Description:
The Land of Legends (Sagobygden in Swedish) is located in three municipalities in the Småland region in southern Sweden. This region has a long history of safeguarding storytelling and oral history as a living heritage and since the 1990’s the Land of Legends has been developed by the local, regional and national storytelling community. The Land of Legends takes many forms including:
- a Museum of Legends in Ljungby
- a storyteller network with storytellers around the region who can tell stories at for example schools, elderly homes, or cultural events
- Legendary Places, which are places in the landscape with tales connected to them. In these places, which can be found both through an ordinary map and through geocaching, Legend cupboards are put up which tells the story connected to the place, both in writing and through recordings of the story which can be accessed digitally.
- A storytelling festival held each year with music and storytelling performances
The Land of Legends is run by a non-profit organisation called The Storytelling Network of Kronoberg. In 2018 it was adopted on to UNESCO’s Register of Good Safeguarding Practices.
Why is relevant to the project ?
The Land of Legends is a fantastic example of how you can make the intangible tangible. Storytelling has through their work taken material form and become an important part of the Sense of Place of the whole region, as well as a tourist attraction with visitors coming both to the museum and the festival. They continuously work with community engagement and many of their activities are run by volunteers. The Land of Legends truly uses the whole palette of available tools to make stories come to life!