The White Hall is the longhouse that rules the Pale, standing in the harbour town of Dawnstar. It is both home and court for Jarl Skald the Elder, so it’s where you’ll end up for any official business in the hold. It’s also worth a visit if you’re a mage shopping for spells or a bookworm hunting skill books.
What you’ll find
- The great hall – one huge room that doubles as throne room, mead hall and council chamber, taking up most of the ground floor.
- The jarl’s bedchambers – off to the right side of the main hall.
- Madena’s quarters – upstairs lives Madena, the jarl’s court wizard and advisor, who also sells spells. Her servant Bulfrek stays up there too.
- A Stormcloak war room – part of Madena’s spell shop has been handed over to the Stormcloaks with Skald’s blessing, overseen by commander Frorkmar Banner-Torn.
- The housecarl – Jod guards the jarl.
- A training dummy upstairs, and a room full of barrels and kegs.
Notable items
- Catalogue of Weapon Enchantments (Enchanting) – ground floor, in the room on the left (east) side.
- The Art of War Magic (Destruction) – on a small table upstairs, tucked between a barrel and a pony keg in the training-dummy room.
Tips
Both skill books sit in plain sight, so grab them while you’re paying your respects. The Destruction book is easy to miss – look low, between the barrel and the keg. Madena is the main reason a mage would linger here: her shelf of spells is one of the few in this cold corner of Skyrim. If you sided against the Stormcloaks, expect the faces in the war room to have changed.
Good to know
If the Imperial Legion takes Dawnstar, Brina Merilis becomes jarl, with Horik Halfhand as her housecarl and Legate Constantus Tituleius running the war effort. Same hall, new management – and presumably the same draughty windows.
Details checked against community wiki articles and the Skyrim game files, summarised in our own words.