I have a video about Pixies planned - still at early stages so I don't know quite what the shape of it will be yet but in my head it's a double episode.
This was nice to watch, I grew up near the border and it's true the area has a lot of macabre folklore. The thing about putting a stick in a window and having it come out chewed is a common theme. THey say the same about Spedlins Tower, which is another reviving tower not far from Lockerbie, although the basement there is said to hold a vengeful ghost of a man who starved to death in the dungeon, not a redcap.
Fantastic and terrifying. I was told as a child one more way to outfox the redcap. Turn your clothes inside out, if I put on a jumper the wrong way round I won't change it, lol better to be safe than sorry.
Yes I came across this strange detail in the research for this video. I left it out because so much Redcap lore is so dark and heavy that the image of someone turning their clothes inside out as a fix-all felt too light-hearted in contrast. It's such an interesting little detail too, but I just couldn't find a proper place for it to fit without disrupting the overall tone of the video.
@@BeastsoftheOldeWorld I can understand that indeed. I'm from a small island in Orkney so where this came from I've no idea, but it certainly scared the living daylights out of me.
Yeah I couldn't find any reason for it either - I guess not having a 'why' makes it even scarier when you're young! But it's funny you should say - Orkney is all I've been reading about for the last couple of weeks! Just today I finished my first draft of the script for an upcoming video about Selkies!
Really interesting. The Philippines also has these mythical red capped dwarves. People who have their third eyes opened, say that they still exist today. And the description of them align with those in this video.
That is interesting! I knew there were other Redcaps around the world (that behave very differently to these little terrors) but haven't heard of any from the Philippines!
If you didn't know left-handed people are always 10% of the population at any given time one reason is believed this as a norm is set as a counter to all the right-handed people
I’ve always wondered if there were any folkloric stories of Red Caps interacting with Blue Caps (the benevolent creatures who warn/try to save miners from collapses). Considering the dichotomy of Red vs Blue and malevolent vs benevolent, I’d be surprised if there weren’t at least *some* folktales featuring the two interacting.
@BeastsoftheOldeWorld seems more like a Demonic Entity that got called forth, entrapped in that form due to the nature of the summoning. There are some who believe that the form taken by a summoned creature has a lot to fo with expectations.
Yes, in a way it's a shame that this is pretty much the only surviving story featuring a 'redcap' - at least with a strong narrative, and that I'm aware of. As you say, in many ways, beyond being called a Redcap, it bears very little resemblance to the more traditional Recaps of border folklore.
Great work! Just found this channel. I have written an RPG (PnP/TTRPG) with European folklore and it's central themes. Your work is great source material for me when researching. Well done!
Great video! Subbed right away! Two questions about the story... Why did the Red Cap's scream not work the second time? Why was the Red Cap helpless when they beat his master? Looking forward to more content! Jenny Greenteeth?
It's a weird story and a very unconventional Redcap, so it doesn't really make much sense within broader Redcap lore, but the way I understand it: • the Redcap made a pact with Soulis which placed a protective spell over him that prevented him from being harmed by metal weapons, or bound (or hung) in rope. When people attacked the castle with weapons the spell came into play. • The reason the spell didn't work the last time was because the mob didn't bring weapons at all. There was nothing for the spell to work upon. • Redcap was helpless because he was bound by the pact he'd made with Soulis and the circumstances of his capture fell outside of what the pact allowed him to do. This is odd, as a more conventional Redcap would have had a field day! Glad you enjoyed the video! New content tomorrow! ⏳👀
Hooked on these videos at the moment,hoping you might do one about the woodwose,that half forgotten mythical wildman of old England.Not much around about the old chap!
It's always nice to see a story where the people ignore the cancellation clause of the spell and simply bypass it 😆. This perfectly demonstrates why you don't tell the people you're oppressing the exact terms of your dark pacts.
Hermitage Castle near Newcastleton in Roxburghshire, on the borders, was built in the 1240s by a Baron Nicholas de Soulis, known as Lord Soulis. A reputed necromancer and notorious torturer and black magician who was eventually burned to death in a barrel of pitch by his own tenants.He had a daemonic familiar who helped him in his evil works, named "Redcap Sly"...
The redcap feels interestingly similar to vampiric lore. - _Requires_ your blood to stay alive, leading to why they are likely distinctly evil (they prey upon people). - Long teeth, and leaves behind a large tooth when killed. - Able to unnaturally overpower and outrun a normal person. - Defeated by a holy symbol / scripture. It is neat seeing strikingly similar mythological traces set in a completely different creature. It almost feels like the original source of such lore is old enough to produce completely diverging mythology later on down the line.
