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Elder Scrolls

Yngol Barrow is an ancient Nordic tomb in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Location[]

It is an ice-filled tomb located northeast of Windhelm on the south side of the river bank. It contains draugr and adept-level chests.

Interior[]

The area contains a puzzle door that requires the coral dragon claw to open, which can be found either from Birna in Winterhold at her general goods store next to the Jarl's Longhouse, or within the barrow itself, located on a pedestal past a puzzle room. If one obtains the quest to retrieve the Helm of Winterhold from this destination before talking to Birna and obtaining the coral dragon claw from her, and instead obtain the claw from within the barrow, then one can still return to Birna and receive the second claw for a modest price. However, that will not start a second quest, and returning to the barrow at that point shows things are exactly as they were left.

If the Dragonborn has started the quest for the Helm of Yngol, then the final room contains Yngol's Shade, an undead wielding a leveled ancient Nord or ebony weapon; it appears to use Frost Breath and Disarm as its choices in the Thu'um. Upon defeating Yngol, the exit can be unlocked by removing the Helm of Yngol from the skeleton seated in the chair. Yngol Barrow is used for multiple quests, and the enemies within may vary depending upon which quests, if any, are active. Yngol's Shade may not always appear, instead being replaced by a draugr death overlord or an unmasked dragon priest. The rest of the barrow may also be either filled with draugr or completely empty before the final room.

While exploring the interior of Yngol Barrow, the Dragonborn will encounter several eerie light orbs. They will follow them around, but are completely harmless. They tweet lightly and roll from room to room often bouncing or coming out of holes and cracks in the wall and ceilings, before pouring out of the puzzle door. They will follow after the Dragonborn, even if no draugr are awakened or present.

In the room with the bridge over shallow water, there is a chest and a burial urn under the water on the left hand side.

Pillar puzzle[]

The Dragonborn will come across the corpse of a scholar and a pillar puzzle early in the dungeon. The scholar's corpse contains a book titled Notes on Yngol Barrow. It appears he had discovered the barrow in his travels and had been transcribing the Nordic carvings in the cave for the College of Winterhold. The notes provide the key to the pillar puzzle:

Riddle Solution
Man in his throne, so should he be Sit on the throne after you complete the correct Pillars below or just leave the skull there.
Whale in the Sea, so should he be Whale where the waterfall is bottom right Pillar next to the throne.
Eagle in Sun's Sky, so should he be Hawk where there is light from outside beaming in, top left Pillar.
Snake in the weed, so should he be Snake where grass has grown around, bottom left Pillar.

Door puzzle[]

Activating the lever now opens the gate, revealing a Coral Dragon Claw on a pedestal. If one has already obtained the claw from Winterhold, it will not be there. The Coral Claw is used to open the puzzle door and contains a clue to the sequence.

Its order is (top to bottom): Snake, Wolf, Moth.

Quests[]

Notable items[]

Enemies[]

The following enemies appear depending on one's active quest:

  • Draugr Death Lord or Dragon Priest (Retrieving the Helm of Winterhold)
  • Yngol Shade (Retrieving the Helm of Yngol)

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • It is possible to defeat Yngol's Shade without ever entering a fight. To do this, enter the Barrow via the exit (it is a door facing the eastern sea, and usually guarded by a frost troll), head down the steps in the tower, and then sneak and snipe Yngol from the spaces in the gate. As Yngol's Shade cannot open the gate (it is only opened by taking his helm from his skeleton), it is possible to kill his shade from the other side of the gate without taking any damage from him. Note, however, that a bow and arrows must be used, or precision spells such as Firebolt, Ice Spike, Lightning Bolt or their "stream" counterparts (i.e., Flames, etc.) to get through the gaps. To then get the loot from within the Barrow, exit back through the tower and enter the normal way.
  • Although the book Yngol and the Sea-Ghosts states that Yngol Barrow was dug "far below the rocky face of Hsaarik Head," this is incorrect, as maps of Skyrim indicate that Hsaarik Head is the bluff on which Winterhold was built. Owing to the Great Collapse, Hsaarik Head would have been further out into the Sea of Ghosts at the time of Ysgramor's landing. Ysgramor's Tomb can be found on an island northwest of Winterhold.

