FOSSEGRIMEN HISTORY - - - - The dance band Fossegrimen was started in 1999 by Claire & David Elliker-Vågsberg. Claire & David performed as a duet for one year then added Doreen Wiggens as a third member in September 2000. Doreen played accordion, guitar and sometimes fiddle. Karl and Kurt Elliker, David & Claire's sons joined the band in October 2000 with Karl playing bass violin and Kurt playing fiddle. In November of 2001 Brian Wood, guitar & nyckelharpa, replaced Doreen. About this time the group started performing for some of the Salem Skandia dances. By that time the resident group in Salem, Gläde Musikanter, had disbanded. In the summer of 2002, I was contacted by a representative from Oregon Public Broadcasting's "Oregon Arts Beat" program. They were interested in filming a show about the Hardanger fiddle in Eugene, Oregon. They had learned that I played the Hardanger fiddle and that Lynn Berg was a fiddle maker, both of us from the same town. As it turned out, the OPB folks were also interested in Fossegrimen and filmed some of us playing at home and the whole band playing for the Halloween dance in Salem, 25 October 2002. Eventually the show aired on OPB on October 30, 2003 (Oregon Arts Beat Season 5, episode #507) and has been shown numerous times since then by popular request. By the fall of 2004, Fossegrimen was the main band for the monthly Salem dances and by 2005 was performing 4 out of 6 dances there. John Blunk joined the group early in 2005 replacing Karl as the bass player. As well as playing for the Salem Skandia Dances, Fossegrimen also plays occasional dances in the Portland area and was the debut band for the first annual Scan Fair Dance in December of 2004, held on the Saturday night of the annual Scan Fair sponsored by the Scandinavian Heritage Foundation. The group has continued to play for the Scan Fair Dance for five years in a row.