I have heard it from a friend that if one offers the redcap a good solid slice of cheese and a glass of whiskey he turns out to be a really nice fellow, quite talkative. He does tell a different version of the story 😉
That story of Redcap Sly and William de Soulis is so good. I've never heard that one before, or even heard of a Redcap, but I love the style of the story. The regular prose being interspersed with a few impactful rhymes is a style of storytelling I wish we still did more often!
Well the story with the wizard proves the Redcaps can be killed in battle. 1. Sly wouldn't have screamed to make their weapons dull and melt if he couldn't be harmed by them. 2. He was powerless against the army of unarmed men and watched in horror. So the Redcaps aren't immune to damage. Then its better to fight than run since fighting you still have a chance to win. Maybe outsmarting is an option too. Nothing is said of their intelligence from this story.
I played City of Heroes/City of Villains, on the City of Heroes Side we had a zone where the Redcaps and Tuatha de Danann fought against each other every night.
One theory of how my family’s ancestors went from the Soules’ (soo-lay) of southern France to England and then America (a George Soule sailed on the Mayflower) and the modern Soule (soul) family was through Scotland where John de Soules (soo-lez) was hereditary constable of Scotland under King Robert the Bruce and his younger brother was William de Soules, constable of Hermitage castle. The dark wizard of your amazing video! The entomology and evolution of family names has always fascinated me, perhaps the direct descendants or family of William de Soules changed their name to avoid notoriety and moved to southern England? If you’ve never been to Hermitage it’s an incredibly eerie place, especially how the temp drops so dramatically as soon as you enter it’s stone walls.
Nice story. There used to be a plaque in the town I grew up in (Kilmarnock) that a Lord Soulis had been slain there in a skirmish between Lord Boyd and himself as Lord Soulis led a group of English mercenaries who were attempting to take Dean Castle, the local castle. Not sure of the date, but the story goes that Lord Boyd shot Lord Soulis in the heart with a crossbow from over the water.
Yeah it seems there were a few Lord de Soulises at one point - none of them appear to have fared very well. From what I can tell, a lot of their stories get mixed up, too: the historical Lord (William) Soulis from this episode was really sentenced to life in prison for treason, and was not a sorcerer. There was an earlier Soulis, Ranulf II, who was really murdered by his own servants, so he could be the true source of the tale.
My first introduction to what a redcap is was in D&D, where we only heard the sound of his iron boots in an abandoned mine where people were going missing. Party couldn’t see well in the dark and we got surprise attacked when it dashed at us, with us thinking it was someone swinging a pick, and it blindsided the rogue who would’ve noticed it by jump kicking her into a river that flowed through the mine, and then dropping another character in the next attack Needless to say, our group is terrified of redcaps even though we survived the encounter with it by using his boots against him and throwing him into the river after we got our companion out We didn’t find a body, so we spent the rest of the campaign going through the woods that were around the mine, expecting that he’d make a reappearance, but there were greater dangers than him in there…
Awesome!! Such a cool video! Great work. I'm from near Vancouver Canada 🇨🇦 but my background is part Scottish.. so this is really great to learn about Super entertaining.. love this kinda content.
If you're not spending your evenings diving into obscure folklore collections, I’m not surprised! 😅 The redcap is not a particularly famous mythical creature, but they’re certainly fascinating. Glad I could introduce you to them!
@BeastsoftheOldeWorld it's very much appreciated I've just stumbled on to your channel but I will be staying for the foreseeable my friend 👍 grate informative content is hard to find keep it up 👏👏👌
@@BeastsoftheOldeWorldnot famous? They're the first malicious fairy creature i heard of and are prevalent in games, books, and other media depicting dark fae
I play the Dungeons & Dragons game Neverwinter and there are redcaps to fight in quite a few areas. Thanks for explaining the lore about them, I always wondered about their history.
In the States here, we have deadly poisonous mushrooms with red caps. These mushrooms have been called all the lore names that were used in this video. I'm just curious as to if there is a connection between the creatures and the fungus..
Yes we have them here in the UK too, but I don't think there's any substantial connection. They're often linked together because of the shared red colour and a small degree of symbolic overlap but I’m not aware of any direct historical or mythological link. Still, always happy to learn more if anyone can shed further light on the topic!
