"Rip Van Winkle" is framed with commentary from an unnamed writer. Before the story itself begins, three paragraphs in brackets explain the story's origin: The tale "was found among the papers of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker," a man who dedicated much of his life to studying and recording the history of the Dutch inhabitants of upstate New York. Knickerbocker's published history, the narrator claims, is known for its "scrupulous accuracy," and the tale of "Rip Van Winkle," therefore, should be accepted as truth.

The tale itself opens with a description of the Kaatskill (now called Catskill) Mountains, beautiful and mysterious, at the foot of which is the village where the central character lives. The time is the late 1760s or the early 1770s, while the area is still a colony of Great Britain under the rule of King George III. Rip Van Winkle is a "simple...