[Editorial] Do You Think Me Wicked? A Study of the Witches in Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Having grown up on Disney’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1949), there’s no denying that the most prominent characters in this spooky Halloween tale are the superstitious, cowardly schoolmaster, Ichabod Crane, and the local legend of the Headless Horseman, who has a penchant for chopping off heads.

When Tim Burton reworked the story into his 1999 movie Sleepy Hollow, he made several notable changes to the narrative to ensure it stood out as its own adaptation. Ichabod is now a police constable, the Horseman is being controlled as part of a deal with the Devil, and the women are no longer simply background characters and love interests. In fact, most of the women in Sleepy Hollow are witches, with each of them playing a key role in the story. Through these women, we get different representations of witches, each of which seems to fall into the common stereotypes set for women in the world of film. 

Lady Crane - The Mother

Perhaps the most important witch in Sleepy Hollow for Ichabod is his late mother, Lady Crane. Lady Crane died when Ichabod was just a child, and he carries her with him at every moment both figuratively, and literally, through a spinning cardinal toy she once gifted him. 

Ichabod often dreams of his mother, and while these dreams frequently begin as pleasant memories of the time he shared with her, they usually end up turning into nightmares as he remembers it was, in fact, his overly-religious father who murdered his mother in a bid to save her soul. 

Ichabod describes his mother as a “child of nature”, often seen doodling symbols in the ash of the fire, picking flowers, and dancing in the woods. Ichabod’s mind is only interested in reason and science, he doesn’t believe in the supernatural elements of the Headless Horseman to begin with, and yet he doesn’t dismiss the fact that his mother was a witch. Instead, he can separate the harmless witchcraft that his mother practised from the negative perception of witchcraft at the time. Sadly, this was something Ichabod’s father couldn’t do and he killed Lady Crane in the name of religion.

It turns out Lady Crane’s deepest magic lies in the cardinal toy she gave to Ichabod. He is seen twirling it at many points in the film, with the activity often helping to clear his mind and help him focus on the task at hand. In fact, as he’s about to leave Sleepy Hollow for good in the final act, playing with the toy gives him long enough to think and work out that the case may not be closed after all. Even in death, Lady Crane is there to care for Ichabod and point him in the right direction, even though science and reason may be telling him to look elsewhere.

Katrina Van Tassel - The Innocent

Even though she is the daughter of the most prominent man in town, Katrina Van Tassel is pretty open about her witchcraft, never really feeling the need to hide it, despite living in a religious community. When we first see Katrina, she is playing a game at a party, pretending to be a witch seeking out a kiss from the other players. And while the Pickety Witch seems a little sinister, Katrina herself is a perfect example of a white witch. 

This is emphasised by her pale blonde hair, and her white and cream costumes, which also add to her innocent and virginal portrayal. She stands out against the grey background of Sleepy Hollow and the dark costumes of the other townsfolk. She’s immediately marked out as different and this is only emphasised by her openness when it comes to her magic. In fact, in Katrina and Ichabod’s first real conversation together, she gives him a small spellbook to help protect him against the Headless Horseman. While Ichabod isn’t entirely convinced the spells will work, he sees they belonged to her late mother, and recognising their importance, keeps them in his breast pocket. 

Ichabod is drawn to Katrina and there’s no denying the similarities between her and Ichabod’s mother. Katrina points out a cardinal in the woods and draws similar symbols in the fireplace that Ichabod watched his mother make as a child. Ichabod also remembered his mother bathed in colour and light, compared to the starkness of the white and red church that his father killed her in. This is similar to the way Katrina stands out against the backdrop of Sleepy Hollow with her brightness. For Ichabod, both women are a shining light in the dark, so different from his way of thinking, and yet providing the support and happiness he needs.

The real bond grows between the pair when Katrina follows Ichabod and his assistant, Jonathan, into the woods to find the grave of the Horseman. While the rest of the town is too scared to help Ichabod, Katrina comes into the woods alone to assist him. Her strength and dedication to helping Ichabod give him renewed hope and strength. “Well, I am now twice the man, and it is your white magic.”

Described as a “strange sort of witch, with a kind and loving heart”, Katrina’s only desire is to cast spells for those she loves. She brews potions for Ichabod when he is unwell, and draws protection charms on the floor to keep Ichabod and her father safe. However, while Ichabod recognises Katrina’s white magic, his unfamiliarity with the symbols she uses causes him to believe that she is casting spells against him. After the death of her father, Ichabod thinks Katrina was the one controlling the horseman, though he believes that perhaps she was possessed into doing so. However, he does not accuse Katrina in front of the rest of the town out of fear of what would happen to her. He has seen firsthand what happens when people misunderstand magic and doesn’t want Katrina to suffer the same fate as his mother.

