In 2012, the European Union gave the “Mysteries of Europe. XXI Storytelling Marathon” a grant under the Culture Programme 2007/2013 (support for Festivals) thanks to which this festival of the word will feature the participation of prestigious professionals of oral narrative from the 30 countries of the European Union and the European Economic Area.

Because the Storytelling Marathon of 2012 is dedicated to mystery, the narrators, professors, researchers and festival organizers from Europe will bring their luggage full of mystery stories.

Mysteries of Europe will not only be present at the 46 hours of uninterrupted storytelling (with a story at the top of each hour) but will also be the focus of this academic Seminar in which we will advance in the knowledge of European oral literature from the study of common and diverging aspects of the stories and the possible ways of their transmission throughout the European continent.

Another goal of the Seminar, a quite challenging one, is to get together different types of professionals of oral narrative from 30 European countries, encouraging them to exchange stories, theories and ideas that can enrich each other´s experiences.

We hope that by the end of the Seminar we will reach some of these goals. The program designed to face these challenges can be downloaded here.