Bards College (Skyrim Location)

Bards College
The Bards College, located in Solitude, with Masser in the backdrop.
Map
Hold	Haafingar
Type	Guild Headquarters
Quests	See below
Characters	Giraud Gemane Inge Six Fingers Pantea Ateia Viarmo
Location ID	SolitudeBardsCollege

For other uses, see Bards College.

The Bards College is where almost all bards found in Skyrim were trained. They will instruct the Dragonborn to inquire within or travel here if they are asked about their background.

It is a three-story building located near the Blue Palace inside the walls of Solitude. The building itself is large, but contains little notable loot (except for many books). There are many flutes, drums, and lutes within. Occasionally, bards at the college will have conversations or classes. 

Admittance

Upon arriving at the College, the player will be able to seek admittance by speaking with the headmaster, Viarmo. He will initiate conversation shortly after the Dragonborn enters the college. 

He will task the player with retrieving a book lost long ago, detailing treacheries committed by Olaf One-Eye, a former High King of Skyrim. The book can be found deep inside Dead Men's Respite. Once retrieved and returned to Viarmo, the player must help him fill in the gaps that are rampant in the verses of the book. Once completed, the headmaster takes the player to the Jarl to try and reinstate a festival that was disbanded.

Inhabitants

• Aia Arria
• Ataf
• Bendt
• Giraud Gemane
• Illdi
• Inge Six Fingers
• Jorn
• Pantea Ateia
• Viarmo

Quests

• Tending the Flames
• Find Finn's Lute
• Find Pantea's Flute
• Find Rjorn's Drum

Note: Altogether, completing the last three quests will reward an extra level in all 18 skills

Trivia

• On the exterior there is a balcony visible as the player enters the College courtyard from the street. On this balcony are two Elven Arrows and one Potion of Plentiful Healing. One way the player can access this balcony is by using the Proudspire Manor Patio before it has been upgraded. The way to reach the balcony is to jump up from the barrels (located near the stairs) onto the arches surrounding the patio. From there, the Dragonborn can jump onto the roof of Proudspire Manor and then across to the adjacent College roof.
  • If the porch upgrade was purchased, the balcony can still be reached by jumping over onto the sloped wall between the college and Proudspire Manor from the porch of Evette San's House and then up onto the courtyard's wall.
• The quest for Finn's Lute overlaps a quest from Kjar in Windhelm. Inside the cave for Finn's Lute, upon killing the man guarding the chest holding the lute, a quest is received to return to Kjar.

Bugs

This section contains bugs related to Bards College (Skyrim Location). Before adding a bug to this list, consider the following: Please reload an old save to confirm if the bug is still happening. 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. 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.

•  PC   360   PS3   Quest items (Finn's Lute, Pantea's Flute, and Rjorn's Drum) may be not removable from the inventory after completing their associated quests. This results in a total of 10 units of lost inventory capacity. The quest items are actually ID'd as a regular flute, drum, and lute.
  •  PC (Fix)   Console commands can remove them, player.removeitem X 1, where X is the item ID.
    • Drum: 000DABA9
    • Flute: 000DABA7
    • Lute: 000DABAB
  • Version 1.2.11 somewhat fixed this: the items will remain, but will weigh nothing.
• On the upper floor, in one of the lecture halls, the sounds of lessons play even if no one is around.
• Finding Pantea's Flute, located in Hob's Fall Cave, before activating the quest prevents having the correct dialogue from Pantea after finding all the instruments. The dialogue to retrieve the flute can be had, but if it is already in inventory, it is not possible to engage in conversation with Pantea, and the quest cannot be completed.
• After completing "Tending the Flames," Viarmo will never put his torch away.
  • A workaround for this is to kill Pantea Ateia, either by normal attack or by casting Fury to make the town kill her. Note that the console can't be used. She can be resurrected afterwards.

Appearances

• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim