rip van winkle theme essay

A Summary and Analysis of Washington Irving’s ‘Rip Van Winkle’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

First published in 1819, ‘Rip Van Winkle’ is one of the most famous pieces of writing by Washington Irving, whose contribution to American literature was considerable. ‘Rip Van Winkle’ has become a byword for the idea of falling asleep and waking up to find the familiar world around us has changed.

But what is less well-known, especially outside of America perhaps, is the specific detail of this most iconic of American stories. Before we offer some words of analysis, it might be worth summarising the plot of the tale.

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.

Rip Van Winkle also has a dog, Wolf, who is also put upon by ‘Dame Van Winkle’, Rip’s wife. Rip’s farm is a constant source of trouble for him, and the only pleasure he derives is from his regular meetings with other men of the village, who meet outside the local pub, named after King George the Third of Great Britain, to discuss village gossip and other topics.

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.

Rip asks his daughter what happened to her mother (Rip’s wife). Upon learning that she has died, Rip is relieved, so henpecked was he! At this point, Old Peter Vanderdonk, a descendant of a great historian, appears and corroborates Rip’s story: he says that his ancestor told of Hendrick Hudson, the great explorer who helped to found North America and after whom the Hudson River was named, keeping a vigil in the Catskill Mountains every twenty years with his crew. Rip’s visit to the mountains just happened to coincide with one of these vigils.

Rip settles down to watch his grandchild grow, and his son tends to the farm while Rip Senior enjoys his retirement. He eventually reacquaints himself with his remaining friends in the village, who take up their regular meets outside the pub, and Rip Van Winkle becomes revered as a village elder and patriarch who remembers what the village was like before the American Revolutionary War.

‘Rip Van Winkle’ is perhaps the most famous homegrown American fairy tale. It has supernatural elements, the idea of an enchanted wood, and focuses on simple village life, such as we find in many classic European fairy stories. But the mention of the pub’s name – shifting from King George the Third to General Washington – reveals that this is a specifically and unmistakably American tale.

‘Rip Van Winkle’, like many other stories which attain the status of modern myths or archetypes – Jekyll and Hyde and Frankenstein are two other famous examples – has become more famous as an idea than a tale, at least outside of the United States.

The story’s time setting is central: Rip Van Winkle goes to sleep before 1776 when the American colonies are still ruled by the British, and wakes up after the American War of Independence, which has succeeded in shaking off the British yoke and creating the independent nation of the United States of America.

Curiously, Washington Irving wrote ‘Rip Van Winkle’ in, of all places, Birmingham – Birmingham, England, that is, rather than Birmingham, Alabama. What’s more, Irving had never been to the Catskill Mountains which are so central to the story’s plot and atmosphere when he wrote the tale!

Nor was the central idea of the story – a man falling asleep for many years and waking up to find the word around him substantially changed – entirely new. Indeed, it was an ancient idea: the Greek historian Diogenes Laërtius, writing some 1,500 years before Irving, tells a similar story concerning Epimenides of Knossos, who fell asleep in a cave for fifty-seven years. The Christian myth of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, who fell asleep for two centuries to escape persecution, is another important precursor to ‘Rip Van Winkle’.

But the clearest influence was Johann Karl Christoph Nachtigal’s German folktale ‘Peter Klaus’. Like Irving’s story, it features a man from a simple village who discovers some strange men drinking in the woods; like Irving’s story, the hero falls asleep after partaking of their drink, and, like Irving’s story, he wakes up to find twenty years have passed. Why did Irving recycle this old plot device for his story about the American Revolution? And how should we interpret the story?

One interpretation is that Irving, through this light-hearted tale, is actually trying to downplay the American Revolution. Rip Van Winkle manages to sleep right through it, which is quite a feat when you think about what a noise there must have been. When he gets back to his village, although several of his friends have died – one presumably in the war itself – the others have survived, and he soon goes back to sitting and gossiping with them outside of the pub where they used to chatter together.

The name of the pub may have changed – to represent the shift from one George to another, from King George to George Washington – but life for these simple villagers is largely the same as it was before. Rip’s son is his ‘ditto’, or spitting image: the next generation is much the same as the last.

The humour of the story – chiefly in Rip Van Winkle being a henpecked husband – also supports this analysis of the story. If Dame Van Winkle is like Old Mother England, lording it over Rip (representing the American colonies), then her death is a blessed release for Rip, but nothing more momentous than that. He is relieved rather than anything more dramatic.

