Hjerim is a two-storey house in the Valunstrad quarter of Windhelm, and one of the most expensive homes you can buy in Skyrim. It once belonged to Friga Shatter-Shield before she fell victim to the Butcher, and the killer left a very nasty secret behind a wardrobe. Get past the gore, though, and you get the biggest armory of any base-game house, plus room for alchemy, enchanting and a family.
How to get it
- Price – 12,000 gold for the house, about 9,000 more for all upgrades.
- Requirements – for the Stormcloaks, complete Rescue from Fort Neugrad; for the Imperial Legion, capture Windhelm by finishing the Civil War questline.
- Seller – talk to steward Jorleif in the palace. He also sells the decorations.
- Housecarl – become Thane of Eastmarch and the jarl assigns Calder, who gets one of the most luxurious housecarl rooms in the game.
Upgrades
- Clean up the murderer’s mess – 500 (buy this first)
- Armory – 2,000: mannequins, display cases, weapon racks and plaques filling most of the upper floor
- Enchanting laboratory – 1,500
- Alchemy laboratory – 1,500 (stocked with ingredients like void salts, fire salts and frost salts)
- Living room – 1,500
- Bedroom – 1,000
- Kitchen – 1,000 (the only room with a fire and cooking pot)
- Children’s room – 1,250 (Hearthfire), which doesn’t cost you the alchemy or enchanting stations
Quests
Blood on the Ice partly plays out here; entering for the first time starts it automatically. You can buy the house before or during the quest, which hands you the key to the master-locked front door. Tova Shatter-Shield also has a key, by asking or by pickpocketing.
Tips
Finish Blood on the Ice before buying decorations or the clean-up, or things get glitchy. The clean-up replaces the house’s containers, so don’t store anything before buying it. The secret room is dark; drop a torch from your inventory and it’ll be lit when you come back. Location-wise it’s excellent: smithing, a smelter, an alchemist, a general trader and the fence Niranye are all clustered outside. Thieves Guild members get a cache barrel by the door after the relevant job for Delvin.
Good to know
With only the clean-up bought, Calder paces downstairs because there’s nowhere left to sit. The house’s clue descriptions have a sense of humour – one wardrobe is described as perfectly fine, and someone stacked a chair on the bed for reasons best left unexplored.
Details checked against community wiki articles and the Skyrim game files, summarised in our own words.