What is Redcap?
Henderson describes Redcap as a murderous Border sprite whose cap receives the blood of travellers. Source account.
Source status
This profile follows a historical folklore collection in English, not a translated text. It documents Henderson’s account, not verified supernatural events. No claim is made here about the tradition’s earliest attestation.
- record type
- creature
- tradition
- Scottish Border folklore
- aliases
- ["Redcomb", "Bloody Cap"]
- source scope
- William Henderson, Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders, new edition with many additional notes (1879), Chapter VII, Local Sprites, Redcap account.
Source account
Travellers seeking shelter encounter stone-throwing violence. Henderson qualifies the report of murder rather than presenting it without reservation. Scripture or a raised cross drives the sprite away; a tooth remains after its disappearance.
Appearance
The figure is a short, thickset old man with prominent teeth, taloned fingers, fiery red eyes and long hair. He wears iron boots and a red cap, carrying a pikestaff in his left hand.
Source realm
His haunts are Border castles, towers and peelhouses associated with past tyranny. For regional context, see British folklore.
Lord Soulis and castle folklore
Henderson connects the Border sprite with Redcap in the legend of Lord Soulis at Hermitage Castle. In the verses he quotes, Redcap promises Soulis protection from weapons and ordinary bonds until ropes made from sifted sand can bind him. The narrative then introduces True Thomas and Michael Scott’s book in the making of those extraordinary ropes. Redcap is present unseen, but cannot prevent Soulis’s eventual death by boiling in a cauldron at the Nine-stane Rig. This is a legendary episode as presented by Henderson, not a verified account of a historical execution.
Henderson also cites a Denham Tracts proverb and quotes Walter Scott on spirits inhabiting ruined Scottish towers. A song recorded by Mr. Wilkie emphasizes the fear caused by Redcap’s grimaces, yell and harsh laughter, ending with a tooth falling from his head. These examples extend the account beyond an isolated description of the sprite’s appearance.
Names and limits
Henderson distinguishes Dutch beings called Redcaps from this Scottish sprite. Their household service is not an ability assigned here. The aliases above reproduce his Border account’s names. This record does not combine other traditions or modern adaptations into a single creature.