Saarthal is an ancient Nordic ruin a short trek southwest of the College of Winterhold, close to the battered town of Winterhold. For most players it is the first proper field trip of their mage career: you arrive with a handful of fellow apprentices, expecting some dusty digging, and leave having found something that will turn the whole College upside down. Few school excursions end with a glowing orb and a pile of angry undead.
What you’ll find
- A multi-level tomb packed with draugr, especially once the sealed inner chambers open up.
- Two pillar puzzles. The first hides an animal symbol behind each pillar, the second has pillars that turn each other when activated.
- A sealed door that only opens when you wear the Saarthal Amulet and cast a spell at it.
- The chamber of the Eye of Magnus, a huge mysterious artifact sitting on a pedestal and humming away to itself.
- A Word Wall for the Ice Form shout.
- Ore for smiths: a silver vein on the walkway outside the entrance, two iron veins, one gold vein and two quicksilver veins, plus a bucket holding refined malachite and orichalcum ingots.
Quests
- Under Saarthal – Tolfdir leads the excavation with Brelyna Maryon, J’zargo and Onmund. You help the scholar Arniel Gane collect enchanted artifacts, find the amulet that opens the burial chamber, receive a vision from a Psijic monk and uncover the Eye of Magnus before hurrying back to warn Arch-Mage Savos Aren. The story continues in The Eye of Magnus.
- Forbidden Legend – the treacherous Jyrik Gauldurson was sealed in Saarthal after stealing his share of his father’s amulet. You defeat him here and take his fragment.
Notable items
- The Staff of Jyrik Gauldurson, lying on the altar in front of the Eye of Magnus.
- Jyrik’s fragment of the Gauldur Amulet.
- The Ice Form Word Wall.
Tips
For the first puzzle, the animal carvings behind the pillars are hard to see in the gloom. Light the wall with a torch, Magelight or Candlelight, or simply raise the brightness in the settings. For the second, activate the pillars in order of how many others they turn: start with the left one nearest the door (turns all the rest), then the far left one, then the near right one, and finish with the far right one, which turns nothing. Set them to whale, snake, hawk, whale in that order. If you come here before the College quest, the inner door stays shut, so don’t waste a trip. Should the pillars refuse to turn, leaving the area and walking back in reportedly sorts it out.
Good to know
Just west of the ruin, a frozen mammoth sticks out of a wall of ice with Dwarven spears still stuck in it, and Dwarven arrows lie nearby. Once you clear Saarthal it stays clear, but the Eye’s eerie hum keeps sounding from its empty pedestal.
Nearby
Closest places covered on TamrielSaga: Sightless Pit, Alftand, Winterhold, Hob’s Fall Cave, Shrine of Azura.
Location data (hold, map position, editor ID) read from the Skyrim game files; details checked against community wiki articles and summarised in our own words.
