Nordic students from upper secondary schools, Kainuun ammttiopisto in Kajaani in Finland, Fedrika Bremergymnasiet, Merika in Haninge, Sweden and Fjölbrautaskola in Grundarfjordur, Island, have just finished a three year long cooperation with the aim to investigate our common treasure of myths and sagas and our basic need to interpret the world and make it understandable.

In our project one of our aims was to show the process when fears and other human feelings are translated into mythical images using various esthetic ways of expressing themselves, such as dance, woodwork, paintings, sculpture, ceramics, film and texts.

We have worked with traditional Nordic myths but we have also been open to myths of our own time. And a good example of this was when the Icelandic students performed an old Icelandic saga using new technique such as multimedia and games. Other examples were the wooden sculptures the Finnish students brought from Kajaani, a place with deep forests well-known from the epos Kalevala. Kalevala was also the main theme when we visited the Kajaani in 2008. The Swedish drama students also performed plays based on old traditional Nordic sagas.

Haninge has got many memories from the Vikings and of course this fact has been used in the Swedish students´ contributions to the project. Some examples are:

• Poems written by Swedish art students in the style of Havamal, old Edda poems, which teach people how to survive in a cruel world.
• Stories the Swedish drama students wrote about Haninge using the myth as a method. The Petrified Elephants and Other Stories.
• The Music students´ collection of stories about what the old Nordic gods Tor, Freja, Oden etc are doing in Haninge today, Hänt I Asgård.
• The Swedish art students´ photos of old rune stones, later used as illustrations in a calendar.

Finally the Swedish drama group celebrated the strong Nordic woman in a musical inspired by Mama Mia, called ABBA MIA.

So the answer to the question above is - the saga is still alive

Our project Saga is now at its end and we would like to thank all teachers and students in Finland and Iceland for a very interesting time. It has been a great joy meeting you all, visiting your schools and your countries and we are very grateful for the excellent programmes you arranged for us when visiting you. We have got memories for life.

Haninge in May 2009
Augusto Cabrera, Grazyna Canevall, Lena Forsblad, Gunilla Garrido, Elisabeth Holmberg, Eva Ingelstedt, Gunilla Rylander Melin