With a certain tone of romantic nostalgia, Washington
Irving describes the "fairy" Catskill [Kaatskill]
Mountains:
...every change of weather, indeed every hour of
the day, produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains,....they
are clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening
sky...they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which , in the last
rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of
glory.
Perhaps the most
memorable site is the "majestic course" of the "lordly Hudson" River that winds and
finally loses itself in the "blue highlands." For, with this scene, Irving conjures the
image of Henry Hudson and his crew members reappearing in the form of "a company of
odd-looking personages playing at ninepins" in the glen where Van Winkle finds himself.
One wonders if these are the men placed in a small boat in the cold Hudson Bay by the
mutineers of 1611 who were never heard from again.
This
sighting of the little figures who resemble those of an old Flemish painting establishes
the magical mood of the narrative as Rip drinks from the large flagons and becomes
overpowered by them, falling into his deep sleep of twenty
years.
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