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1 thought on “A Summary and Analysis of Washington Irving’s ‘Rip Van Winkle’”

I remember this story from my childhood 😊 interesting analysis

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Rip Van Winkle — Freedom and Revolution in Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle”

Freedom and Revolution in Washington Irving’s "Rip Van Winkle"

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Rip Van Winkle

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“Rip Van Winkle” examines various kinds of tyrannical power: the tyranny of marriage, the tyranny of day-to-day responsibilities, and the more literal tyranny of King George III of Britain over his American subjects. The story poses various questions about how we can maintain our freedom in face of these tyrannies. By extension, the story also prompts us to wonder what “freedom” from tyranny means, what a “tyrant” really is, and how America and its citizens are especially in need of answers to these questions.

Rip Van Winkle ’s long nap has the primary effect of freeing him from three major kinds of tyrannies: the tyranny of government, the tyranny of marriage, and the tyranny of societal expectations. Before his sleep, he is a subject of King George III, the henpecked husband of the ever-nagging Dame Van Winkle , and a man in the prime of his life—he is physically able and reasonably expected to work. But he sleeps through the American Revolutionary War. When he wakes from his nap, therefore, he is freed of the King’s tyranny. Additionally, during Rip’s nap his wife dies after bursting a blood vessel during a tirade she was delivering to a New England merchant. Rip is especially ecstatic about this particular liberation from a tyrannical marriage. Rip no longer has to obey (or, more frequently, hide from) the commands of Dame Van Winkle. And lastly, Rip’s nap has aged him to the point when no one expects him to be productive or even busy. He can live unbothered by the King, his wife, or the expectations of his community. But the reader should note that after his nap, Rip goes on living much the same way he did before, suggesting that perhaps he was free even when tyranny abounded. Irving seems to be asking us if tyranny is really an insurmountable restriction upon living freely, or if it is merely an obstacle the free must overcome with persistence and creativity.

It is even suggested that Diedrich Knickerbocker himself (the fictional historian who narrates Rip’s tale) is exercising his own freedom by doing so. We are told his time would have been better spent pursuing “weightier matters,” but nevertheless Knickerbocker sticks to his hobby even in the face of critical scorn, economic failure, and the societal expectation that he should be doing otherwise. He freely “rides his hobby in his own way.” In this sense, “Rip Van Winkle” is not only a story about freedom, but also an example of freedom. Knickerbocker performs the very freedom about which he writes.

“Rip Van Winkle” was written in 1817, and published in 1819. The United States was still new, and had only recently endured the War of 1812, during which it was reasonable to question the country’s continued freedom from the British. Narratives about freedom would have addressed important questions the United States and its citizens had for their government and themselves. “Rip van Winkle”, for instance, seems to suggest that personal freedom is available to the individual regardless of external circumstances. Rip and the author who writes about him can then be seen as free in spite of the various tyrannies that threaten that freedom. This story about the persevering freedom of the individual would have certainly been interesting (and perhaps comforting!) to American readers in a time when the freedom of the collective nation of the United States of America was still perceived as fragile.

Tyranny vs. Freedom ThemeTracker

Tyranny vs. Freedom Quotes in Rip Van Winkle

The old gentleman died shortly after the publication of his work, and now that he is dead and gone it cannot do much harm to his memory to say that his time might have been much better employed in weightier labors. He, however, was apt to ride his hobby in his own way.

The great error in Rip’s composition was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor. It could not be from the want of assiduity or perseverance; for he would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and heavy as a Tartar’s lance, and fish all day without a murmur, even though he should not be encouraged by a single nibble…in a word, Rip was ready to attend to anybody’s business but his own; but as to doing family duty, and keeping his farm in order, it was impossible.

Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat white bread or brown, whichever can be got with least thought or trouble, and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound

His wife kept continually dinning in his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, and the ruin he was bringing on his family. Morning, noon, and night, her tongue was incessantly going, and everything he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of household eloquence. Rip had but one way of replying to all lectures of the kind, and that, by frequent use, had grown into a habit. He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, cast up his eyes, but said nothing.

He now hurried forth, and hastened to his old resort, the little village inn—but it too was gone. A large rickety wooden building stood in its place, with great gaping windows, some of them broken, and mended with old hats and petticoats, and over the door was painted, “The Union Hotel, by Jonathan Doolittle.” Instead of the great tree which used to shelter the quiet little Dutch inn of yore, there now was reared a tall naked pole, with something on the top that looked like a red nightcap, and from it was fluttering a flag, on which was a singular assemblage of stars and stripes…he recognized on the sign, however, the ruby face of King George…but even this was singularly metamorphosed. The red coat was changed for one of blue and buff, a sword was stuck in the hand instead of a scepter, the head was decorated with a cocked hat, and underneath was painted in large characters, GENERAL WASHINGTON.