Bugs[]

This section contains bugs related to Yngol Barrow. Before adding a bug to this list, consider the following:

  1. Please reload an old save to confirm if the bug is still happening.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
Click to see the list of bugs encountered
  •  PC   360   PS3   When entering the dungeon, the game screen may become black. While the navigation bar on the top will still work and the Dragonborn can do all movements judging by the sound effects, it is impossible to access any menus but the system menu. Quitting the game from the system menu may cause the game to freeze, requiring a reboot of the system. The issue can be solved by entering the dungeon without a follower or by saving inside the barrow and loading from that save. (1.5)
  • If one enters Yngol Barrow with the quest of finding the Helm of Winterhold, after defeating draugr death overlord and retrieving the quest item, the last gate will not open. This issue can be solved by simply exiting the crypt the way one came in.
    • There is not much beyond this gate, besides a staircase leading directly to the exit and a chest containing a meager amount of loot. However, if one encounters the above glitch and wishes to reach the other side of said gate, one can always find the other entrance to the Barrow that is not marked on the map. Entering from this side will put the Dragonborn in the barrow on the other side of the gate. To find this door, fast travel to the barrow. Head left, around the entrance's outcropping of rocks, and keep heading north-east up the hill, then down again. Head all the way down to the waterfront, and look to the right. There should be a sizable outcropping of rock, at the base of which is the door leading to the opposite end of Yngol Barrow.
    •  PC (Fix)   One can also use the console command tcl to pass through.
  • If one tries to complete the "Helm of Winterhold" quest after completing the Imperial path for the Civil War, the Dragonborn cannot give the helm to Korir, as he will speak.
  •  PC   360   When arriving at the gate with the pillar puzzle, all three of the pillars might be set to the hawk emblem, and they might not respond when using the "Activate" prompt. This can be fixed by re-entering the Barrow.
  • If one kills Yngol's shade by shooting through the last gate, having accessed it via the door on the surface, Yngol's skeleton and the helm might be invisible when one reaches the final chamber coming from the front. All that can be seen will be Yngol's skull hovering in the air above the throne chair. However, the prompt to take the helm will still be given. Upon doing this, the skeleton will reappear and the last gate will open.
  •  PC   360   PS3   When arriving at the dragon claw door it may not activate, thus leaving the Dragonborn locked out of the final room. The issue can be resolved by going to the home screen then restarting the game.
  •  PS3   When speaking to the dragon priest, there is a chance that the Dragonborn may not be able to complete the quest. His dialogue freezes and the quest will remain within the miscellaneous quest listing.
  • Sometimes, the dragon claw will not insert into the door, even though the sequence is correct. If the Dragonborn is doing the quest "Trouble in Skyrim" for The Companions and only have to kill the draugr death overlord, this can be solved by going in the back entrance and killing him with spells; however, one may not be able to retrieve his helmet.
  •  PC   360   PS3   A dragon priest may appear instead of Yngol. This prevents acquisition of Yngol's Helm and the unlocking of the rear exit.
  •  360   After killing Yngol's Shade, if one leaves out the rear exit and re-enters, a dragon priest may appear as the body of Yngol's Shade, in addition to the ash pile that was left upon death. Items placed in one will appear in the other, but stolen items will not show their stolen status; however they will still be stolen when the Dragonborn takes them back. If one tries to Dead Thrall the body, it will say "Dragon Priest resisted Dead Thrall."
  •  360   Loading an auto-save made by entering Yngol Barrow may result in distorted visual effects and may prevent the menu from being opened. In order to fix this, simply walk backward (or turn around and move forward) through the entrance and re-enter the barrow.
  •  360   Attempting to enter Beast Form while in Yngol Barrow may not work properly, leaving the Dragonborn unable to open the menu or unable to change back.
    •  360 (Fix)   Loading a previous save can fix this. Leaving the barrow may also work.
  •  PC   When entering the dungeon, the game screen may become highly blurred. It may not be able to load a previous save (even through the use of the fast load feature) without first exiting to the main menu/desktop, all UI and menus (with the exception of the favorites menu) seem to become inaccessible.
    •  PC (Fix)   In order to fix this, type the command coc YngolBarrow01 into the console. The Dragonborn will be deep into the barrow and the screen will not be blurred anymore. To go back to the entrance, one will need to use the command tcl to clip through a closed door. Afterwords, type in tcl again to turn collisions on again.
  • The braziers inside the room with the claw door tend to go out after the Dragonborn enters due to unknown reasons, with no way to re-light them.

Appearances[]

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