Elsa looks him up on Google

_Elsa_

Elsa gets off the phone and decides to do some googling to learn more about this man. She remembers hearing the story of how he fell asleep for a long time but can’t remember all the details. She finds a good article and begins to read it.

‘In a village near the Catskill Mountains in New York lives a man named Rip Van Winkle – a kind neighbour and henpecked husband. He is dutiful and quick to help his friends and neighbours, and is well liked. In addition to his ‘termagant’ or fierce wife, he has children, including a son, also named Rip, who bears a strong resemblance to his father.

One day, Rip Van Winkle goes for a walk up the Catskill Mountains, with his dog Wolf for company. As he is about to descend, he hears someone shouting his name. A strange, short man with a grey beard appears, wearing antique Dutch clothes. He beckons Rip to follow him, and they arrive at a woodland amphitheatre where strange people are playing ninepins. They are also dressed in old clothes. The man who has led Rip here has a keg of alcoholic drink, which he shares with these figures.

Rip tries the drink, and takes such a shining to it that he ends up drinking too much of it, and he sinks into a deep sleep. When he wakes up, all of the strange figures have gone, including the man with the keg of liquor. Rip’s dog has also gone. The gun he’d taken with him up the mountain has gone, and a rusted gun is there next to him instead.

As he walks home, Rip realises his beard has grown a foot long. When he arrives back in his village, he meets people he doesn’t know, and who don’t know him. All of the shops and houses look different. When he goes into his home it’s to find that it’s rundown and deserted. Going out into the street, he finds that the pub he used to meet with friends outside has changed from the King George the Third to the General Washington.

Rip speaks with the villagers and asks if any of them know two of his oldest friends, whom he names. They tell him that those two friends have died. Rip asks them if anyone knows a man named Rip Van Winkle. They point to a man who looks just like Rip: his son, now grown up and resembling his father.

Rip’s daughter, also grown up, appears with a baby. Rip asks her who her father was. She replies that his name was Rip Van Winkle, but that he disappeared twenty years ago after he went for a walk in the mountains. They feared he’d been captured by Native Americans, or had shot himself. It turns out that Rip Van Winkle thought he’d slept for one night, but he had in fact been asleep for twenty years.’ (Source)

Elsa is very happy that she now knows his full story and she looks forward to chatting with him. 

Let’s continue – Rip is deep in thought

Start at the beginning - Tiffi & Elsa learn a lot about world history