This volume assembles the papers given at the 15th Anglo-German Colloquium on Medieval German Literature, held at the University of Exeter in September 1997. The Colloquium again chose a subject with is in the foreground of current discussion among medievalists. The 22 contributions focus on the relationship between natural phenomena and their cultural contexts, as presented in a wide range of medieval German texts. The principal thematic areas are as follows: definitions of nature and art; gender, love and sexuality; man and his natural environment; men and beasts; motifs and topoi in the depiction of nature.