- "Hjerim is a fine house, and it's up for sale. You should talk to the steward in the keep if you're interested."
- ―Windhelm Guard
Hjerim is a purchasable home in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Description[]
It is located in the Valunstrad quarter of Windhelm. The house has two floors, several spacious rooms and a hidden chamber. Hjerim also has a large armory with a number of mannequins, display cases, shelves, and weapon racks. It originally belonged to Friga Shatter-Shield, until she was tragically murdered by the Butcher.[1]
The secret chamber, hidden behind a ground-floor wardrobe to the rear of the first floor, is where the Butcher kept the severed body parts of his victims with which he intended to reanimate his dead sister. Purchasing the cleanup package will clear its bloodstained furnishings, enabling the purchase of the needed upgrades to transform it into a combined Alchemy and Enchanting workshop.
Acquisition[]
The house is available for 12,000 . Purchasing all upgrades costs an additional 9,000 . Completing "Rescue from Fort Neugrad" (for the Stormcloaks), or the full Civil War questline for the Imperials is necessary to purchase this house. Upon becoming a Thane of Eastmarch, a housecarl, Calder, will be assigned by the Jarl to look after Hjerim and serve the new Thane.
A part of the quest "Blood on the Ice" takes place here, but the purchase of the property is available before or during the quest, giving the Dragonborn the key to the house which allows entry to the house without having to pick the master lock on the front door. The key can also be obtained during or after "Blood on the Ice" by pickpocketing it from or talking to Tova Shatter-Shield. The quest is automatically gained when entering the house for the first time, if not previously started. Talking to the Jarl's Steward, Jorleif, enables the purchase of decorations for Hjerim; however, the quest "Blood on the Ice" must be completed before buying decorations and the cleanup package from Jorleif, or else glitches ensue.
Features[]
Advantages[]
- Hjerim contains both an arcane enchanter and an alchemy lab.
- It is in close proximity to smithing facilities, a smelter, an alchemist's shop, a general merchant and the Windhelm fence, all of which are closely grouped.
- Adding a children's room does not mean sacrificing the alchemy and enchanting facilities.
- Niranye, the Windhelm fence, is located outside in a market stall, whereas many other fences require at least one additional transition to reach or are hard to track down.
- Hjerim has the biggest armory of all the houses (disregarding add-on content), with three mannequins and many weapon racks, as well as plaques for both shields and weapons.
- There is a thief cache barrel to the left as the Dragonborn exits the house after completing the necessary quest for Delvin Mallory after joining the Thieves Guild.
Disadvantages[]
- The secret room has minimal storage as well as poor lighting, making its use limited.
- The lighting can be remedied by dropping a torch from the Dragonborn's inventory. When the house is entered again, the torch will be lit, providing light to the previously dark room.
- Its cost is high, including decorations.
- It is among the most difficult houses to obtain, due to many quests being needed to be completed to obtain it.
- In order to have the blood from the Butcher's murders removed, a fee of 500 must be paid, similar to the other improvements. In addition, it also removes all of the contents of the secret room.
Upgrades[]
Name | Description | |
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Armory | The armory takes up most of the house's second floor and is very useful for storing weaponry. This includes four weapon plaques, a shield plaque, three sword display cases, two dagger display cases, three mannequins, five weapon racks, and two bookshelves. The armory is also lined with various mounted animal heads for decoration. | 2,000 |
Enchanting laboratory | This package installs an arcane enchanter after the clean up upgrade has been purchased from the steward. Two bookshelves, three weapon plaques and a variety of soul gems are added to it when bought. | 1,500 |
Alchemy Laboratory | Although there is very little storage, this small room offers a large shelf stocked with multiple useful ingredients. | 1,500 |
Living room | Hjerim's living room is a very large open room with a long central dining table, small table, and a chair, multiple small and large sacks, two bookshelves, a barrel, two wardrobes and a variety of food, ingredients, and miscellaneous items. Purchasing this package removes a chest that was previously in the living room. Items stored in the old chest are moved into the new wardrobes that come with this package. | 1,500 |
Bedroom | The master bedroom has a large bed, two end tables, a wardrobe, a shield plaque, two dagger display cases, four bookshelves, two small dining tables and multiple shelves, along with three small sacks, a chest, and various food and other items. | 1,000 |
Kitchen | The kitchen is probably the coziest room in the house, as it is the only room in the house with the comfort of a fire pit and cooking pot. | 1,000 |
Clean up the murderer's mess | A clean up can be purchased after the quest "Blood on the Ice." This upgrade removes the stone altar, bloodstains, mutilated body parts, bones, and the messy storage chest. It is recommended that this upgrade be purchased first to avoid bugs. | 500 |
Children's RoomHF | Converts the area outside the secret chamber into a children's room with two beds, a chair, a small wardrobe with a double shelf on top, an end table and a children's practice dummy. (Any items in the tall wardrobe previously there will be in the new, smaller one.) | 1,250 |
Item displays[]
- Eight Weapon Wall Plaques
- Two Weapon & Shield Wall Plaques
- Three Sword Display Cases
- Five Weapon Rack
- Three Mannequins
- Four Dagger Display Cases
- Twelve Bookshelves (holding a total of 132 books)
See Windhelm Home Decorating Guide for detailed descriptions.
Housecarl room[]
Although the Windhelm Home Decorating Guide lists a guest room, it is actually the housecarl's room. It is automatically installed when Calder, the Housecarl, moves in. This room, alongside the Vlindrel Hall housecarl room, are the most luxurious available in Skyrim.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Although this house can be purchased during "Blood on the Ice," the key to it can be found by pickpocketing or asking Tova Shatter-Shield. The master lock can be picked as well.
- The table in the small room appears to have shadowmarks on it that mean "empty" and "danger."
- When purchased, the alchemy labs comes with valuable ingredients, such as void salts, fire salts, and frost salts.
- If entered before starting "Blood on the Ice" through picking the lock or using the key from Tova, the quest automatically starts.
- Although most of the items that can be interacted with provide needed clues, the normal wardrobe downstairs, the pots on the floor in the kitchen, and the bed upstairs have humorous clue "descriptions": "Someone left behind this perfectly fine wardrobe," "These pots have not been used in ages. Nothing but skeever droppings and cobwebs within," and "The chair is placed on this bed in an odd manner."
- If thane of Eastmarch, and only the clean-up package is bought, Calder will pace around downstairs. This is because the clean-up package takes away the one chair in the house, so there is nowhere for him to sit.
- When encountering the master bedroom, pressing the action button will investigate the bed and chairs. When clicked, a message will pop up saying that the chair is stacked in an odd fashion.
- If the children's room is purchased, a message will appear to investigate the wardrobe. The message that appears when the action button is press reads, "This perfectly good wardrobe was left behind for some reason."
- This is the only house in the game that has a decoration option which involves removing a mess.
Bugs[]
This section contains bugs related to Hjerim. Before adding a bug to this list, consider the following:
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Appearances[]
Notes[]
- ↑ Due to a bug in function value, the house can be bought for 8000 . HPMarkarth value used instead of HPWindhelm, which is used in the dialogue.
References[]
- ↑ Dialogue with Windhelm Guards