Sagomuseet

In the Sagomuseet you will find the collected fairy tales and stories, which were already told centuries ago in the dark and mysterious forests of Småland and which are among the roots of Swedish culture. They originated during the time of peasant society, when most people in Sweden lived directly in and from nature and could not influence a large part of their lives.

In the search for explanations for the unpredictability of the omnipresent nature, natural phenomena were given a shape by mystical beings such as trolls, gnomes, elves, giants, witches or forest women. And mystical stories were told around the fabulous creatures to make the incomprehensible comprehensible and to offer rules of conduct for unexplainable situations.

People used to sit in their often lonely houses and courtyards after dusk in the light of candles or paraffin lamps and tell each other eerily beautiful stories, while outside the wafts of mist rose from the meadows like dancing elves and the familiar forest by day was transformed into a mystical zone with its nightly rustling, murmuring and whispering.

The Sagomuseet and the fairyland Sagobygden

It is this narrative art in particular that is kept very much alive by the Sagomuseet, which is run by the narrator network of the province Kronoberg. In the museum you will not only be immersed in the multi-layered world of Swedish fairy tales with the help of imaginative fairy tale characters, pictures, settings and an endless number of novels and illustrated books, but you will also meet the narrators and listen to their mysterious stories.

You can explore the museum on your own, whereby you will receive a folder with interesting information at the beginning. During the summer season, guided tours are also available, during which a storyteller guides you through the museum, showing you his art of storytelling with " fabulous " examples. The guided tours are held daily in Swedish and at irregular times during the summer also in Danish and German.

Sagomuseet is also something like the centre of the region called Sagobgyden (Fairyland) in southwestern Småland, which covers the municipalities of Alvesta, Älmhult and Ljungby. Within this region there are about 40 signposted fairy tale and saga sites where mystical events are said to have taken place in the distant past. At each of these places there is a red wooden chest where you can read the respective legend.

Once a year, around Midsummer, the Narrative Network Kronoberg organises a large and meanwhile very well known storytelling festival at and in the Sagomuseet with about 50 international storytellers. The work of the network in preserving the oral narrative art. Passing on the old folk tales is now internationally recognised and the voluntarily organised network has been listed as a good practice example for the preservation of the intangible cultural heritage by the UNESCO register since 2018.