The memory of his mother is what leads Ichabod to check the meaning of Katrina’s symbols in her book, recognising that she was trying to keep him safe all along. Ichabod knows how important it is not to misread a witch’s intentions, after watching his father murder his mother after assuming she was practising dark magic. He realises he needs to trust Katrina, and all the magic she has done for him. Because of this, he replaces the spellbook in his jacket, which ends up saving his life later after he’s shot.

Crone Witch -The Hag

The Crone Witch is the stereotypical fairy-tale witch. She lives in a cave in the woods, secluded from the general population of Sleepy Hollow, casting spells and connecting with the other side. 

When Ichabod enters her cave to seek assistance in finding the Horseman’s grave, he notices a dead cardinal on the table. This marks the Crone Witch as a very different type of witch from Katrina and Lady Crane. It also makes Ichabod wary of her as his associations with the cardinal have always been love and happiness. While the Crone Witch doesn’t seem to have bad intentions with her spells, as she helps Ichabod locate the Horseman’s grave, her willingness to kill animals and contact the netherworld for assistance shows that her intentions may not always be pure.

The Crone Witch is Lady Van Tassel’s sister, and while they looked similar as children, the Crone Witch has lived most of her life solo in the woods, meaning the pair look very different now. Away from others and without the pressures of society, she has leant fully into the witch of the woods aesthetic, often hiding her face behind her black veil. In fact, this is partly a defence mechanism to scare others away from her cave, as the townsfolk already think the woods are a haunted place. While Lady Van Tassel’s plan involves her making her way into the beds of others to get what she wants, the Crone Witch simply wants to be left alone, and so does not play up the stereotypes of feminine attractiveness as her sister has.

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Lady Mary Van Tassel - The Evil Stepmother

Lady Van Tassel is stepmother to Katrina and keeps her talent for witchcraft hidden until the final act. The first hint we get about her witchy ways is when she tells her husband she will go and pick some wild arrowroot to bind her injured hand with. While this may not seem like particularly magical behaviour, female healers were often the first to be accused of witchcraft. However, the fact Sleepy Hollow has a practising midwife, Beth Killian, who is seen dishing out herbs to a pregnant woman in one scene suggests that the townspeople accept natural healing.

However, we soon find out that Lady Van Tassel is a fairly experienced witch, and it is her that has been casting spells to bring the Horseman back from the dead every night to do her bidding. Much like Katrina, Lady Van Tassel’s magical knowledge was passed down to her by her mother, which is where the Crone Witch learned the craft as well.

After the death of her father, Lady Van Tassel’s family were evicted from their cottage, with everyone in town refusing to help them because her mother had been accused of witchcraft. While the town seems a little more understanding when it comes to witchcraft these days, their past prejudice means that Lady Van Tassel has been working on a plan to get her revenge for the past couple of decades. 

The problem with practising witchcraft that Lady Van Tassel seems to forget is the fact that every spell you cast and everything you put out into the universe comes back to you threefold. Katrina casts protection spells to save those she loves, and in the end, it means Ichabod is still alive to save her from the Horseman. Her good karma comes back and saves her life. However, Lady Van Tassel has been putting nothing but hate and murder out into the universe. So, when Ichabod returns the Horseman’s head, the first thing he does is get his revenge on Lady Van Tassel, dragging her down to Hell with him.

There’s a Little Witch in All of Us

Sleepy Hollow shows that there isn’t simply one type of witch or one reason for casting spells. Each of these women has a very different reason for turning to magic and exploring the wonders of nature. 

Lady Crane wants to bring something different into her and Ichabod’s world that isn’t the sterile, religious approach that his father takes to life. Katrina, having already lost her mother, wants to protect those that she loves and spare herself any more pain. Having learnt witchcraft from their mother, the Crone Witch and Lady Van Tassel both carry on the craft, but with very different intentions. While the Crone Witch wants to hide from Sleepy Hollow and practise her craft in private, Lady Van Tassel wants to use her power to hurt as many people as possible.

In a time where many women felt powerless, it makes sense that they would turn to witchcraft and use the power in themselves to help control their lives, rather than always being controlled by the men around them.

While the men of the town seem to get things done by having secret meetings in hushed tones, lying to each other, and fighting in public, the witches of Sleepy Hollow are sole practitioners, taking matters into their own hands, and getting things done with the help of their cauldrons.

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