Some of my favorite kind of heroes in stories are the unlikely heroes, the ones that aren’t bold, beautiful and obvious.  Ichabod Crane was a school teacher, and compared by some to a scarecrow that had abandoned his post in the fields.  He was not classically good looking, nor was he thought to be particularly brave, but he is the man we learn about in the story of the Headless Horseman.

I love Tim Burton’s version of this story, and if you haven’t seen Sleepy Hollow yet, you need to.  In this version, Ichabod is a detective, sent to Sleepy Hollow to discover who is behind the murders said to be done by the Headless Horseman.  Ichabod, a man driven by reason, refuses to believe that this is some supernatural event, and instead insists that there is a logical explanation for everything that has happened.

If I had been Ichabod, I would have been terrified.  Regardless if I believed the tales or not, someone was going around and chopping people’s heads off – not a person that I would be in a hurry to find.  The reason that I find this so fascinating is because the author takes the ordinary and makes him extraordinary.  Overall, I think my favorite kind of heroes/protagonist.

What about you?  Do you have a favorite hero?  Who is it and why?