Deep North Runestones
The 21 runestones the Deep North holds, about 761 words of them, in the order the game numbers them. Read together rather than one at a time in the dark, they stop being flavour and start being an account.
Runestone 1
The Deep North. The final obstacle before I can prove myself worthy.
The trials have been many, and so have the deaths. I have lost friends dear to me.
But at last I am here.
Runestone 2
It seems peaceful enough. So far, the wildlife doesn’t appear to care much for my presence here.
I should be able to gather some valuable resources from them if I need to. It’s my survival or theirs, after all.
Runestone 3
I have to be on my guard. Few places have been peaceful since I first arrived here, and it would be foolish to believe these lands to be different.
No matter how well I fight, I might still be overcome by the inevitable cold of the place.
I’d best find some shelter.
Runestone 4
So far I’ve been left alone. Despite that, I can’t shake the feeling that something is watching me.
Runestone 5
I found an old building, but it was deserted. It’s hard to say for how long, but I don’t believe I’ll find any friends here.
Runestone 6
I don’t like to think about what could have happened, had my axe not been as sharp nor my senses as keen. After all, there is no one left to come to my aid.
I may have lost my companions. But it is for their sake that I must continue. The ruler of these lands must die.
Runestone 7
It’s strange. I can’t help but feel like there should be people here, just waiting to welcome me.
I think the winters looked like this when I was a child, and any moment my father should be welcoming me home. But he isn’t here. No one is.
Runestone 8
I have been haunted by dreams lately, in which I am a raven. On great, black wings I soar across this world that I’ve come to know, but it is not the same.
The landscape has gone from green and fertile to cold and barren. Perhaps it is just this frozen north that has been getting to me. Yet...what if it’s not?
Runestone 9
I know now where I need to go. The Ancestors have pointed me in the direction of the one who rules these lands, the one they tried to keep in chains but whose power now shackles the very world.
If I can just slay this foe, this hateful being, I will have proven myself once and for all.
Runestone 10
The mighty ones who came before us rest here. Tread warily, as their slumber may yet be disturbed.
Runestone 11
Death comes for all, in the end, even the mightiest of warriors. One day you may be counted amongst them.
Runestone 12
Let us honour our ancestors, who carved this world that we now live in. And may they deem us worthy.
Runestone 13
At first this seemed a good home for Ulf, who liked the cold and the snow. Then came the mean little creatures, intent on dragging me below, and I was forced to reconsider.
Runestone 14
If what the raven says is true, there is only one more forsaken I must slay. But what comes after? Will my son truly be returned to me, or I to him?
Astrid raised this stone for her son, should he follow in her footsteps before she gets to see him again.
Runestone 15
These lands seemed so familiar, awakening memories buried deep within our minds. We should have known they were not all that they seemed.
Runestone 16
Heed the words of Kata, who once thought the trolls of the forest were mighty foes. Their kin in these lands are tall as the tallest of towers, and harder than the hardest of stones, but those who manage to slay them stand to reap a glimmering reward.
Runestone 17
When we first arrived here, this place was rich and prosperous. But the winters are colder and longer now, and we fear they might soon take over altogether.
Yet, here we have built our homes and here we have grown our roots, so here it is that we shall stay.
Runestone 18
In the farthest north Where magic dances in the skies Offer to call forth What just below the surface lies
Let the coals burn bright Ancestral wisdom waits for those Who should stand to fight Their elders' mighty blades and bows
Runestone 19
Beware of false trees! Chiming icicles and creaking branches might not just be moving in the wind...
Runestone 20
Signe raised this stone in memory of Eigil, who fell in battle. He had yet to learn that not everything here is as frozen as it first seems.
Runestone 21
Buried beneath the snow, deep within the north, bonds harden like frozen earth as truth begins to thaw.
These 21 stones are what Valheim chose to write down about the Deep North, and reading them in one sitting is not something the game lets you do — they are scattered by the world generator, so your world shows them to you in whatever order you happen to walk. The text is Iron Gate's own, in your language, reproduced in full rather than summarised.
See Also
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Deep North lore
Where do you find runestones in the Deep North?
They are placed by the world generator, so there is no fixed spot — but every one of the 21 the Deep North holds is reproduced above, so you do not have to find them to read them.
Do runestones do anything besides tell a story?
No. Reading one records it in your compendium and nothing else — no buff, no unlock, no map marker. They exist to be read, which is why having them all on one page costs you nothing in the game.
How many runestones are there in the Deep North?
21 here, running to roughly 761 words of text. That is the whole of what the game says about this place in its own voice, gathered into one page rather than scattered across a map you would have to re-walk to read.
Are the runestones translated?
Yes — Iron Gate wrote them and ships them in 9 languages, and this page reproduces whichever one you are reading in rather than paraphrasing the English. A summary of a runestone would be strictly worse than the runestone, so nothing here is rewritten.
Do runestones have to be read in order?
No, and in play you will not find them in one. They are placed by the world generator, so the 21 in the Deep North arrive one at a time and usually at a bad moment. Read together they make a continuous account of the people who were here before you, which is the order this page puts them in.