often misidentified as a tale of the Brothers Grimm
or Hans Christian ANDERSEN, but it is, in fact, a
short story by Washington Irving, who also wrote
“THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW.”
The title character is a gentle, likeable, unam-
bitious man living in upstate New York Dutch
country some time prior to the American Revolu-
tion. He is married to a domineering, nagging wife,
and despite his willingness to work hard without
pay to help others, he has never been able to make
a financial success of his small farm or at any
other job he has attempted. Despite this, he is uni-
versally liked, even by the town’s children and
dogs, he appears to lead a completely contented
life, and his children seem perfectly happy to fol-
low his example.
Rip is driven from his home and later away
from his friends thanks to the intercession of his
wife, who is constantly berating him to make more
of himself. His final refuge is to take to the woods,
hunting with his dog Wolf and enjoying the peace
and quiet as he stalks squirrels and other small
game. One day Rip encounters a strange man in
the woods who leads him to others of his kind who
are playing an early version of the game we now
call bowling. They are an odd lot, but he risks
drinking some of their wine, quite a lot of it, in
fact, finally slipping into a deep sleep.
When he wakens he is alone. Even Wolf has
gone. He returns to the village, which is larger
than he remembered and filled with strangers.
Believing himself still befuddled by the wine, he
approaches his home, which is a deserted ruin.
The portrait of King George III of England has
been replaced by one of General George Wash-
ington. He discovers that he has been gone 20
years, during which time his friends have died or
moved on, his wife has passed away, and his two
children are grown. Although it is commonly be-
lieved that he was charmed by fairies, the story
actually identifies the company in the forest as
Henry Hudson and his crew, magically empow-
ered to live outside of time.
Irving anticipated with this story one of the
pervasive themes in time travel stories and tales of
sleepers wakened from suspended animation. The
disorientation that Rip Van Winkle experiences by
displacement in time is more unsettling than if he
had been moved through space to a distant land
with different customs. One of the particularly ef-
fective aspects of the story is that Rip recognizes
the subtle changes as well as the obvious ones. The
very pace of life has altered. Fortunately, he has lit-
tle difficulty in settling into his old role and, free of
his wife, does so. Contemporary readers might wish
for a more definitive ending, but Irving was con-
tent simply to present a wondrous situation and
describe its consequences. He did so with such skill
that the story has become a part of our common
heritage.Roberson, Jennifer(1953– )
During the 1980s fantasy fiction began to take
shape as a separate genre. Formerly, a significant
portion of mainstream fantasy was written by writ-
ers active in other genres, primarily science fiction
and romance, and it was marketed as a subset of
those fields. Now fantasy fiction was beginning to
develop its own corps of writers, and one of the
most interesting of these was Jennifer Roberson,
whose debut novel, Shapechangers!(1984), was the
first in what would be the eight-volume Chronicles
of the Cheysuli. The Cheysuli are a race with the
ability to change shape who share a magical world
with humans. Although for many generations their
relationship is friendly, that situation is altered at
least in part by the events that take place in this
opening adventure. One of the Cheysuli elopes
with the daughter of the human ruler, and years
later the shape-changers have been hunted to the
point of extinction by his vengeful soldiers.
Roberson added complexity to her created
world in The Song of Homana(1985). Although
the central plot involves an effort to remove a
usurper from the throne, it is the evolving relation-
ship between Cheysuli and humans, some of whom
hope to restore the old balance, that fully involves
the reader. The situation changes dramatically in
Legacy of the Sword(1986), with one of the shape-
changers poised to assume the throne, and in Track
of the White Wolf(1987) the new king discovers
that few trust him on either side. A Pride of Princes
(1988) is a less ambitious adventure, and Daughter
of the Lion (1989) is a rather predictable story
about a determined woman faced with an imposedRoberson, Jennifer 291