Skyrim:High Hrothgar

Military Fort: High Hrothgar (view on map) (lore page)
# of Zones	1
Clearable	No
Respawn Time	10 days
Console Location Code(s)
HighHrothgarEntrance, HighHrothgarEntrance02, HighHrothgarExterior01, HighHrothgarExterior02, HighHrothgarExterior03, HighHrothgar
Region
Whiterun Hold
Location
Southeast of Whiterun

High Hrothgar

High Hrothgar is a small settlement roughly halfway up the Throat of the World, southeast of Whiterun. It is a major landmark and home to the reclusive Greybeards, who are masters of The Voice.

Traveling to High Hrothgar requires scaling the "7,000 steps" from Ivarstead. On the way up to High Hrothgar there will be at least one frost troll on the path regardless of your level (though you can avoid fighting it), and you will potentially encounter several more cold-themed enemies like snow bears and ice wraiths. In addition to enemy encounters, a few travelers will be seen on the way to the top - pilgrims who are exploring and reading the wisdom etched on the ancient tablets. Reading all of the tablets grants the Voice of the Sky effect for 24 hours, which prevents animals from either attacking or fleeing from you; the tablets do not need to be read in numerical order to obtain this effect.

High Hrothgar Residents

Greybeards Arngeir Borri Einarth Paarthurnax Wulfgar

Related Quests

Main Quests

• The Way of the Voice: Meet the Greybeards.
• The Horn of Jurgen Windcaller: Retrieve a Greybeard artifact from Ustengrav.
• The Throat of the World: Receive a lesson from Paarthurnax.
• Season Unending: Enforce a ceasefire to secure Dragonsreach.
• Paarthurnax: Deal with a potential threat.

Miscellaneous Quests

• Climb the Steps: Deliver a load of goods up to High Hrothgar for Klimmek.
• The Words of Power: Follow the Greybeards' advice to learn a Word of Power from a word wall. (radiant)

Walkthrough

Exterior

Between the two curved exterior stairwells that lead up to the building itself, there is a blue chest, three large sacks, and a smaller sack which are all set as non-respawning containers and can thus be safely used for storage.

High Hrothgar

Once you have completed The Horn of Jurgen Windcaller, you can safely take any items from within High Hrothgar. If you later kill Paarthurnax during the quest Paarthurnax, taking items here will then be counted as stealing.

Potions: Draught of Strength, Frostbite Venom (x2), Potion of Haggling, Potion of Health (x3), Potion of Regeneration (x5).

Ingredients: Bear Claws, Bleeding Crown, Blue Mountain Flower, Chicken's Egg, Deathbell (x4), Dragon's Tongue (x5), Frost Mirriam, Glow Dust, Hanging Moss (x3), Imp Stool, Lavender (x6), Orange Dartwing (x2), Purple Mountain Flower, Red Mountain Flower, Sabre Cat Tooth, Slaughterfish Scales (x2), Snowberries (x3), Tundra Cotton (x3), Void Salts, Wheat.

Books: A Children's Anuad, A Dream of Sovngarde, Aedra and Daedra, Dwemer Inquiries Vol I, Dwemer Inquiries Vol II, Dwemer Inquiries Vol III, Frontier, Conquest, Gods and Worship, Life of Uriel Septim VII (x2), Remanada, Ruins of Kemel-Ze, Song of the Askelde Men, Songs of the Return, Vol 19, Songs of the Return, Vol 2, Songs of the Return, Vol 56 (x2), Songs of the Return, Vol 7, Spirit of Nirn, The Alduin/Akatosh Dichotomy (x2), The Dragon Break, The Dragon War, The Great War, The Hope of the Redoran, The Monomyth, The Oblivion Crisis, The Rise and Fall of the Blades, The Song of Pelinal, v3, The Song of Pelinal, v4, The Song of Pelinal, v5, The Song of Pelinal, v6, The Song of Pelinal, v7, The Wispmother, Yngol and the Sea-Ghosts.

Etched Tablets

The etchings on each tablet

Emblem I Before the birth of men, the Dragons ruled all Mundus. Their word was the Voice, and they spoke only for True Needs. For the Voice could blot out the sky and flood the land.	Emblem II Men were born and spread over the face of Mundus The Dragons presided over the crawling masses Men were weak then, and had no Voice	Emblem III The fledgling spirits of Men were strong in Old Times Unafraid to war with Dragons and their Voices But the Dragons only shouted them down and broke their hearts
Emblem IV Kyne called on Paarthurnax, who pitied Man Together they taught Men to use the Voice Then Dragon War raged, Dragon against Tongue	Emblem V Man prevailed, shouting Alduin out of the world Proving for all that their Voice too was strong Although their sacrifices were many-fold	Emblem VI With roaring Tongues, the Sky-Children conquer Founding the First Empire with Sword and Voice Whilst the Dragons withdrew from this World
Emblem VII The Tongues at Red Mountain went away humbled Jurgen Windcaller began His Seven Year Meditation To understand how Strong Voices could fail	Emblem VIII Jurgen Windcaller chose silence and returned The 17 disputants could not shout Him down Jurgen the Calm built His home on the Throat of the World	Emblem IX For years all silent, the Greybeards spoke one name Tiber Septim, stripling then, was summoned to Hrothgar They blessed and named him Dohvakiin [sic]
Emblem X The Voice is worship Follow the Inner path Speak only in True Need

Notes

• It seems that early in Skyrim's development, you would have been able to freely enter High Hrothgar before Dragon Rising was completed, as Arngeir has unique dialogue should he be spoken to before that quest is finished. It is still possible to enter High Hrothgar early through the back doors by climbing the mountain around it on a horse.
• Despite being referenced by local NPCs including Gwilin and Lynly Star-Sung as the "7,000 steps," there are only around 700-800 steps on the path between Ivarstead to High Hrothgar. When walking, it takes approximately 2,400 footsteps from High Hrothgar to reach the base of the path. Walking 7,000 footsteps from High Hrothgar will actually bring you to the town center of Whiterun.

Bugs

• The compass directions inside High Hrothgar are turned 90 degrees counterclockwise compared to outside.
• The gate near the mountainous edge of the back courtyard of High Hrothgar has very odd collision issues. While it is opening, part of its left door will lose its hitbox and pass through you. This will also cause its hitbox to distort and move to the south a short distance, which will persist even after the gate is closed. ^?
  • It isn't possible to interact with the gate from the distorted hitbox, as you can only close it from where the model is.
  • These collision bugs don't occur with the right side of the gate.

Maps

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  High Hrothgar