The Navajo have a thing called skinwalkers, they are Navajo witches said to have one foot in the physical realm and one foot in the spirit realm making them impervious to physical weapons such as swords, knives, arrows, axes and even guns. However the Navajo believe that burning something sends it to the spirit realm and that by smudging your weapon of choice with ash allows your weapon to exist in both the physical and spiritual realms allowing you to kill the skinwalker with it. If these things are a type of spirit, then smudging your gun with ash should prove effective, if you buy into the Navajo claims.
Thank you for this, it was wonderful!!! Where do you get your images, I'd like to use a few on our Scottish Background we use for our TV (slideshow when not in use)?
Glad you enjoyed it! The images are pretty much all AI generated. It's not a look everybody likes but I think it gives the video a consistent style throughout. You could generate something similar yourself without too much trouble, or if you know the ones you want I can send them to you if you email me with the timestamps
@@BeastsoftheOldeWorld Thank you for the quick response! I like a few of them especially the one with the Scottish Bonnet, but I do not know how to email you, so I'll try to generate some on my own :)
Thanks for the comment! You're absolutely right-Hadrian’s Wall is located in Northern England. I mentioned it as a general reference point for a broader audience, to set the scene of conflict in the region, and since many people are more familiar with it than the lesser-known Antonine Wall. My focus in the video, though, is on the borderlands region, which has seen a lot of history tied to both England and Scotland, and where the Redcap legend fits in. Thanks for watching!
Iron Boots? I thought they had a weakness to iron? I was told a scrap of iron in your pocket could keep you safe from All Fae Spirits. It will anger the hell out of them, But they won't be able to approach or harm you if you carry iron with you?
Perhaps they carry iron insulated from their body by leather, wooden weapon hafts, etc, and use it against other fey. Like a human might use fire against another human.
@BeastsoftheOldeWorld Ok color me confused! I always thought that Red Caps are winter fae ,subjects of Queen Mab. And as such they should be: - vulnerable to cold iron and salt - bound by the rules of hospitality and unable to enter a mortals home unbidden - subject to the rule of three - unable to directly lie - bound by any promise they make Could it be that I am mixing it up with some fantasy rules like d&d?
There are numerous variations around the world that share the same name, but this video is specifically about the border folklore beast. As with a lot of British folklore, centuries of Christian mythology has adapted (and in this case possibly invented) mythic creatures and their characteristics, which is possibly why the Redcap doesn't fit well within traditional Fae boundaries. These creatures are constantly adapted in modern fantasy too, further obscuring their original attributes.
Aah this explains why lupus regina asked for red caps to visit the prince encampment outside the village. And why redcaps were feared in that game/world, gotta love overlord and the use of real life lore in that anime ^^.
Overlord was literally the first thing that popped into my head, but any lore Overlord has about them has been directly inspired by D&D. I adore the books and show, but in terms of the creatures in it, it is not that imaginative. Its basically a love letter to D&D. So, secondhand or second order inspiration, but not direct.
I've known of the name Red Cap since I was a kid and played Final Fantasy Mystic Quest on the SNES. There's a monster in the fire area that looks like a gnome type thing called a Red Cap but I never had any idea what it was based off of until this video like 30 years later.
I only know of the redcap from the older final fantasy games. If a human can't out muscle or out run a redcap, the games have seriously underplayed them as they are usually quite weak
Some of this stuff like the large tooth are so oddly specific. I'm curious how they came up with that particular detail and what the significance is even supposed to be.
Stephen Llewelyn has the story or Sir William de Soulis in his “The New World Saga” books when they crash land at Hermitage Castle. Fantastic read and a very interesting Easter egg
I have fought and bested, many a "Redcap" in "Dark age of Camelot" Their appearance actually matches the description here. They appear as angry, dark little gnomes, sporting a red "stocking cap"
There's old family lore from my mom's side about is being fea touched and descendents of the Leanan Sidhe. They say that's the only reason the Gille Fhaolain survived the battle of Sterling Bridge. We're still bloodthirsty blighters
Thats crazy, my mom says I described basically what the thumbnail looks like as a kid, I don't remember, but others have seen it too💀 red glowing eyes with a pointy nose, ears and sharp teeth wearing a red cap. supposedly i seen it crawling on the ceiling at night and started crying, and held on tight to my dad as soon as he arrived, don't remember any of that at all, but I also don't remember ever being at my mom's friends ranch either
Which mythical creature features would you like to see next? Let me know 👇👇👇
@BeastsoftheOldeWorld a lot to choose from. What about a video on Nixies, Pixies and Sprites. A lot of confusion in consumer land.
