringing history to life through performance. It is a production of Gentle Giant Music Productions.
You will find more stories at CarlaandKeyes.com.
For a full list of this week’s New York Almanack podcasts announcements click HERE.
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