Wiki link.

Evil little goblins that haunt ruined castles and dye their caps with the blood of their victims. What do you think, an old wive's tale to keep the kids out of the crumbling old buildings, or could they be based on crazy people squatting in abandoned castles?

must have been very small crazy people...

That's the most dangerous kind!

It's true.
They dress like normal-sized people, so they don't appear small, just far away.
You don't realise they're right next to you until it's too late.

This sounds fake. I have a hard time believing in goblins.

well, they believe in you and they've got your home address

Yep, and I've got theirs. But, from that Wikipedia article, it would appear that there's only one account of a Redcap. If they were real or even real cryptids, don't you think that there would be more stories or even more mythology of them? Old, abandoned castles make us naturally nervous and imaginative, they're eerie and creepy, it kind of sets up the scene to make you want to believe some unnatural thing lives there. It's just a tale that was thought up back in the medieval ages.

Because most people who've seen a redcap haven't lived to tell about it. They're just so stabby with those sharp things.

Yes! And they're from Scotland!

Wait a minute... why am I smiling?

I have some information on redcaps. Redcaps have to kill very often, because if the blood drys out on their caps, they will die. I also read that the only way to escape a red cap is to quote a passage from the bible. When they hear it, they lose a tooth. Theres more at wikipedia

There's one particularly famous one, but they're folk creatures, so parents would be warning their kids to beware of redcaps and people would believe this or that place would have one. There are probably lots of stories of them out there.
I was thinking of playing devil's advocate for a while and claiming I've seen redcaps, but I can't be bothered.
I don't actually believe in redcaps.
The thing I said about them being small but pretending to be far away so they could get you; that was a joke.
Not a very good one apparently, since I had to explain it, but there you go. I was in it for the chuckles. Recaps aren't real.
It's the Knockers you have to watch out for.

I thought it was funny.

But sometimes I think people with a sense of humor are in the minority here, which is really ironic, given the usual subject matter.

Thank you kindly.
If I can make just one person laugh... then I'm not doing very well to be honest.
People can get very hung up on issues here cos at the end of the day we're playing with world-views, even with the smallest topic. 'I want to believe' and all that.
Plus, given some of the postings I've read on UM, it's entirely possible I truly believe my best friend is a redcap and my missus is a mermaid.
With regards to your thread-starter, I really don't think the redcap stories would have started with vagrant fruitloops, due to redcaps being such little buggers. However, It seems a perfectly valid way for a folk-tale to get kickstarted and somewhere in our past something similar may have been the beginning of a folk-monster we know and love.
Some modern day urban legends and monsters must certainly have started that way. Give it a few centuries and they'll be making holo-books about a famous character that you could trace back to the time Twitchy the local Tramp jumped out at some bloke called Kev on his way to the pub, where he told all his friends about it, embellishing it slightly, then they told their friends, who told their friends, who...

A friend told me he seen one in an old monastry in Ireland,but he had taken magic mushrooms, so whos to know.

I always knew I was a minority.........wait......wrong minority..........

"SIGH!" I guess I have to hunt down Crazy Harry and start some of our goofy threads up again.


Lapiche

That redcaps here we call it "Fred Durst"...

Its funny I play city of heroes/villains a really good MMORPG (way better then WOW) and some of the NPC villains are Red caps this little evil things that wear red skullyz.

Ok, so I didn't laugh, but it made me smile. You get a cookie!

EDIT: Oh yeah. Redcaps =
Cute though. I like the legend.

Ew. Well I guess a red cap is better'n a yellow cap or a brown cap any day.

The Red Caps are murderous, and kill by rolling boulders or tearing at people with their sharp claws. They then proceed to drink the blood of their victims and dip their hats in the blood, giving rise to the name of Red Caps.

I remember reading about "Red Caps" as dwarf-like creatures with thin arms and legs that were extremely vicious in books by Bob Salvatore, the titles of the books escape me at the moment but there were about 5 or 6 in a series......AH YES, The Demonwar Series.

With a nice chianti?

I wish I didn't say that, too.

Same here. Have there been any people dissappearing after going into an old castle?

Och aye, thon wee nyaffs dae exists ye ken. Ye normally see them fa'n yer muntered efter gollupin doon on wan tae mony drams! The wee de'ils stand an' pul feses it ye fur bein' a glaekit bampot. Fa'n yer sober they look exactly like thon bins ye git fer pittin' yer dug's mess in...

...right, can you translate that?

Ok then...

Yes, those little rascals do exist you know. You normally see them when you are completely drunk after gulping down one too many shots of whisky (that's whisky and not whiskey- there is a difference)! The little devils stand and pull faces at you for being a stupid idiot. When you are sober they look exactly like those bins you get for dropping your dog's foul into (because it is an offense to let your dog foul public walkways- hence you must pick up and dispose of the mess, usually in designated dog-mess bins: generally the are red and stand about 3-4 feet of the ground, hence the reference to a red cap).


Wow! I managed to transalte Scots into English, even while after being "oot oan the piss".