Welcome to meet some of Årjäng’s Celebrities:

King of ski

Thomas Wassberg was born 1956 in Lennartsfors, in the rural district Årjäng, and has an impressive cross-country CV.

Thomas Wassberg is the guy from Värmland who moved to Åsarna, Jämtland. In 1977, only 21 years old, he debuted in the World cup and won the inofficial World cup. Wassberg has won four Olympic gold, three World championship gold, three World championship silver and a World championship bronze. In addition he has eight individual Swedish championship titles, seven in relay and an additional twentyfour team titles.

He ended his active career in 1988, 32 years old, but has continued cross-country skiing. After his career he has worked as a sports reporter at the Swedish Radio and as a coach at the cross-country skiing association Åsarna IK. In 2009 he participated in the TV show ”Mästarnas Mästare” (Master of the Masters)

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International Rallycross Champion

15 years old PG started with folkrace and two years later he started to drive rally. He won the Swedish championship in 2003 and 2004 and became Junior World champion in 2004 and 2007.
In 2012 he continued his career and started rallycross and in 2015 he entered the rallycross World championship for Marklund Motorsport.

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The Poison Priest

The vicar Anders Lindbäck (1803-1865) planned to mix some arsenic into the sacramental wine.

He got the post as a priest in Silbodal 1862 and moved to Årjäng from Dalsland. The district was very poor and Lindbäck named it Siberia of Sweden.

The poverty troubled the new parish priest but soon he understood what standing his office reached in this poor settled country and he soon became the dictator of the district. He also realised how much all the sick and poor costed the local governement. He then came up with a solution that was economical favourable and reduced the suffering of choosen members of the congregation.

Anders Lindbäck often made house calls to bless the poor and weak and to give them the Holy Communion. Strange thing was several people became even more ill after his visits and some of them died. No one knew this was part of Anders Lindbäcks plan and that he had mixed arsenic into the sacramental wine.

Everything went smooth until he gave up his plan and killed a rich man. Sometime later Anders Lindbäck confessed three murders and three attempts to murder. In his long and much discussed speech for the defence he declared that he did what he did to relieve members of the congregation from pain.

The speech did not rescue him and Anders Lindbäck was sentenced to death. He preceded this and hung himself in his cell in Karlstad prison.

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The Årjäng Troll

The troll was born 27 May 1972. The modell was shaped by the artist Erik Hermansson, Bålsta (1903-1976). Erik also illustrated the book ”Årjängstroll” by Tore Skogman. The woodwork is made by Gunnar Andersson.

The creative idea was made by Start-68 i.a., an association for youth activities in Nordmarken. The story and record ”Årjängstroll” by Tore Skogman was released in December 1971 and the idea of a troll as a public decoration was born.

The troll is 8 metres high and has a size 3,5 metres shoe. The Årjäng troll is probably the biggest troll in Sweden and has toured Stockholm and Gothenburg among others. The troll got its present placing at Claras market place, next to the hotel, at the rebuilding of the centre of Årjäng in 2008.