On the Borders people were told to eat carlings on Carling Sunday until they were too full for the gy-carling to get a grip of their belly. The gy-carling was a mischievous elf, and Brockett sent readers to Jamieson’s article on the Gyre-Carling.
The gy-carling on Carling Sunday
14 days before Easter · The English Border
Lore and belief
It was formerly a common instruction, on the Borders, that on Carling Sunday a person must eat carlings till he was so full that the gy-carling could not get a "grip of his waim."
From Brockett's Glossary of North Country Words, 3rd ed., vol. 1, p. 203. Read the original
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