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My last name is "Herka" and I have been looking for the meaning/etymology of that name for a long time. I have found a few of my possibile ancestors: Paweł Herka z Kurzelowa (latin Paulus Hercius Cureloviensis) and Stanisław Kazimierz Herka (commonly known as a Hercius). Both of them were XVII century's professors of Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Paul Herka (Paweł Herka) was even a chancellor of that university (AD 1648). The city (well, it use to be city in the past, at now it is a village) of Kurzelów is in "Województwo Świętokrzyskie" - a district in Poland, - where me and my family live and come from (from the district but we do not live in Kurzelów). The third person I have also found is Ignacy Kanty Herka (latin Ignatio Cantio Hercius) a professor of Jagiellonian University but mostly he was a professor in Poznań. He had a brother who was a profesor too, Klemes Stanisław Herka. They lived in XVIII century in Poland.
The "Herka" name is very rare and unusual in Polish laguage (in others too). Therefore I was curious where do we come from? At special, because my family in known history of my family members were simply peasants. At last since XIX century till of a half of XX century. And I have found those two men, who were university professors in XVII century. And another two in XVIII century with similar status. And even another one, a Jan Nepomucen Herka who wrote a book in XVIII century, in Poland, but thats all I know about him. They all have must been noblemen (in that time, in Poland, they couldn't been peasants nor even burgess to study). It is nothing special, that my family has lost a status of nobility. Since the end of XVIII century Poland was gone of the map and the part of Poland known as Świętokrzyska's soil, became a part of Russian Empire (there were three empires: Austria, Prussia and Russia which divided and included Poland into theirs states). The Russian Car took the nobility back from noblemen who were not rich enough or who were not his followers - that tells how and why we've lost nobility. But how my family became noblemen?
This is mystery, because the register of Polish noblemen has no such a record as a "Herka family". First what have I found, was a sign of my name in Huns language. "Herka" (Hereka, Kreka, Erekan) means more less a "beautiful" or a "pure queen". A first wife of Attila wore that name - the mother of Ernak, Ellak and Dengizek. Very odd, isn't it? But might be true, because Polish soil was a part of Hunnic Empire in that time and it was only a few century's before Poland become a Christian State in AD 966. The Prince "Mieszko I" was a first Christian ruler, but wasn't a first Polish ruler at all. We know at least three other legendary (they couldn't write so they didn't wrote any chronicle) Piasts (dynasty of Piast's) rulers before Mieszko (he was a member of Piast's dynasty), which mean, Poland is about a century older, than that. And the borders of Poland in those times (Mieszko's time) were similar to present Polish borders - at least the western and southern borders were similar, or even bigger westerns and southerns territory belonged to Poland that time. I point that, because the grave of Attila and his former capital city was on current Hungarian soil.
Looking for more info I have found two tracks of Herka name in Czech in XIV century. First is here:
"Aus den Zuweisungen in den Dörfern Mlinetz bei Klattau, Libějitz bei Retolitz, Wojtieschitz bei Přestitz und Metzling bei Bischofteinitz erkennt sich die Ausbreitung ihres Besitzes, wenn er auch weit zerstreut und namentlich in Solislau zersplittert war. So erscheinen am 10. Juni 1416 neben dem Pfarrer Prkosch von Mogolzen noch die Witwe Herka und deren Söhne Johann Polak II., Budiwoj, Johann und Wenzel, auch noch am 7. Feber 1427 die Mutter Herka, Johann Polak und Johann von Solislau als Patronatsinhaber in Solislau. In Privaturkunden (so 1409 mit einer Stiftung für die Mieser Minoriten) und im öffentlichen Leben traten die Solislauer Ritter öfter hervor. Johann Polak gehörte 1420 zur katholischen Adelspartei Westböhmens. Das Kloster Kladrau verpfändete ihm 1438 Zinse. Johann Polak d.J., 1448 - 1466 öfter genannt, war noch 1465 Patron in Solislau. Bald darauf verschwand das Geschlecht." http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulislav
Which means probably, my family came from Czech. At least, that someone with my last name was a nobleman and was the owner of Sulislav village in those times. The widow Herka and her sons were the owners of Sulislav. And one of the widow Herka son's was a knight Johann Polak. The knight nickname "Polak" means Polish. Interesting, isn't it?
The second track of my name in Czech was a village Prusnowice. I have found that in XIV century Prusnowice was a property of von Prusnovitz family. One of the family member was a "Herka z Prusinovic (um 1325–1358), Schwester von Jetřich z Prusinovic und Mladota z Prusinovic". Isn't it odd that someone gave a name to a girl like "Herka" - the old Huns language name means "pure queen"? For me it is odd. At least it would be odd, if the only meaning of that word was "pure queen".
And here we come to the point of topic name I wrote. I have found also something like that:
"Auf dieser Opferstätte wurde die germanische Göttin Herka verehrt, womit man daher auch eine Verbindung zum Ortsnamen Herkersdorf (Herka) sieht. Auf einem Höhenzug gegenüber dem Druidenstein steht der Ottoturm." http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herkersdorf
The text means, that the German mythology goddess name's Herka gave her name to a village ("dorf" means "village" in a German language) Herkersdorf. It was something new and even more odd. I attempted to find something about Herka goddess and her worship, but I couldn't. The only things I could find were about Herkersdorf and the Celtic druidstone in there. So I follow that track and that's how did I found out about Otto Rahn. His book "Lucifer's court" (German "Luzifers Hofgesind", Polish "Dworzanie Lucyfera"), which I have got in ebooks version (Spanish and German), has a note about Herka goddess. Rahn wrote "Herka, auch Hel oder Holda" which means, "Herka, from Hell or Holda". That means it is the same goddess. Holda was only more popular name of that goddess and that is all I know for now.
I would by kindly grateful for any information about Herka/Holda name in German - does anybody here, knows anything? I am curious about the worship of Holda and her priests (male priests/warlocks). Holda was a "matron of witches". Herkersdorf was a place of his worship. You see, in Poland Świetokrzyskie Mounts are the old place of witches worship. We have a mount named Łysica, which was a place of sabbaths even in historical times. I wonder is there any chance, that someone escaped from German in XVI, XVII century and hid himself and his family in Poland, in a place, where witches were more less still active and pretty safe (Poland was famous of that - we were tolerant state)? This is something new for me and I am simply curious about new track I have found looking for my roots. The problem is, I do not know, how to "bite that". It is even more odd, than that I came from Attila's family!
Thank you for all informations!
Radosław Mirosław Herka
Email: radoslawherka (at) gmail (dot) com