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Rip Van Winkle

Background of the story.

Irving wrote this story during his stay in Birmingham, England. It was part of the collection of stories named The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. This collection helped proceed with a  literary career and gained international fame. Irving also explores the history and tradition of the Catskill Mountains through the tale of Rip Van Winkle. 

Historical Context  

Rip van winkle summary.

Diedrich Knickerbocker is an old man from New York who is interested in Dutch history culture. As the story begins, he has died and the story of Rip Van Winkle is found in his documents. It is set in a backward village dwelled between the Catskill Mountains. The village was founded by Dutch settlers. Rip is settled in that village. 

His farmhouse was hard-lucky so Dame Van Winkle has little reason to scold him for sluggishness that she does three times a day; morning, noon, and night. Over the years, things continue the same way even worse and Van Winkle’s only source to escape is to visit the inn. His only comrade at home is his dog named Wolf. And this buddy is also treated badly by the petticoat cruel Dame. 

Twenty years have now passed since his death. Van Winkle tells everybody that it is only a night for him which makes them crazy. About Dame, he learns that she has recently passed away. 

Finally, Knickerbocker concludes the story with an ardent note that the people of Catskills firmly believe the story of Hudson and assures the reader of the credentiality of Van Wink. 

Rip Van Winkle Characters Analysis

Geoffrey crayon, dame van winkle.

She is the wife of Rip Van Winkle. She is a bad-tempered woman who spends time scolding her husband for doing nothing and earning zero profit from the farmhouse to run their expenditures. 

Derrick Van Bummel

Nicholaus vedder, judith gardenier.

She is Van Winkle’s daughter with whom he lives after returning from the Catskill Mountains. He spends his life quite happily there with her. 

Rip Van Winkle, Jr.

Hendrick hudson, peter vanderdonk, themes in rip van winkle, freedom and tyranny  , constancy and change.

The actions of the protagonists lead the author to develop the theme of constancy and change. Rip Van Winkle is a personified constancy in Irving’s story. A lot of changes occur around him but he never changes. He remains simple, gentle and idle throughout the story.

History and Fiction

Volunteerism vs work for money, active vs passive resistance, labor vs productivity, rip van winkle analysis, narrative style.

The first characteristic of Irving’s narrative style is that he wrote it in simplistic prose. Through his narrative style, he points out the debate of reliability by removing the narrator. It has a factual tone and the story between fact and reality is narrated via an unreliable narrator. The good-natured Geoffrey Crayon is Irving’s narrator who tells the story of Rip Van Winkle. Irving introduces the historian Diedrich Knickerbocker and adds a new covering to the story. Knickerbocker is another level of segregation from Rip. Knickerbocker allegedly observes the events of the story.  

Local History and Mythical Narrative

Self identity.

Rip Van Winkle’s aim is to live the way he himself wants. The readers are informed that he is amiable and favorite in the village.” He is so good that he plays with the village children and would never refuse to assist a neighbor even in the roughest toil. The way people used to live in the past, he spends his time in the same way. He loves to hunt, fish and gossip with friends while sitting in an inn. This is the way of living Rip has chosen for himself and he refuses to give in and give up. 

When he comes back to the village, he never gives up his old past lazy lifestyle. After his return, he does not work. His grown-up daughter takes care of him and he spends his time as he used to do before a long sleep. Rip sits on the bench, meets people and tells them about his surrealistic story and adventure.

Overlapping of Time

When he wakes up after twenty years of sleep, the political turmoil of the townspeople is very much evident.  He is unable to comprehend anything in that situation. He could not understand the newness in everything. The kind of town he experiences after his sleep is busy and bustling.  Now the village has woke up, teeming with hustle and bustle, unlike the past sleepy village which was with its tranquillity. He kicks himself back from the crowd and things happening in the new town. He considers himself a poor man. 

Rip as an Anti-American

Rip has now become the free citizen of the United States of America and he is not a politician. What changes occurred in the state, did not leave an impact in Rip. He feels happy to be free. He stays away from the despotism and petticoat of the government.

Negative evasiveness of Rip’s Wife

In the beginning, Rip’s wife Dame Van Winkle is an unbearable nag, who insults her husband and forces him to work in his own farm for the good of his own family. Rip is not made to work for money. The author used the word “termagant” for Rip’s wife. She henpecked her husband and forced him to work on his own farm. If we take Rip as a protagonist of the tale then his wife Dame is undoubtedly the antagonist of the story. She insults him continuously and rebukes all day. 