I have a video about Pixies planned - still at early stages so I don't know quite what the shape of it will be yet but in my head it's a double episode.
@@BeastsoftheOldeWorld Black Dog/Hound Lore would be very interesting.
Also wondering if you have any plans to cover significant hauntings at all?
Black Dog video is recorded and is a bit of a bumper episode, so look out for that soon!
Nuckelavee
Thanks for actually showing Hermitage Castle. Please, show more of the actual locations that correspond to the stories.
So fucking needy
This was nice to watch, I grew up near the border and it's true the area has a lot of macabre folklore. The thing about putting a stick in a window and having it come out chewed is a common theme. THey say the same about Spedlins Tower, which is another reviving tower not far from Lockerbie, although the basement there is said to hold a vengeful ghost of a man who starved to death in the dungeon, not a redcap.
Fantastic and terrifying. I was told as a child one more way to outfox the redcap. Turn your clothes inside out, if I put on a jumper the wrong way round I won't change it, lol better to be safe than sorry.
Yes I came across this strange detail in the research for this video. I left it out because so much Redcap lore is so dark and heavy that the image of someone turning their clothes inside out as a fix-all felt too light-hearted in contrast. It's such an interesting little detail too, but I just couldn't find a proper place for it to fit without disrupting the overall tone of the video.
@@BeastsoftheOldeWorld I can understand that indeed. I'm from a small island in Orkney so where this came from I've no idea, but it certainly scared the living daylights out of me.
Yeah I couldn't find any reason for it either - I guess not having a 'why' makes it even scarier when you're young! But it's funny you should say - Orkney is all I've been reading about for the last couple of weeks! Just today I finished my first draft of the script for an upcoming video about Selkies!
@@BeastsoftheOldeWorld Oh fantastic, I love the selkies. In the Summer you could hear them and they love music. So looking forward to this.
Often my clothes are inside out so I think I am ok... lol
Always been fascinated by the Leanan Sidhe myself. Thanks for the Redcap lore!
Really interesting. The Philippines also has these mythical red capped dwarves. People who have their third eyes opened, say that they still exist today. And the description of them align with those in this video.
That is interesting! I knew there were other Redcaps around the world (that behave very differently to these little terrors) but haven't heard of any from the Philippines!
I love how it's left handed. Being left handed was seen as something evil in various cultures.
If you didn't know left-handed people are always 10% of the population at any given time one reason is believed this as a norm is set as a counter to all the right-handed people
A lot ; disproportionately even Hollywood actors and actress are left handed check it out
@@MichaelBetsch-sl9bb left hand path
@@joeywantstoplay what's that left hand path
But it held the staff in its left hand so its dominant right hand is free to use.
Thanks!
Thank you! 🙏🙏🙏
I’ve always wondered if there were any folkloric stories of Red Caps interacting with Blue Caps (the benevolent creatures who warn/try to save miners from collapses). Considering the dichotomy of Red vs Blue and malevolent vs benevolent, I’d be surprised if there weren’t at least *some* folktales featuring the two interacting.
Worth looking into... 👀
@@BeastsoftheOldeWorld would be amazing to see you do a video on that if you find any!
Legend has it their ancient feud lives on as the crips vs bloods...
@@stilltoomanyhats Democrats and Republicans too lol!😂
Happened all the time in Compton back in the 80s
That Redcap Sly had powers way beyond the norm for his kind.
Yeah, not the most conventional Redcap of all time, that's for sure!
@BeastsoftheOldeWorld seems more like a Demonic Entity that got called forth, entrapped in that form due to the nature of the summoning.
There are some who believe that the form taken by a summoned creature has a lot to fo with expectations.
Yes, in a way it's a shame that this is pretty much the only surviving story featuring a 'redcap' - at least with a strong narrative, and that I'm aware of. As you say, in many ways, beyond being called a Redcap, it bears very little resemblance to the more traditional Recaps of border folklore.
I'd love to hear more Redcap stories though, if anyone has them / knows where to look for them! 🕵️♂️
@@BeastsoftheOldeWorldwith no way to run or fight, then I'm guessing there wouldn't be that many stories
Great work! Just found this channel. I have written an RPG (PnP/TTRPG) with European folklore and it's central themes. Your work is great source material for me when researching. Well done!
Glad you enjoyed it and that you can find this useful! Loads more to come too!
Great video! Subbed right away! Two questions about the story... Why did the Red Cap's scream not work the second time? Why was the Red Cap helpless when they beat his master? Looking forward to more content! Jenny Greenteeth?
