Beormingas

The Beormingas (/ˈbeɪ.ɔːrmɪŋɡəs/; from Old English) were a tribe or clan in Anglo-Saxon England, possibly forming an early administrative unit of the Kingdom of Mercia. The name literally means "Beorma's people" in Old English, and Beorma is likely to have been either the leader of the group during its settlement in Britain or a real or legendary tribal ancestor. The name of the tribe is recorded in the place name Birmingham, which means "home, homestead or land-unit of the Beormingas".

It has been suggested that the Beormingas occupied a wider area, much larger than Birmingham's manor and parish and including many surrounding settlements scattered along the River Tame. Such beorminga or "Beorming" settlements could have come together in much the same way as The Rodings, a cluster of Anglo-Saxon villages established by the tribe of Hroða, who sailed up the River Thames to settle in Essex. It is possible that Anglo-Saxon place-names still in modern usage near Birmingham (Bearwood, Berwood, Brewood, Bromford, Little Bromwich, West Bromwich and Bromsgrove, for example) may reflect a link to beorminga settlements across northern parts of the Forest of Arden in Staffordshire and Warwickshire.

The Beormingas are likely to have been of Anglian origin, and to have formed part of the gradual Anglian settlement of the valley of the River Trent spreading upstream from the Humber Estuary. The location of the placename Birmingham suggests that the tribe may have formed part of the Tomsaete or Tame-dwellers, who are recorded as occupying this area of the valley of the River Tame in later Anglo-Saxon charters and formed one of the core groupings of the Kingdom of Mercia.

Bibliography

• Bassett, Steven (2000), "Anglo-Saxon Birmingham" (PDF), Midland History (25), University of Birmingham: 1–27, ISSN 0047-729X {{citation}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)
• Gelling, Margaret (1992), The West Midlands in the early Middle Ages, Studies in the early history of Britain, Leicester: Leicester University Press, ISBN 0-7185-1170-0