How to Complete the Forbidden Legend Quest in Skyrim ?

The Forbidden Legends questline has a great storyline and is all about glory, betrayal, and revenge.

As you progress through the quest, you not only unravel a captivating tale but also have the opportunity to obtain powerful artifacts like Gauldur Blackblade, Gauldur BlackBow, Staff of Jyrik Gauldurson, and the Gauldur Amulet that greatly enhance your abilities, particularly during the early stages of the game.

To complete this questline, you’ll need to craft the Gauldur amulet by collecting its pieces. In this guide, we’ll cover the entire questline in detail.

Starting the Questline

If you’ve yet to begin the Forbidden Legends questline, then you have a lot of choices. You can follow either of the methods below to initiate the quest line.

1. Read the Lost Legends book. There are multiple locations to obtain this book. For example, you can find the book at Farengar’s quarters in Dragonsreach, at the Arcaneum in the College of Winterhold, or on a podium at the Nightcaller temple.
2. By reading the Ancient Edict at the Reachwater Rock.
3. Read Daynas Valen’s Journal at Folgunthur.

You can also start the questline by defeating any of the Galdur’s sons and reading the writ of sealing. But we strongly recommend starting the quest by reading the Lost Legends book to understand the lore better.

Gather the Amulet Pieces

This quest involves two main steps. First, you’ll need to collect all the amulet pieces. Then, combine the pieces to make the amulet whole again. 

There are three pieces of the amulet that you must collect by defeating the three sons of Gauldur. You can find them inside Nordic ruins at different corners of Skyrim. Let’s discuss !

Folgunthur

The first location that we’ll be heading to is Folgunthur. It is located in the far western part of Skyrim, near Solitude. Simply head west from the Abandoned Shack or northeast of The Apprentice Stone.

1. Enter the dungeon and head straight downstairs while avoiding the pressure plate trap.
2. You’ll reach a room with a Dragon Claw pedestal. You don’t need to solve this puzzle, as Daynas Valen has already solved it. So, just continue further.
3. Once you reach the dining room, you’ll have to fight a bunch of Draugr enemies. The floor in this room is also covered with flammable liquid. So you can use Destruction spells like Fireball or Incinerate and set the room on fire to clear them out.
4. Head towards the back of the room, where you’ll find a small passage with stairs. Be careful while climbing upstairs; the floors will fall if you step on them.
5. Head upstairs, and you’ll find the corpse of Daynas Valen. Loot his corpse to get the Ivory Claw and his journal. You can read his journal to learn more about the lore of the Gauldur Amulet and also the location of the remaining amulet pieces.
6. Progress further till you reach a passage with a level puzzle. Activate levers in the following order.
7. Next, head on straight until you reach a room with a big circular door on the floor. 
8. The puzzle is pretty simple. Pull the lever on your right to open the room with the animal sign.
9. Once you’ve memorized the order of the animal signs, head outside and pull the lever in the right room.
10. Use the rotating pillars to match the order of the animal sign from the previous room.
11. Head outside and pull the chain lever.
12. Go downstairs and keep heading straight till you reach the door with the claw keyhole.
13. You’ll have to use the correct combination on the circular door and use the Ivory Claw to unlock it. The correct combination is Outer Ring: Eagle, Middle Ring: Eagle, Inner Ring: Dragon. You can also check the correct combination by inspecting the Ivory Claw. 
14. Enter Folgunthur Crypt and prepare yourself to fight against Mikrul Galdurson. The fight is relatively easy. 
15. After beating him, loot his corpse to get the Gauldur Amulet Fragment and the Gauldur Blackblade. The sword has the Absorb Health enchantment, whereas equipping the amulet will grant you an additional 30 health points. 
16. Head up to the right room by unlocking it with the Ivory claw. You’ll also find a Word Wall with the Frost Breath Dragon Shout here. You have now successfully cleared out this Nordic ruin. 

Geirmund’s Hall

Next, we’re heading to Geirmund’s Hall. It’s located east of Ivarstead, right in the middle of the Lake.