It's a weird story and a very unconventional Redcap, so it doesn't really make much sense within broader Redcap lore, but the way I understand it:
• the Redcap made a pact with Soulis which placed a protective spell over him that prevented him from being harmed by metal weapons, or bound (or hung) in rope. When people attacked the castle with weapons the spell came into play.
• The reason the spell didn't work the last time was because the mob didn't bring weapons at all. There was nothing for the spell to work upon.
• Redcap was helpless because he was bound by the pact he'd made with Soulis and the circumstances of his capture fell outside of what the pact allowed him to do. This is odd, as a more conventional Redcap would have had a field day!
Glad you enjoyed the video! New content tomorrow! ⏳👀
Hooked on these videos at the moment,hoping you might do one about the woodwose,that half forgotten mythical wildman of old England.Not much around about the old chap!
Not familiar with this at all, but will definitely be doing some research - sounds interesting!
Keep it up buddy.
I am loving your videos.
Times for your channel to glow up.
It's always nice to see a story where the people ignore the cancellation clause of the spell and simply bypass it 😆. This perfectly demonstrates why you don't tell the people you're oppressing the exact terms of your dark pacts.
Hermitage Castle near Newcastleton in Roxburghshire, on the borders, was built in the 1240s by a Baron Nicholas de Soulis, known as Lord Soulis. A reputed necromancer and notorious torturer and black magician who was eventually burned to death in a barrel of pitch by his own tenants.He had a daemonic familiar who helped him in his evil works, named "Redcap Sly"...
YT ads are becoming a joke.
i know so freaking stupid
Drives me nuts
Love premium
I woke up half way through an ad of a full John Legend tune. I damn near threw my phone
@@diasalexandros6651 on the better side of YT ads, the entirety of the Lego Movie. On the bad side, there was a cult.
Be a great Highlander episode. The Highlander has to confront The Red Caps
This was awesome, thank you so much!
Glad you enjoyed it! Plenty more on the way!
The redcap feels interestingly similar to vampiric lore.
- _Requires_ your blood to stay alive, leading to why they are likely distinctly evil (they prey upon people).
- Long teeth, and leaves behind a large tooth when killed.
- Able to unnaturally overpower and outrun a normal person.
- Defeated by a holy symbol / scripture.
It is neat seeing strikingly similar mythological traces set in a completely different creature. It almost feels like the original source of such lore is old enough to produce completely diverging mythology later on down the line.
Great thought. Blood is life to a lot of things
I have heard it from a friend that if one offers the redcap a good solid slice of cheese and a glass of whiskey he turns out to be a really nice fellow, quite talkative. He does tell a different version of the story 😉
I too can be swayed by good cheese, so I totally understand.
Hinkypunks, Kelpies, Grindylows, leprechauns, Black Dog, Pooka, or Coblynau (to name a few).
You may see some of these very soon!
The picts had others these are gaels and Highland Dal riada beasties not true Scottish beasts
That story of Redcap Sly and William de Soulis is so good. I've never heard that one before, or even heard of a Redcap, but I love the style of the story. The regular prose being interspersed with a few impactful rhymes is a style of storytelling I wish we still did more often!
She had a raspberry beret...
And now you've got that ear worm in my head! 😁
@@SoonGone the kind you find in a secondhand store!
@itzybitzyspyder 😂Excellent 😂
Well the story with the wizard proves the Redcaps can be killed in battle. 1. Sly wouldn't have screamed to make their weapons dull and melt if he couldn't be harmed by them. 2. He was powerless against the army of unarmed men and watched in horror. So the Redcaps aren't immune to damage. Then its better to fight than run since fighting you still have a chance to win. Maybe outsmarting is an option too. Nothing is said of their intelligence from this story.
I played City of Heroes/City of Villains, on the City of Heroes Side we had a zone where the Redcaps and Tuatha de Danann fought against each other every night.
Scotland's scariest non-mythical creature is a Glaswegian with an empty bottle of whisky and the pubs are shut. 🤔😲 😅🤣😂
One theory of how my family’s ancestors went from the Soules’ (soo-lay) of southern France to England and then America (a George Soule sailed on the Mayflower) and the modern Soule (soul) family was through Scotland where John de Soules (soo-lez) was hereditary constable of Scotland under King Robert the Bruce and his younger brother was William de Soules, constable of Hermitage castle. The dark wizard of your amazing video! The entomology and evolution of family names has always fascinated me, perhaps the direct descendants or family of William de Soules changed their name to avoid notoriety and moved to southern England?
