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The Seventeen and One Monarchs
of the Ysgramor Dynasty

Book VI: Hjornskar the Wolf

by High Chronicler Valerius of Winterhold

A history of Skyrim's early High Kings

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Hjornskar was the eldest child of the great vanquisher of dragonkind, High King Valdimar. After forty seven years of prosperous rule Valdimar abdicated the throne to Thane Hjornskar in 1E 50.

Hjornskar, like his siblings Princess Fjora and Prince Asbjorn, was the chief of his own house under the banner of Clan Skerd. When Hjornskar became king all three siblings made a pact to ensure that the succession of the throne would remain within their immediate family, and only pass on to members of their respective royal houses. Hjornskar became the inaugural monarch from his house, but when his rule came to an end the throne wouldn't necessarily pass onto his eldest son. Members of the House of Fjora or the House of Asbjorn would be eligible if they sought the throne and could prove their might. This pact, known as the Blood Oath of the Skerd, was the precursor to the Moot of later years, and its tripartite method of succession would last for almost three centuries.

The Orcish Plague

For many years, Hjornskar had long sought to not only reclaim the lands lost during the Dragon War, but expand the borders of the kingdom further. With the Vulpine Scepter finally in his hands, one of his first order of business was to do exactly that.

While he made numerous offensives to the south, his most notable campaign was a massive push west into the region known today as the Haafingar. Following the Dragon War, vast numbers of Orcish clans has re-settled in the region and the entire Hold was replete with tusked strongholds and hamlets. The three most dominant clans settled atop the Great Arch of Haafingar overlooking the Sea of Ghosts. Clan Bragosh, Murtag and Ruskahr (collectively known as the "Krazak-Goltragga" in Old Orcish) were notoriously ruthless and combined they boasted an army that easily matched Hjornskar's. Until the founding of Orsinium centuries later, this was the closest the Orcish peoples had ever gotten to forming a unified nation. These were not the same disjointed clans that were driven out of Skyrim under the Totem-King's rule.

Steadfast, Hjornskar took great offense that these "pig children" (as he called them) had laid claim to the lands his forefathers died for. He gathered an army of over three thousand shield-brothers and sisters and marched across the Drajkmyr marshlands and into the city of Snowhawk, which would serve as the staging ground of the war.

Hjornskar was not only a master of the Voice, but a brilliant strategist. From the lowlands, he led a small brigade of Tongues to seek out the lesser Orcish clans and strongholds and burned them to the ground with their mighty fire breath. In every stronghold that was set ablaze, Hjornskar would find and challenge the chieftain to single combat and every time he emerged the victor, leaving the rest of the clan disarray. The survivors would flee north across the old Dragon Bridge and towards the summit of the Great Arch to seek the protection of the Krazak-Goltragga, while Hjornskar and the main army pursued them.

The Three Keeps

For several weeks numerous strongholds were reduced to ashes in their wake. In battle, Hjornskar was subject to fits of frenzy and would often howl like a wild beast, foam at the mouth, and gnaw upon the iron rim of his shield. Eventually this led to his soldiers calling him "The Wolf". Supposedly, during these fits he became immune to fire and steel, and his battle-cry would break the will of enemy ranks.

Upon reaching the base of the Great Arch, Hjornskar found that the remaining Orcs were fortified at the summit inside three vast keeps garrisoned by the Krazak-Goltragga. Curiously, this particular battle was very well documented by the king's battle-chroniclers - a rarity for records of this time period. Historians are unsure why this was the case, especially as there have been numerous conflicts throughout the First Era of much greater significance. Nonetheless, the chronicle of its climax no doubt played a part in it eventually growing into a well loved bedtime tale among Nord children.

The battle began after a wave of Orcish cavalry, notorious for their use of enormous beast-mounts, rushed down from the Great Arch and engaged the main army in the marshlands. Next came a detachment of berserkers - large, primal orcs who were said to be more akin to Giants. After two days of battle, with numerous losses on both sides, Hjornskar and his Tongues reached the keeps. His battle-chronicler recounts the exchange between the High King and Chieftain Bragosh at the first keep:

Hearken my words, O wretched pig-child! I hath slaughtered your pitiful army. Open these gates and face me in battle. Refuse me and the walls of thy fortress will taste my Thu'um.

To which the Chieftain Bragosh purportedly replied:

"I swear by the beard upon my chin, thou shan't ever pass my mighty gates!"

Enraged, Hjornskar directed his Thu'um at the gates, causing the walls and keep to implode as if they were made of straw. As Hjornskar's army fought Orcish resistance in the courtyard, he moved on to the gates of the second keep (said to be larger and stronger than the last) and was once again refused and taunted - this time by Chieftain Murtag. Once again Hjornskar bellowed a mighty Shout that utterly pulverized the wooden palisades and watchtowers, killing the chieftain.

He finally reached the last keep, which was twice as large as the last and built from the strongest stone. According to the chronicles, Chieftain Ruskahr was driven mad by the sight of Hjornskar's destruction and retreated to the highest towers of his keep as the Wolf-King prepared his final Shout. He unleashed his mighty Thu'um at the walls of the towering keep, causing most of it to be reduced to dust and rubble while its numerous towers crumbled and toppled off the Great Arch and into the sea below. Such was the power of Hjornskar's Thu'um that his subjects in Windhelm were said to have felt the shockwave.

Amongst the ruins Hjornskar declared that a city be built in honor of their victory. One that overlooked Haafingar and served as a sentry lest the beastfolk return. And thus, in 1E 58, the city of Solitude was founded.

Death

Hjornskar ruled for three more years, until the eve of his Konunleikar: the tenth anniversary of his coronation. After partaking in a city-wide drinking contest that lasted two days and nights, he emerged the victor after narrowly defeating Balgruff Iron-Gut, but as a result failed to awaken the following day. His successor and nephew, Jarl Einarth of Riften, ordered the Konunleikar to proceed as a celebration of his uncle's prosperous reign. In his honor, an enormous statue of the Wolf-King was erected atop the Great Arch of Solitude, where it stood for generations.

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