Rip Van Winkle (1820)

Last night at supper we were talking about the various kinds of fey characters of human folklore, and the Spouse said Rip had spent his twenty years (relative) among hairy gnomes. I didn't remember that at all, so it seemed I'd have to read the story again. At thirty years remove from the original reading, all I could recall was the simplest plot: that Rip drinks among the fey, comes back to town 20 years later.

I'm glad I re-read it, because there's much more to the Irving telling. Kind of horrifically so, because the whole point of the story is that Van Winkle's wife is horrible. Really horrible. Such a shrew. I had no recollection of the fact that Rip was running away from her. Nor did I recall that the men he went among were so very hairy, nor that they were supposed to be Hendrick Hudson and crew. Nor did I notice the time the story was set: before and after the Revolutionary War, with the heroism of his former friends recounted.

The Spouse complained that Irving took a traditional story and nailed it to a specific time and place and made it such a very Catskill story. That didn't bother me, but oh, that wife! I feel suitably chastened on behalf of all my gender. The nerve of that woman, trying to make her husband provide for the family. She deserves the harshest punishment imaginable and stroking out while yelling at a peddler is pretty harsh.
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Last night at supper we were talking about the various kinds of fey characters of human folklore, and the Spouse said Rip had spent his twenty years (relative) among hairy gnomes. I didn't remember that at all, so it seemed I'd have to read the story again. At thirty years remove from the original reading, all I could recall was the simplest plot: that Rip drinks among the fey, comes back to town 20 years later.

I'm glad I re-read it, because there's much more to the Irving telling. Kind of horrifically so, because the whole point of the story is that Van Winkle's wife is horrible. Really horrible. Such a shrew. I had no recollection of the fact that Rip was running away from her. Nor did I recall that the men he went among were so very hairy, nor that they were supposed to be Hendrick Hudson and crew. Nor did I notice the time the story was set: before and after the Revolutionary War, with the heroism of his former friends recounted.

The Spouse complained that Irving took a traditional story and nailed it to a specific time and place and made it such a very Catskill story. That didn't bother me, but oh, that wife! I feel suitably chastened on behalf of all my gender. The nerve of that woman, trying to make her husband provide for the family. She deserves the harshest punishment imaginable and stroking out while yelling at a peddler is pretty harsh.
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After reading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and American folklore icon Ichabod Crane, I decided to continue the trend by visiting with another Washington Irving icon, Rip Van Winkle. Rip Van Winkle is another figure that I have "lived" with all my life through song, short films and the old-fashioned oral tradition and yet this is the first time I actually read the story itself. The lazy & henpecked Rip Van Winkle is so endearing and I am so glad that he got away from the shrewish Dame Van Winkle ultimately (I think he was glad too ;)!). I also think it is fascinating to speculate what it would be like to somehow sleep for 20 years and then discover a changed world upon waking....like Rip did when he fell asleep in Colonial America and awoke in the newly formed USA. Great read! ( )

Most know the story of Rip Van Winkle: a young man falls asleep in the mountains, awakes many decades later as an old man, and returns to his village where no one recognizes him. The story is a pleasure to read again because of the detail that you always forget: Rip's amiable laziness, his wife's frustration at their economic downward spiral, the men that sit outside the tavern smoking and 'discussing' local politics, the outfit of the mountain guy carrying the liquid refreshment. ( )

Rip Van Winkle is the classic tale by Washington Irving of a rather lazy man living in the Catskill Mountains of New York who fell asleep. On returning to his village, he is surprised to learn that he has been asleep not just overnight as he supposed but for twenty years. It's a classic tale that shows how much can change in a couple of decades. ***SPOILER ALERT*** The American Revolution had taken place. Many of his friends as well as his wife had died; others had aged almost beyond recognition. The village had grown, and many newcomers were there. Business had closed, and others had taken their place. *** END OF SPOILER*** ( )