If you’ve never been to Hermitage it’s an incredibly eerie place, especially how the temp drops so dramatically as soon as you enter it’s stone walls.
I loved this story, awesome channel!
🙏
*sees redcap*
Me: "Jesus wept."
Redcap: *bursts into flames*
Are you a wizard?
Nicely done sir! *tips hat*
He'd more likely laugh in your face, then rip it off. Powries no nothing of Christianity, nor would they care if they did!
@@christopherwilson3242Agreed!
We're going to need that in ancient hebrew
Red caps are just old Scottish warriors told from the perspective of the British
Thanks very much Nick, from a new subscriber in Lancashire.
Liked and subscribed ❤
Nice story. There used to be a plaque in the town I grew up in (Kilmarnock) that a Lord Soulis had been slain there in a skirmish between Lord Boyd and himself as Lord Soulis led a group of English mercenaries who were attempting to take Dean Castle, the local castle. Not sure of the date, but the story goes that Lord Boyd shot Lord Soulis in the heart with a crossbow from over the water.
Yeah it seems there were a few Lord de Soulises at one point - none of them appear to have fared very well. From what I can tell, a lot of their stories get mixed up, too: the historical Lord (William) Soulis from this episode was really sentenced to life in prison for treason, and was not a sorcerer. There was an earlier Soulis, Ranulf II, who was really murdered by his own servants, so he could be the true source of the tale.
My first introduction to what a redcap is was in D&D, where we only heard the sound of his iron boots in an abandoned mine where people were going missing. Party couldn’t see well in the dark and we got surprise attacked when it dashed at us, with us thinking it was someone swinging a pick, and it blindsided the rogue who would’ve noticed it by jump kicking her into a river that flowed through the mine, and then dropping another character in the next attack
Needless to say, our group is terrified of redcaps even though we survived the encounter with it by using his boots against him and throwing him into the river after we got our companion out
We didn’t find a body, so we spent the rest of the campaign going through the woods that were around the mine, expecting that he’d make a reappearance, but there were greater dangers than him in there…
See... I'm just that kind of stupidly confident that I'm absolutely sure I'd be able to pet the Redcap Sly....
Excellent video!
Thanks! Really glad you liked it!
Awesome!! Such a cool video! Great work.
I'm from near Vancouver Canada 🇨🇦 but my background is part Scottish.. so this is really great to learn about
Super entertaining.. love this kinda content.
Really glad you enjoyed it! Quite a few Scottish beasties on the way over the next few months!
Great channel, love the video
🔥🤜💥🤛🔥
🙏
🤯 how can I be a 43 year old Scotsmen, and this is me just hearing of the redcap's 😊
It's not a lowlands thing we were picts this is a borders beastie
If you're not spending your evenings diving into obscure folklore collections, I’m not surprised! 😅 The redcap is not a particularly famous mythical creature, but they’re certainly fascinating. Glad I could introduce you to them!
@BeastsoftheOldeWorld it's very much appreciated I've just stumbled on to your channel but I will be staying for the foreseeable my friend 👍 grate informative content is hard to find keep it up 👏👏👌
🙏🙏🙏
@@BeastsoftheOldeWorldnot famous? They're the first malicious fairy creature i heard of and are prevalent in games, books, and other media depicting dark fae
“No weapon can harm me….except foot to ass”.
I play the Dungeons & Dragons game Neverwinter and there are redcaps to fight in quite a few areas. Thanks for explaining the lore about them, I always wondered about their history.
No problem! Glad you enjoyed the video!
In the States here, we have deadly poisonous mushrooms with red caps. These mushrooms have been called all the lore names that were used in this video. I'm just curious as to if there is a connection between the creatures and the fungus..
Yes we have them here in the UK too, but I don't think there's any substantial connection. They're often linked together because of the shared red colour and a small degree of symbolic overlap but I’m not aware of any direct historical or mythological link. Still, always happy to learn more if anyone can shed further light on the topic!
@BeastsoftheOldeWorld thats kind of what I was thinking. Still, thanks for the education and entertainment.
Redcaps are very interesting indeed
if the master dies in 1377 and the redcap unlocks the door every 7 yrs the next unlock will be 2028
Fascinating!
How about a vid on the BROLLACHAN, too? (This is also a scary creature from Scottish folklore.)
Don't know very much about these but always love finding a new beast to research!
Great video! I love Medieval lore and mythology. What is the tune that starts @30 seconds?
It's called Yonder Hill and Dale by Aaron Kenny. It's part of the RUclips music catalogue. Glad you liked the video!
