Objective: Learn the Dragonrend shout and confront Alduin at the Throat of the World.
Prerequisite: An Elder Scroll (from the quest "Elder Knowledge" in Blackreach).
1. The Road Here
After the embassy, you track down Esbern in Riften's Ratway ("A Cornered Rat") and, with Delphine, read Alduin's Wall at Sky Haven Temple. The wall reveals that the ancients used a shout — Dragonrend — to bring Alduin down. To learn it, you must witness the moment it was first used by reading an Elder Scroll at the spot where it happened: the Throat of the World.
2. The Elder Scroll
- 1
Get the scroll (Elder Knowledge)
Arngeir (or Esbern) sends you to the College of Winterhold, where the trail leads to Septimus Signus, who directs you to Blackreach. Use the Tower of Mzark's Dwemer machine to extract the Elder Scroll (Dragon).
- 2
Return to the summit
Climb past High Hrothgar to the very peak — the Throat of the World — where the ancient Time-Wound shimmers. This is where the Elder Scroll must be read.
3. Learning Dragonrend
Read the Elder Scroll at the Time-Wound. You're pulled into a vision of the past: three Nord heroes — Gormlaith, Felldir and Hakon — battling Alduin. Watch them shout Joor Zah Frul and you'll learn all three words of Dragonrend at once, the shout that forces a dragon's immortal mind to comprehend mortality — and land.
Dragonrend is the only shout that grounds Alduin. It's now yours permanently — track it on the Dragon Shouts tracker.
4. Fighting Alduin
- 1
He appears
As the vision ends, the real Alduin descends on the summit. Immediately shout Dragonrend to ground him, then punish him with your strongest attacks. Paarthurnax joins the fight on your side.
- 2
He flees
You can't finish Alduin here — once hurt enough he retreats to Sovngarde to feed on lost souls and regain strength. To follow, you'll need to trap a dragon who knows the way.
Re-apply Dragonrend every time Alduin takes off. Between grounding him, hammer with a two-hander, bow, or Destruction magic.
5. Chapter Complete
With Alduin driven off, Paarthurnax explains the plan: capture a dragon in Dragonsreach, Whiterun's palace, and force it to reveal Alduin's portal to Sovngarde. Next stop — The Fallen.
Sources
Checked on 1 October 2026 against the Spanish walkthroughs of EliteGuias and Eurogamer.es, which agree on who sends you to the College of Winterhold.