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Elder Scrolls

"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 Gold. Purchasing all upgrades costs an additional 9,000 Gold. 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 Gold must be paid, similar to the other improvements. In addition, it also removes all of the contents of the secret room.

Upgrades[]

Name Description Gold
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:

  1. Please reload an old save to confirm if the bug is still happening.
  2. If the bug is still occurring, please post the bug report with the appropriate system template  360  /  XB1  ,  PS3  /  PS4  ,  PC  /  MAC  ,  NX  /  PS5  ,  XS  , depending on which platform(s) the bug has been encountered on.
  3. Be descriptive when listing the bug and fixes, but avoid having conversations in the description and/or using first-person anecdotes: such discussions belong on the appropriate forum board.
Click to show bugs
  •  PC   360   PS3   Storing staves in upstairs weapons cases cause them to be stored suspended in the middle of the room. The staff is still able to be retrieved, and a second weapon can be stored in the case. This can be exploited to store multiple staves in midair. This reportedly works for all staves; at least for as many as three large cases. Hevnoraak's Staff has reportedly broken a display case, however.
  •  360   PS3   The torso armor first placed on the middle mannequin up the stairs may clone and equip itself over any other armor already on the mannequin.
  •  PC   360   PS3   The option to buy and upgrade the house may not be in the speech list. This only happens in the same sitting as killing Ulfric. Saving and resetting the game will fix this.
  •  PC   360   PS3   Some helmets may not appear on the mannequins.
  •  PC   360   PS3   When purchasing the enchantment/alchemy table upgrades for the "hidden" room, there will be no light inside the room, making it very hard to see in it. Placing torches will "fix" this issue (they will be lit when returning after leaving Hjerim).
  •  PC   360   PS3   Sometimes, when a dagger is placed on a weapons rack here, it will not be retrievable. It is not recommended to place unique daggers, e.g., Mehrune's Razor, in any rack.
  •  PC   360   PS3   The Dragonborn can take a dagger out of the top case by having someone follow them around. They must then talk to them and select "I need you do to something" option. Afterwards, take a step back from the case and have them close it. If one is aiming at the dagger, an option that says "Take/steal" will appear (depending on if the Dragonborn owns the house or not). Press the X (PS3) or A (Xbox) button rapidly until they take it. This only works once.
  •  PC   360   PS3   Purchasing the clean-up upgrade replaces all of the house's containers, potentially removing stored items. Items stored in the living room chest are automatically moved into the new wardrobes that come with the living room furnishing package. Thus, it is not recommended to use them for storage before getting the upgrade.
  •  PC   360   Sometimes when purchasing all the upgrades except for the one removing the mess from the Butcher, it will not be possible to purchase it later. On a PC, the console command DF492.Disable will usually clean up the mess.
  • If bought after the final battle in the Civil War questline, the clean up kit may not be available.
  •  360  There is a rope from one of the hanging racks in the kitchen downstairs poking through the floor behind the bed.
  • There is a shelf on the left of the staircase (looking at it). Placing books there deletes them (both from the shelf and inventory).
  • After switching armor out on one of the mannequins it will put the armor taken off of it and put it back on and duplicate a set of armor.
  •  360   PS3   When placing a dagger in the bedroom's lower dagger display case, it may appear non-retrievable. The option "Activate Display Case" remains even if a dagger is already placed. If another dagger is equipped when selecting this option, it will place the second dagger on top of the first. It is possible to retrieve the dagger(s) by slowly looking around the display case where the option to pick the item up is available.
  •  360   PS3   In the enchanting/alchemy room, selecting "Activate Bookshelf" on the upper shelf of the bookshelf may result in a random amount of books disappearing. They will no longer appear on the bookshelf or in the inventory. Re-loading the last save will correct this.
  • Red Eagle's Fury may not be stored properly and will be spawned on the ground.
  • Some chests in the house may not appear.
  •  360   Sometimes, the mannequins, their armor, any displayed weapons/books, and/or anyone in the house (including the Dragonborn), will be invisible. This is fixable by leaving Hjerim then entering it again.
  •  PS3   When hanging any battleaxes on the top weapon rack, against the wall of the master bedroom, it will make both racks on that wall unusable. It will not be possible to remove or add any other weapons to the racks. The weapon known to do this is the Ancient Nord Battle Axe.
  •  PS3   After completion of both parts one and two of "Blood on the Ice" the master bedroom may spawn a second set of cheap-looking furniture that intersects the first. Only completing part one of "Blood on the Ice" seems to be the sole way to avoid this.
  •  PS3   If the objective in Hjerim during "Blood on the Ice" is completed without investigating the numerous things and the house is purchased and furnished thereafter, the "Investigate" prompts will remain in the location their respective static furniture was located. This is not permanent; activating these prompts removes them.
  •  360   Warhammers constantly fall off the shield racks.
  •  360   Placing any objects on the shelves in the enchanting room causes them to fly off when the house is entered. This also happens with the upstairs shelves.
  •  PC   360   PS3   The mannequins get stuck in "people" poses such as crossed arms. They cannot be interacted with.
  •  360   PS3   A table in the main bedroom is stuck through a cupboard.
  •  PC   360   PS3   XB1   Occasionally, such as buying the living room decoration, the game may crash upon entering Hjerim; there is currently no known solution to this.
  • Sometimes the steward of Windhelm does not offer the option, "Clean up the murderer's mess (500)" in the decoration menu. To see the effect of the bug see this for reference.
  •  PC   Due to a bug in function value, the house can be bought for 8000 Gold. The HPMarkarth value is used instead of HPWindhelm, which is used in the dialogue.
  •  PS4   When purchasing upgrades for Hjerim, buying all upgrades except the bedroom furnishings may cause Jorleif to state that there are no more upgrades, meaning the bedroom furnishings cannot be bought. This can be fixed by loading a save where there are multiple upgrades to be purchased, then leaving a different upgrade for last.

Appearances[]

Notes[]

  1. Due to a bug in function value, the house can be bought for 8000 Gold. HPMarkarth value used instead of HPWindhelm, which is used in the dialogue.

References[]

  1. Dialogue with Windhelm Guards
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