"Are these Red Cap beasties bullet proof?", asks the American.
I think I've got one of these things in my lineage.
Hello from San Diego California.
The Navajo have a thing called skinwalkers, they are Navajo witches said to have one foot in the physical realm and one foot in the spirit realm making them impervious to physical weapons such as swords, knives, arrows, axes and even guns. However the Navajo believe that burning something sends it to the spirit realm and that by smudging your weapon of choice with ash allows your weapon to exist in both the physical and spiritual realms allowing you to kill the skinwalker with it. If these things are a type of spirit, then smudging your gun with ash should prove effective, if you buy into the Navajo claims.
@@Princess_Celestia_ Food for thought.
Maybe silver bullets would be effective against them.
@@Princess_Celestia_ the Navajo didnt have in hand a .50 cal rifle. Even superman staggers by those.
I remember discovering them in the comic Mage by Matt Wagner. They used slings with elf-shot, and wore just the caps and hobnailed boots.
Just happened across your channel and as I'm quite partial to folk lore and mythology decided to jump on board...👍🙂
Welcome aboard! Very new channel here, growing much quicker than anticipated, but plenty more folkloric deep dives planned and on the way!
@@BeastsoftheOldeWorld thank you, will be watching with eager anticipation of great things, best wishes and let the games commence 😉👍
"Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head" *Redcap poofs away* "Oh good I wasn't sure that one was going to work or not."
*Redcap poofs away, she-bears show up.*
Thank you for this, it was wonderful!!!
Where do you get your images, I'd like to use a few on our Scottish Background we use for our TV (slideshow when not in use)?
Glad you enjoyed it! The images are pretty much all AI generated. It's not a look everybody likes but I think it gives the video a consistent style throughout. You could generate something similar yourself without too much trouble, or if you know the ones you want I can send them to you if you email me with the timestamps
@@BeastsoftheOldeWorld Thank you for the quick response! I like a few of them especially the one with the Scottish Bonnet, but I do not know how to email you, so I'll try to generate some on my own :)
Finally RUclips recommends me something I'd be interested in. Really like this channel. I'm subscribed
Thank you so much for subscribing - I'm really pleased you like the channel! Loads more on the way! ⏳👀
Definitely subscribing after this. Reminds me of Fable Lore vids.
Welcome aboard!
' Unwelcome ' from 2023 is a hilarious horror film featuring Redcaps
Incorrect. Hadrians wall is in England. Northern England but still England. The Antonine Wall built after is in Scotland.
Thanks for the comment! You're absolutely right-Hadrian’s Wall is located in Northern England. I mentioned it as a general reference point for a broader audience, to set the scene of conflict in the region, and since many people are more familiar with it than the lesser-known Antonine Wall. My focus in the video, though, is on the borderlands region, which has seen a lot of history tied to both England and Scotland, and where the Redcap legend fits in. Thanks for watching!
The images remind me of the little troll in the Steven King movie "Cat's Eye". Still freaks me out.
I Love that movie!! The cat was great. So were all of those twisted stories.
Love the story and you now have a new subscriber
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!
I misread the thumbnail and thought it said "Redcoat" at first, and I thought, well...fair enough.
Redcap is a knickname for magic mushrroms that grow in that area, also the reason santa wears a red hat with a white tip...
Very interesting and also quite terrifying! Well done bro!
The imagery is brilliant 👏👌
Loving the stories too! Please keep em coming!!xx
Great story!
My first band's name was redcap. Named after these bloody little creatures
It is a goblin that wears a hat dyed with red blood. Usually the blood of what it has killed…Mean things they are.
Iron Boots?
I thought they had a weakness to iron?
I was told a scrap of iron in your pocket could keep you safe from All Fae Spirits.
It will anger the hell out of them,
But they won't be able to approach or harm you if you carry iron with you?
Maybe it's not actually fae, but something else?
Perhaps the iron boots slow it down, as terrifying of a thought as that might be.
Maybe the boots burn
Don't be daft, the iron boots are for training like Gohan or that guy from Naruto
Perhaps they carry iron insulated from their body by leather, wooden weapon hafts, etc, and use it against other fey. Like a human might use fire against another human.
I love when they are in stories !
Was a really good and interesting video but the mic and audio is really nifty and odd. Not sure if it's the mic or some weird audio programs lol
This was great
Papa smurf?!? Is that you?
Not papa smurf as those are bluecaps
@BeastsoftheOldeWorld
Ok color me confused! I always thought that Red Caps are winter fae ,subjects of Queen Mab.
