“Rip Van Winkle” is a tale, a genre of 19th century short fiction resembling a parable or a sketch and typically combining elements of realism and fantasy. However, Irving also interpolates an Old World fairy tale trope into his take on this genre. The conceit is familiar: An enchanted sleeper visits with supernatural beings and returns to a changed world. But Rip ventures not into a Germanic fairytale forest, but a distinctly American setting—the Appalachian Mountains; the supernatural beings Rip finds there are not fairies or gnomes or trolls, but the real-life explorer Henry Hudson and his crew. Irving creates a “historical myth” around a homegrown American hero. Nevertheless, Irving imbues the landscape of the Catskills with the sort of sleepy, magical qualities of European fairy tale forests. The mountains “change in magical hues” and their “hood of grey vapours” glows in the setting sun.

Irving envelops his folktale in real world historical narrative. The story’s framing narrative is that Geoffrey Crayon has found Rip’s story in the papers of a less than rigorous researcher—the deceased