the Transylvanian plateau is separated in the northwest from the Great Hungarian Plain and Crișana plains by the well-forested Apuseni mountains. Alternatively, from the point of view east of the Carpathians, the name could suggest that the Hungarian name was created in Etelköz/Atelkuzu (Hungarian homeland in southern Ukraine), prior to settling on the Hungarian plain. The Medieval Latin form (1077), later (from another point of view after the foundation of Hungary in 895), was a direct translation from the Hungarian form. This theory is also supported by the Romanian historian Ioan-Aurel Pop. In Ukrainian and German, the names Zalissia () and Überwald, both meaning "beyond the forest" are also used. Siebenbürgen The oldest occurrences of this form are from the 13th century: In the year 1241: in Annales Sancti Trudperti and in the Annals of Zwifalt: "” In the year 1242: in the notes of the friar Erfurt: "” In the year 1285: "” and "”. In the year 1296: a reference to a particular "maister Dietrich von Siebenbuergen”. In the year 1300: Ottacher of Styria mentions "Sybenburger”. There exist a number of theories on the etymology of , the German name for Transylvania. The most widely accepted theory is that refers to the seven principal fortified towns of the Transylvanian Saxons. The name first appeared in a document from 1296. An alternate Medieval Latin version, ("Seven fortresses") was also used in documents. The towns alluded to are Bistritz (Bistrița, Beszterce), Hermannstadt (Sibiu, Nagyszeben), Klausenburg (Cluj-Napoca, Kolozsvár), Kronstadt (Brașov, Brassó), Mediasch (Mediaș, Medgyes), Mühlbach (Sebeș, Szászsebes), and Schässburg (Sighișoara, Segesvár). Other theories include: Siebenbürgen means "Seven Castles" but does not refer to the towns of the Transylvanian Saxons. Transylvania and the Mureș valley seem to have been the first portion of land within the Carpathians where Magyars gained a foothold. According to legend, each of the seven Magyar chieftains erected an earthen 'castle' in this region. Siebenbürgen means explicitly "Seven Towns" or "Seven Castles". However, this etymology seems to originate in the dialectical tradition of the first, mainly Low German, Flemish and Dutch settlers, in whose homelands there are hilly regions called "Zevenbergen" (a town in North Brabant, the Netherlands) and "Sevenbergen" (east of the town of Hameln on the river Weser, Germany). Saxon settlement in Transylvania began in Sibiu. An early German name for the town was Cibinburg (akin to the Cibiniensis Latin name of the area). The alternate