Rip as Negation of Traditional American Hero

Rip believes in the labor, done voluntarily, not for profit or money. He is available to work 24/7 voluntarily for the neighbors. Even he happily helps them in building stone fences. He is eager to attend other people’s business. It is impossible for Rip to work for his own family. Perhaps, he could not survive in the post-revolutionary world But he does because he has reached that age in which people are meant to spend time idly. His daughter’s husband is a hardworking farmer, provides Rip shelter and takes care of him. In the final note, we learn that Rip goes on living the way as he was in the past. This shows the sameness, monotony and fatigue of his personality.

More From Washington Irving

Short stories.

Rip Van Winkle and Other Stories

By washington irving, rip van winkle and other stories essay questions.

Choose one story and explain how its epigraph contributes to it.

The “Christmas” section of the book opens with a line from a hue and cry given after Christmas ends every year: “But is old, old, good old Christmas gone? Nothing but the hair of his good, gray old head and beard left? Well, I will have that, seeing I cannot have more of him.” Although in their usual context, these lines are just about the yearly passing of Christmas, by placing it here, Crayon is emphasizing his concerns about change and his disappointment with the old Christmas rites no longer being celebrated. The idea of taking, at least, what one can get is depicted in the Christmas celebrations with the Squire, who keeps as much of tradition going as he can, despite making some sacrifices.

How does “Rip Van Winkle” deal with what became named "the American Dream"?

The protagonist of “Rip Van Winkle” seems completely antithetical to the American work ethic that is said to make Americans work toward the American Dream of prosperity, the possibility of raising oneself above where one was born through hard work. Rip instead loses much of what his family worked for, through pure indolence, and he shows absolutely no ambition, except an ambition to do nothing as long as he can. This life ends up working out for Rip, but the morality of the tale does not condone it, for Rip only ends up in better straits with the help of magic, which makes him sleep through his working years long enough to enjoy his undeserved retirement. In this way he is an American anti-hero who enjoys the American fantasy of a life of leisure, not the American Dream.

Compare Dame Van Winkle with Mary, Leslie’s wife, with respect to what it means to be a wife.

Dame Van Winkle is presented as the worst a wife can be, one who complains and offers nothing in return, not even showing pleasantness to the family dog. It is true that her criticism of her husband's indolence is justified, but she goes too far, and any wife who henpecks her husband too much risks turning him off from the relationship altogether. Mary, on the other hand, also has a husband who is incapable of supporting her in the manner to which they were both accustomed, but she, unlike Dame Van Winkle, supports him fully. They remain happily in love, even through hardship. Although both of these women are strong, each one is strong in a different way as she supports her family. Mary is exalted for making the relationship work, although one might hope she has more to her life than making a rural paradise for her husband.

Explain what Crayon might be recommending for England based on “John Bull.”

John Bull is presented as a character with a good heart who makes many mistakes and gets too much into others' business. Crayon seems to think that many of these mistakes come because John Bull is both generous and proud, which makes his actions very expensive. The possible metaphor here is that Crayon might be saying that England is overextending herself in worrying about her empire and colonies. Crayon’s advice to John Bull, and thus to England, is to focus on the domestic, or else Britain and its traditions will fall apart.

Explain what distinctions Crayon makes between Europe and the United States, and describe how well they hold up.

Crayon presents America as a youthful, exciting country, but one without much history, tradition, literature, or culture, while Europe’s age means that it has history everywhere, including living history in its cultures and traditions. This distinction largely holds throughout the book, although the history is not always positive—it can mean a significant lack of freedom. The exception is that when Crayon deals with American Indians, it becomes clear that America and Europe are fairly similar after all in relation to this third set of cultures.

Explain how Rip Van Winkle can be seen as a parallel to Crayon.

Rip Van Winkle is the extreme portrayal of an indolent man, a man who escapes from life in his imagination, and who has no responsibility. Because he is such an extreme figure, he is only able to maintain this lifestyle through supernatural means. Crayon is similar in that he has a highly dominant imaginative life which often gives him a means of escape and little responsibility, but not nearly to the same extreme. After all, Crayon has a great deal of leisure time as he travels. Since Crayon does something useful with his time, however, and can distinguish between fiction and reality, in Crayon we can see the positive side of the imaginative, leisured life.

What are Crayon's views about literature, writing, and authorship? Consider Crayon as a self-reflective author.

Crayon argues that, thanks to the mutability of the English language, mediocre works, published at greater and greater rates, will fall into decay, allowing new genius to flourish. True genius, however, achieves a mythical immortality for the work, the author, and even for his language. A writer must find his own material in the common things of human nature and human life in order to have a chance of such success, not just take bits and pieces from others. This is what Crayon does as a writer, valuing what romantic, private, rural, stories and histories show about people rather than focusing on what general histories about great political figures have to offer. Crayon claims that as a storyteller, his task is to spread as much pleasure as possible, but he makes sure to leave plenty of instruction in his tales for those who are interested to look for it.