1. Head inside the cave and jump down the hole. 
2. Keep progressing through the dungeon till you reach a puzzle room. Here, you must match the animal signs at the rotating pillars on the adjacent wall.
3. Once you’ve matched the animal sign, pull down the level at the end of the room to unlock the door.
4. Head to the next room and clear out the Draugrs. Here, you’ll also find the body of the Archmage Geirmund. Take Lord Geirmund’s key and use it on the Iron Door to unlock it.
5. You’ll have to use the lever on the wall to bring down the drawbridge. Pulling the lever on the floor will activate the spike traps instead, so be careful.
6. Make your way through the bridge and watch out for the pedestal trap at the end of the corridor. Stepping on it will activate the Axe swinging trap.
7. Make your way through the next room and climb the stair on your right. Sigdis Gauldurson will emerge from his coffin, and the battle will begin.
8. His attack strategy is pretty simple. He’ll spawn some fake copies and teleport around the room while attacking you with his bow. You’ll have to strike his real body instead of his copies to defeat him.
9. The easiest way to differentiate the copies from his original form is by looking at the glow on the body. The fake copies are covered in a purplish glow, whereas his original form lacks the glowing effect.
10. He will teleport around a few more times; simply keep striking his original form to defeat him.
11. Loot his corpse to get the second Gauldur Amulet Fragment and the Gauldur Blackbow. The bow has an Absorb Magicka enchantment, whereas the amulet increases your stamina by 30 points.

Saarthal

Our next destination for the final piece of the amulet is Saarthal. It is located in the northeast part of Skyrim, near Winterhold.

However, you cannot enter this ruin like the other ruins mentioned above. To access this ruin, you must start the Under Saarthal questline from the College of Winterhold. 

To get started, head inside the college and attend Tolfdir’s class. Wait a few hours and then head to Saarthal to continue the quest line. 

1. Speak with Tolfdir, and he will unlock the gates to Saarthal.
2. Follow him inside, and at some point, he’ll instruct you to find Arniel Gane to assist him.
3. Next, pick up the three enchanted rings from the floor and the Saarthal Amulet embedded on the wall. This will temporarily lock you in.
4. To escape the room, you’ll need to equip the Amulet and use destruction magic on the wall where the amulet was placed originally.
5. Progress further into the ruin, and you’ll get a cutscene of Nerien, a member of the Psijic order.
6. Continue further into the ruin till you reach the Nordic Coffin room. Tolfdir will leave your party, so you must continue further alone.
7. Soon enough, you’ll encounter a room with the rotating pillar puzzle. Again, the puzzle is straightforward. Simply rotate the pillar until it matches the animal sign located just on the wall behind the pillar.
8. After matching the animal signs, pull the lever in the middle of the room to unlock the next room.
9. As you progress, you’ll come across a room with another rotating pillar puzzle. To solve this puzzle, you must match the animal sign in a particular order. 
10. Start by matching the animal sign on the left pillar close to the door. Then match the left post, which is further away from the door. Repeat the process for the pillars on the right side as well. Finally, pull the lever to unlock the door.
11. In the final room, you’ll come across a large orb that’s surrounded by energy. Here you’ll also have to fight the third son of Gauldur, Jyrik Gauldurson.
12. Initially, he will be immune to all your attacks. Wait for Tolfdir to work his magic on the orb and then proceed to attack Jyrik. It’s best to use weapons on him as he develops resistance to spells is best.
13. After defeating him, loot his corpse to get the final piece of the Gauldur amulet. Equipping this piece increases your Magicka points by 30.
14. Proceed to the next room, where you’ll find a Word Wall containing the Ice Form Dragon Shout.

Forge the Amulet

Now that we’ve gathered all the amulet pieces, all there’s left to do now is to forge the Gauldur amulet. 

Head to the Reachwater cave, as you can’t assemble the Amulet at the blacksmith forge.

1. Head inside the cave and pick up the Emerald Dragon Claw from the pedestal.
2. Use the Emerald Claw to unlock the circular door. The combination is Outer Ring: Bear, Middle Ring: Whale, Inner Ring: Snake.
3. Use the combination from the Ivory Dragon claw on the next circular door. The correct combination is Outer Ring: Eagle, Middle Ring: Eagle, Inner Ring: Dragon.
4. Progress further till you reach a big room with Amulet Pedestals. 
5. Place all three pieces of the amulet on the pedestals.
6. You’ll now have to fight the ghosts of the three Gauldurson. You can use the same strategies mentioned previously to defeat these ghosts. 
7. Sigdis Gauldurson will spawn multiple copies of him as usual, but his original form has a different helmet.
8. After defeating them, the ghost of Gauldur will appear, and he will combine all the pieces of the amulet into one single amulet.
9. Take the amulet from the pedestal to complete the Forbidden Legends quest line.

Here’s a video guide of the entire questline,