The widespread use of the name "Brocken" did not occur until towards the end of the Middle Ages. Hitherto the region had just been described as the Harz. This was primarily because, until then, the focus had been mining. The first record of a placename that resembles the present name of the mountain goes back, however, to the year 1176 when it is referred to as "broke" in the Saxon World Chronicle ("Sächsische Weltchronik"). Another early written reference to the mountain, this time as the "Brackenberg", appears in 1490 in a letter from Count Henry of Stolberg. Other early documented names of the Brocken were, in 1401, the "Brockenberg", in 1424 the "Brocberg", in 1495 "mons ruptus" (Latin), in 1511 the "Brogken" and "Brockin", in 1531 the "Brogken", in 1540 the "Brokenberg" and, in 1589, the "Brackenberg".