And as such they should be:
- vulnerable to cold iron and salt
- bound by the rules of hospitality and unable to enter a mortals home unbidden
- subject to the rule of three
- unable to directly lie
- bound by any promise they make
Could it be that I am mixing it up with some fantasy rules like d&d?
There are numerous variations around the world that share the same name, but this video is specifically about the border folklore beast. As with a lot of British folklore, centuries of Christian mythology has adapted (and in this case possibly invented) mythic creatures and their characteristics, which is possibly why the Redcap doesn't fit well within traditional Fae boundaries. These creatures are constantly adapted in modern fantasy too, further obscuring their original attributes.
A rope of sand? Fiberglass rope?
Aah this explains why lupus regina asked for red caps to visit the prince encampment outside the village. And why redcaps were feared in that game/world, gotta love overlord and the use of real life lore in that anime ^^.
Overlord was literally the first thing that popped into my head, but any lore Overlord has about them has been directly inspired by D&D. I adore the books and show, but in terms of the creatures in it, it is not that imaginative. Its basically a love letter to D&D.
So, secondhand or second order inspiration, but not direct.
I wish there was no AI art in this video
@@tree4318 i think it works quite fine
@@tree4318 maybe there was
These narratives would be so much better with art created by human beings.
@ that takes money and no one does anything for free unfortunately
@@jacoleighwessels3104 I don't care how much it costs, people shouldn't accept this.
Looks like Santa's toy makers have finally been fed up.
Shackles of sifted sand, that could be clay or glass? Shackles of glass
That’s what I was thinking, could he possibly be bound with a fiber optic cable? A cable made of glass.
4:34 'You might want to learn a few passages, just in case.'
Good advice for life 👍
Wonderful!
I hope you are going to do a story on the Vampire Haggis Clan .
Interesting story 😎👍
Sooooo......Angry Papa Smurf
I've known of the name Red Cap since I was a kid and played Final Fantasy Mystic Quest on the SNES. There's a monster in the fire area that looks like a gnome type thing called a Red Cap but I never had any idea what it was based off of until this video like 30 years later.
Auntie Ethel really knows how to pick her companions
We need a Redcap horror movie!! 🙏🙏🙏
I only know of the redcap from the older final fantasy games. If a human can't out muscle or out run a redcap, the games have seriously underplayed them as they are usually quite weak
I mean, we can go toe to toe with an Ifrit in Final Fantasy.
I know what you mean though.
You have earned a subscription from this Capricorn. 🤘🐐🐋
Fantastic! Love this, definitely gonna check out your channel 💪🏻
Edit: SUBBED 😆
They're poisonous mushrooms. Cheers.
REQUEST for a Wendigo episode, pretty please
On the list! ⏳👀
Some of this stuff like the large tooth are so oddly specific. I'm curious how they came up with that particular detail and what the significance is even supposed to be.
I've read many an odd book, in my long life so I did know about Redcaps. I had not heard the tale of Redcap Sly however. Well told.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
Stephen Llewelyn has the story or Sir William de Soulis in his “The New World Saga” books when they crash land at Hermitage Castle. Fantastic read and a very interesting Easter egg
I have fought and bested, many a "Redcap" in "Dark age of Camelot" Their appearance actually matches the description here. They appear as angry, dark little gnomes, sporting a red "stocking cap"
So that’s where Overlord got their 13 Redcaps 😂
There's old family lore from my mom's side about is being fea touched and descendents of the Leanan Sidhe. They say that's the only reason the Gille Fhaolain survived the battle of Sterling Bridge. We're still bloodthirsty blighters
A mushroom 🍄
Amanita Muscaria, specifically. ⭐ There was a lot of herbalism hidden in fairy tales during the burning times.
I met three or four of them, when i was traveling with my team to Baldur's gate.
Thats crazy, my mom says I described basically what the thumbnail looks like as a kid, I don't remember, but others have seen it too💀 red glowing eyes with a pointy nose, ears and sharp teeth wearing a red cap. supposedly i seen it crawling on the ceiling at night and started crying, and held on tight to my dad as soon as he arrived, don't remember any of that at all, but I also don't remember ever being at my mom's friends ranch either
"What is a red cap?" it is a cap, "where do we find them?" at stores like LIDZ!
Wtf... from Scotland and 41yrs old, and never heard of a redcap my whole life
Loved the narration of the story. It would be a good bedtime story. At least for me, lol.
Glad you enjoyed it! Plenty more on the way!