Re: [tied] Gmc. Place-names & the Pas-de-Calais [was: Transhumance]

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>
wrote:

> At 5:28:34 AM on Thursday, January 8, 2004, tgpedersen
> wrote:
>
> >>> In some cases, there are parallel formations south and
> >>> north of the straits of Dover, cf Berningahem (844/64),
> >>> Birmingham (Derolez 1974:11)
>
> > Sorry, typo. 'Berningahem', should be 'Bermingahem'; now
> > it should make more sense.
>
> What is the modern name? <Bermingahem> implies a personal
> name <Bermo>, for which I can find no evidence in Morlet
> (including the place-name volume). On the other hand, there
> *is* a place in the right area recorded as <Berningahem> at
> the right time.

Nielsen doesn't provide the modern name. His reference is:
Derolez, R., 1974 'Cross-Channel Language Ties', Anglo-Saxon England
3:1-14.

>
> >>> Question: was English Birmingham a center of expansion
> >>> and conquest then?].
>
> >> Unlikely; it was a pretty insignificant manor at the time
> >> of Domesday Book.
>
> > Much later, so inconclusive.
>
> Not so inconclusive. We're talking about a hamlet with a
> handful of inhabitants.
>

A lot can happen in 600 years. Are there any *Beorminga- names in the
vicinity?

> > I still think it unlikely that in the general turmoil of
> > the landnám there were two separate groups that identified
> > themselves as 'Beormingas', that would have been
> > unpractical, to say the least.
>
> I don't yet believe in the Continental group of that name.
>

No, but the idea of having a 'reception center' for young 'have-
spatha, will-travel's on the continental side would make a lot of
sense logistically for someone in the process of landnám, with a high
attrition rate in his retinue, don't you think?

Another fact: Udolph's gives "plot of arable land raised above swampy
territory" as the sense of <horst>/<hurst>. But although this is
found almost all over the place, also in Flanders, it is not found in
the Pas-de-Calais. In oter words, the Germanic speakers in that area
had use for a word meaning "small fenced-in settelement" but not for
a word for arable land. How did they make a living then, and for how
long?

Torsten