Hakkvild Barrow
Current objective
Open the claw door
Turn the claw over in your hand. The signs carved on its palm give the order of the rings: outer, middle, inner.
Every Nord hall stands on someone's bones.
Falkreath has always kept more dead than living, and Hakkvild built his hall right over his own: high on the hill above the town, on top of the crypts of his forebears. Guests of this house do not knock at the front door. They come up from below, the way the dead would, if the dead ever left.
The way in runs through the barrow: one shaft of daylight, torchlit arches, dragons carved over fires that burn blue and give no warmth, and at the end of the passage a round door of stone rings that opens only to the right claw. Past it the barrow breaks open to the sky, and a red shrine burns in a ruined court among the pines.
Then comes the long climb back to the living: grey stone and pine needles, a well and a cart in the courtyard, the lodge with a dragon's head on every gable, terraces built for feasting, a quiet garden where candles burn for those below, and at last the hall of banners, with its books, its writing desk and a bed beneath the high windows.
Under the Hill
Daylight comes this far, and no farther.
One shaft of daylight finds its way into the passage and dies on the flagstones. Beyond it the barrow belongs to the torches, and to a cold blue glow from somewhere deeper down. The first arch is already waiting - and so, the Nords would say, are those who sleep beyond it.
Photographs of this space · 2
Dust turns in the only daylight under the hill.
The Dragon Seals
Carved by people who knew what they were sealing in.
Two great slabs stand in the dark, a dragon carved on each, blue fire burning at their feet without a scrap of warmth. Nothing down here is decoration. The ancient Nords served the dragons and their priests, and they never carved a dragon over an empty room.
Fus - Force
A Word of Power, learned.
The Last Door
A torch, a stair, a round door.
The passage narrows to a stair and a single torch. At the bottom waits a round door of stone rings set in fire-blackened rock, the kind a barrow keeps for its master. The old Nords made such doors to open for a claw, and only for one who knew how to read it.
Photographs of this space · 2
The Crimson Court
The roof is gone. The priest's fire is not.
Beyond the door the barrow opens to the sky. Pines lean over a ruined court, and at its heart a shrine burns red among statues and old offerings - the only warm light in the whole of the underground, and not a comforting one. Whoever tends that fire has not needed to breathe for a very long time.
Ro - Balance
The lid shifts. The mask’s eyes light in the gap. Nothing comes out - not yet.
A Word of Power, learned.
The Pinebound Courtyard
Out of the dark, into the mountain air.
Stone steps lead up and out among the pines. Broken arches, a well, a cart left by the road: after the barrow even plain things feel like a welcome, and the air smells of resin instead of dust. The lodge is close now.
Photographs of this space · 4
The Dragon-Crowned Lodge
Dragons on the gables, a tower at its side.
A broad stair climbs to the lodge: dark timber on a base of grey stone, a dragon's head carved on every gable, and a tower standing guard beside it. It was built the old way, for long winters and for keeping an eye on the road.
Photographs of this space · 4
The Sheltered Terraces
Benches for a whole household.
Long tables and benches run beneath the eaves, lanterns hang between the posts, and the valley opens below. When the weather allows, the household eats out here - and on a feast night, the whole hold can hear them.
Photographs of this space · 2
The Garden of Remembrance
Some things are kept with candles.
Behind a screen of roses, candles burn at the foot of an old tree and a carved stone. Nobody says whom they are for; in a house built over its own ancestors, nobody needs to. Back on the terrace, the tables wait by the hall's door.
You lit a candle for those below.
The hall’s own door
Hakkvild raised it on the hill above the town, right over the crypts of his forebears. The dead stay below; the hearth waits beyond this door.
The Hall of Banners
Timber, banners, lamplight.
Inside, great timber columns hold up the roof around a central stair. Red-and-gold banners hang over shelves of books, and lamplight reaches into every corner the barrow never let it touch. This is what the climb was for.
Photographs of this space · 4
The Scholar's Retreat
A desk, a gallery, a bed. The end of the climb.
Upstairs wait a writing desk half buried under books and loose pages, a gallery leading to the private rooms, and a bed beneath patterned windows. From the barrow's first stair to this room the house tells a single story: down below, the old dead keep their silence; up here, someone is still reading by lamplight.
Dah - Push
A Word of Power, learned.
Unrelenting Force
Learn all three words in the barrow and the hall, then shout.
Visit it in the game
Copy the command, paste it into the chat in The Elder Scrolls Online, and you are inside.
/script JumpToSpecificHouse("@AhzidalThrones", 48)
Music on this page
Every track belongs to its composers and rights holders and is credited here. If you hold the rights to one of them and want it removed, write to us: contact
- Shivering Dread Brad Derrick. The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor (Original Game Soundtrack). © ZeniMax Online Studios Official release - Shivering Dread Plays during: Under the Hill, The Dragon Seals, The Last Door
- Skyrim's Dark Secret Brad Derrick. The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor (Original Game Soundtrack). © ZeniMax Online Studios Official release - Skyrim's Dark Secret Plays during: The Crimson Court
- A Wolf Among the Pines Brad Derrick. The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor (Original Game Soundtrack). © ZeniMax Online Studios Official release - A Wolf Among the Pines Plays during: The Pinebound Courtyard
- Mists of Morthal Brad Derrick. The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor (Original Game Soundtrack). © ZeniMax Online Studios Official release - Mists of Morthal Plays during: The Dragon-Crowned Lodge, The Sheltered Terraces, The Garden of Remembrance
- The Frozen Hearth Brad Derrick. The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor (Original Game Soundtrack). © ZeniMax Online Studios Official release - The Frozen Hearth Plays during: Hakkvild’s door, The Hall of Banners, The Scholar's Retreat, The Shout
- Ancient Stones Jeremy Soule. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Original Game Soundtrack). © Bethesda Softworks Official release - Ancient Stones Plays during: The entrance
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