Crayon clearly loves history, but it is not always a good thing in The Sketchbook . How can history have a negative effect?

While Crayon loves coming face to face with history, in certain of the stories he passes on, the weight of history can be restrictively heavy. In “The Spectre Bridegroom,” Baron Von Landshort lives beyond his means in order to live up to the traditions of his ancestors, but the draw of historical prominence will not allow him to give up his castle. His daughter also almost misses out on her true love because of an ancient feud with no modern relevance. Traditions reflect history, but if they are followed without any understanding of their meaning, they make history bind us instead of fulfilling us.

“Rip Van Winkle” is often read on its own, but it was originally published as part of The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. How does the story fit into the rest of The Sketchbook ? What themes from the book does it complicate, or what themes complicate it?

A major theme in The Sketchbook is the strength of the imagination and whether it should be allowed to overpower reality. It is rarely dangerous in The Sketchbook , but in “Rip Van Winkle” Rip's imagination is part of his escapism, which keeps him asleep for a generation. Crayon's other tales show that it is not necessary to pick reality if one can imagine something better, provided that one can stay aware of the difference and return to reality when it matters. Also of note is the relationship between Rip and his wife, usually in severe contrast to the other relationships in the sketches.

In “Philip of Pokanoket,” Crayon makes clear that history can be strongly biased. How can he take a biased story and make it unbiased without any additional sources?

Crayon might say that the facts are clear enough, even in the biased portrayal, that he can re-present them without the original writer’s bias. What Crayon does is change the perspective from anti-Indian antagonism to seeing the story through the experience of Philip and his defenders. Crayon’s desire to paint a fairer portrait of the American Indians, however, leads him to portray Philip as a kind of American-style hero who fights against the odds for the things he believes in. This version of history seems overly romanticized and biased in a different direction. Crayon is, after all, a storyteller and not the dry kind of historian.

Rip Van Winkle and Other Stories Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Rip Van Winkle and Other Stories is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What is the effect of Irving's reference to the Catskills in bot the opening and closing sentences of the story?

What do you mean by "bot"?

What are the first ten things that indicate the passage of time after Rip awakes?

) The condition of Rip's gun....

He looked round for his gun, but in place of the clean well–oiled fowling–piece, he found an old firelock lying by him, the barrel encrusted with rust, the lock falling off, and the stock worm–eaten.

2) Stiffness...

Rip Van Winkle

Rip Van Winkle has changed....

The appearance of Rip, with his long, grizzled beard, his rusty fowling-piece, his uncouth dress, and an army of women and children at his heels, soon attracted the attention of the tavern politicians. They crowded...

Study Guide for Rip Van Winkle and Other Stories

The Rip Van Winkle study guide contains a biography of author Washington Irving, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis of his major short stories including Rip Van Winkle.

• About Rip Van Winkle and Other Stories
• Rip Van Winkle and Other Stories Summary
• Character List

Essays for Rip Van Winkle and Other Stories

Rip Van Winkle literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving.

• Freedom and revolution in Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle”
• The idea of American identity in Rip Van Winkle
• Washington Irving: How Life Experience Shaped His Writing
• Rip Van Winkle's Romantic Heroism

Lesson Plan for Rip Van Winkle and Other Stories

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Rip Van Winkle and Other Stories
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Rip Van Winkle and Other Stories Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Rip Van Winkle and Other Stories

• Introduction

Rip Van Winkle

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A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

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Discussion Questions

In what ways is Rip Van Winkle distinctly American? In what ways is he a typical protagonist from folklore? Use textual evidence in your answer.

Is Rip a fundamentally flawed or fundamentally acceptable character? What do we know of societal expectations for men of the time from the text? In what ways does Rip meet these expectations and in what ways does he fail?

Research 1-2 other myths with the same plot as “Rip Van Winkle,” and compare the two. Examples include the story of Epimenides of Knossos, the story of “The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus,” the story of Honi ha-M’agel, Johann Karl Christoph Nachtigal's German folktale “Peter Klaus,” the Orkney folktale about the burial mound of Salt Knowe, the Irish story of Niamh and Oisín, the Chinese tale of “Ranka,” the Japanese tale “Urashima Tarō,” H. G. Wells’s The Sleeper Awakes , or Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder.” What elements are central to this archetypal myth? What elements did can change without altering its basic themes?

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