Prior to 1850, there was no overall name for the Palatine's bunter sandstone mountains Historical territorial factors, rather than geographical ones, governed perceptions at the time. By contrast, the Celts and Romans viewed the entire mountain range west of the Rhine as a single unit, making no distinction between different parts of the region that, today, is the Palatinate Forest and the Vosges. The range was named after the Celtic forest god Vosegus and is recorded in many Roman manuscripts as "silva vosegus" or "mons vosegus". It was from this linguistic root that, during the Middle Ages, the name "Vosges" emerged in the French-speaking area and "Wasgen" or "Was(i)genwald", later also Wasgau, in the German-speaking region.